My Icing Melted Off The Cake!

Decorating By SueW Updated 21 Jan 2007 , 6:17pm by ShirleyW

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SueW Posted 21 Jan 2007 , 4:52pm
post #1 of 4

I just made a practice cake (thank goodness) for my friends daughter's 3rd birthday. I have been trying out a lot of different vanilla cake recipes as well as better cream icings. Today I tried the vanilla cake and buttercream icing recipe from my Magnolia Bakery cook book. Has anyone tried that??? The icing is right now in the process of "melting" off the cake in one big lump. It is sooooooooo smooth that it just doesn't stay on the side of the cake. I filled the cake with chocolate pudding and now each layers is collapsing one on top of the other and I see bulging on the sides icon_eek.gif What did I do wrong, was the butter too soft for the icing?

So, that said who has a good vanilla butter cream icing that is strong enough to decorate with AND tastes good. The wilton stuff is too yuck for me. Help I am new to this icon_cry.gif

3 replies
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chaptlps Posted 21 Jan 2007 , 5:06pm
post #2 of 4

O boy, that does sound like a problem hun, k,let me ask you a couple question here.
First, let me ask you what recipe did you use for the cake part, did it have a lot of oil or butter or fat in it? Sometimes cakes with a lot of fat in them have a hard time adhering to the frosting or vice versa.
Second, try your same buttercream recipe again but this time sub half the butter with shortening and see if that helps with the consistency of the frosting, (half the butter still gives you that buttery taste but the shortening will help with stability)
Third, when you filled the cake, did you let it sit for an hour or two to settle? Sometimes you have to let gravity do it's job and let the filling and the cake settle before you frost it. You might get a little bulge of filling but that can be scraped off and then you can frost the cake.
Also it's important that the cake and the frosting be around the same temp when applied. I know it's tempting to frost a nice cool cake (or even cold or frozen, because of the crumb thing) but that will also effect the adherance of the buttercream to the cake itself. So it's a good idea to first fill your cake and then do a crumb coat then let the cake settle and then do your final coat of frosting. It's like putting stucco on a house or doing drywall. You have to prep your surface and apply the coats of mud in stages to get that wonderful smooth surface,
Sorry this was so long.
But don't despair, we all learn from our mistakes and sometimes that's the best teacher.

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SueW Posted 21 Jan 2007 , 5:23pm
post #3 of 4

Oh chaptlps , what great suggestions!!! I didn't do any of what you said, no wonder my cake is such a mess icon_cry.gif The cake itself was pretty basic, I think it had 2 sticks of butter, sugar, extract. The icing was ALL butter and the butter was REALLY soft. I never thought to try 1/2 shortening. I am having a problem with all these icings being too soft to pipe with anyway.

I really made a mess of things, I filled the cake all 2 layers then just iced right on top of that, I didnt' let anything settle icon_eek.gif yikes, see why I am so paniced about all this from my last post icon_cry.gif

Thanks for your tips, you really helped me thumbs_up.gif

oh also, I just added powered sugar to the BC to pipe my dam for the filling to get the BC thicker, is that right? I know that dam has to be thicker than the BC you ice with , right icon_confused.gif

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ShirleyW Posted 21 Jan 2007 , 6:17pm
post #4 of 4

Sue those are all good suggestions. I have another one that I swear by because it works beautifully every time. First, I level all of my cakes by cutting off the tops, this ensures a perfectly level cake so the two layers fit neatly together when filled. It also cuts off the top crust of the cake which avoids having a brown line under your icing when you cut the cake, I also think that outer crust is too chewy for my taste. Make a dam of icing with a #10 or #12 tip in buttercream, just regular buttercream, it doesn't have to be extra stiff to work. Pipe the dam just inside the edge of the first cake layer, add filling and put the top cake layer in place. Now go to the outside of the cake where the two layers meet, use the same piping tip and pipe a line of icing all the way around the cake to fill in that line or space. Smooth this line with an icing spatula, then crumb coat, chill the cake for at least 10 minutes, longer if you have time. Now do the finishing coat of buttercream and smooth. Piping that line of icing into that space between the cake layers is key, it prevents the filling from moving out and making the dreaded bulge line in the finished cake.

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