OK, so I know many people carve their cakes to get the desired shape they are looking for, however, when I have tried to do this the cake usually starts to crumble. Also when i try to ice the carved areas they do not ice very well and crumble as well. Any tips on how to do this easier or am i doing it wrong so forth? THanks
Check out this thread, too, for some more great advice:
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=59361&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=45
Quote from Marias_campos:
I always use a pound cake when I carve cakes, it can be frozen or just chilled over night before carving. If working from a box mix, try the cake mix dr's White Chocolate Pound Cake. But It must be a pound cake of something thick and dense (mud cake, butter cakes works great too)
Also I have a few very sharp serrated knifes of all sizes that I invested money in, don't go cheap on this.
I aways use SMBC because it setup nicely when chilled and make it easier to cover with fondant. But my new thing is ganache these days.
Always use a butter cream or filling that can be left out for a couple of days and does not have to be refrigerated, and that can stand the weight of fondant like ganache, SMBC or IMBC No jams or fruit fillings.
I always have a template or a picture to work from, or a model, and like mention before carve more exaggerated as you can lose definition after crumb coating and covering with fondant. I like to draw my template out of parchment paper cut out and attach to the cake with toothpicks and use that as a guide to carve.
After I cover with fondant I go back with my finders to work out more definition and details in the cake before the fondant sets.
Never cover a frozen cake, you will have serious problems with the fondant when the cake thaws. bring the cake to room temperture first, then chill the BC then cover for a cleaner finish.
And sometime it can be difficult to have every element of your cake to actually be cake, when in doubt use rice crispy treats to replace those hard to carve places. You can easly mold it to the shape you need and icing and cover like you would with a cake
And attach pieces with uncooked spaghetti rather than toothpicks and I glue with melted chocolate.
Ok I think that is most of my secrets... hope that helps
I never freeze my cakes when I carve them. I always just do a crumb coat on there then come back over it with the final coat of icing.
I'm with TexasSugar, I never freeze, just cut and crumb coat:
If you put your icing in a bag- and just cut a hole- You can pipe on the icing with the shape of the cake. Then you don't even need a crumb coat. Just skim the icing with a small spatula to smooth out the lines. Then if you use crusting, you can Viva it. If you don't use crusting you can use hot water/spatula, or chill it and use a roller. Whatever works with your type of icing. If the spatula pulls up crumbs, pull the spatula off and clean it with a paper towel before you put it back down.
I use a doctored cake mix (add more oil, pudding, sour cream, additional flour, sugar and eggs). I freeze my cake, then work with it partialy frozen and lastly, I have started using ganache to fill and coat before the buttercream. I keep the cake cold, even freezing a bit before adding the ganache. The cold cake helps the ganache to set up firmly quite quickly saving me a bit of time.
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