When I am covering a cake with MMF I always find that I can see where my cake layers meet. Do you think I am not putting enough icing on my crumb coat? Am I putting too much? Am I rolling out my fondant to thin? (I usually use the yellow rings on my rolling pin - maybe I need to use one that is a little thicker?)
Any advice to give me a nice smooth, consistent look would be greatly appreciated. Also, my apologies if this is not the right part of the forum to post this!
When I am covering a cake with MMF I always find that I can see where my cake layers meet. Do you think I am not putting enough icing on my crumb coat? Am I putting too much? Am I rolling out my fondant to thin? (I usually use the yellow rings on my rolling pin - maybe I need to use one that is a little thicker?) Any advice to give me a nice smooth, consistent look would be greatly appreciated.
Hi and welcome to the forum. This is one of the very difficult aspects of stacked cakes that takes a while to get right.
Your crumb coat is just that: a crumb coat to hold in the crumbs and provide a smooth, crumb-free surface for the final coat of buttercream or fondant. The crumb-coat by design is usually thin. As your skills improve, you will be able to put a thicker layer of buttercream under the fondant.
The Wilton fondant rings have a guide which says to use the "3/16 in. (gold) for letters, numbers and appliqué shapes, 1/8 in. (orange) for shapes cut with Wilton Cut-Outs or cookie cutters and for covering cakes with fondant." HOWEVER, in the beginning you are better off to use thicker fondant to cover your cakes. Many people online recommend 1/4".
If the problem you are describing is the dreaded "bulge", then there are several solutions.
a. Let the torted/filled/stacked cake tier settle for at least 2 hours or overnight. Let gravity have it's way and scrape off any bulge after the settling occurs. THEN apply your final coat of buttercream or fondant.
b. While letting your tier "settle", you may wish to put a cookie sheet on top with a weight (about 1 lb.) to help gravity. Make sure the weight is level!
c. MOST IMPORTANT: Make a super-stiff buttercream dam to hold in your filling. Place it 1/4" inside the outer edge of the cake layer. What I do is take about 2 cups of my medium consistency buttercream, and just add powdered sugar and stir until it is super-stiff. Put in your piping bag and pipe it out of the coupler opening (no tip). It should be hard to pipe, much drier than your regular buttercream, and feel like Play-Doh.
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