So sorry for the long post, I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong!
Well, the loudest, hardest to please, most complaining whiney woman at my church informed me today that the cake I GAVE her last week was "dry as toast" and she threw it out!!!!!
(it was just a cake I baked to practice the upside-down icing technique, I decided to give it away after I baked it and she said she'd take it)...Now, in her defense, I did tell her when she picked it up that the edges could have been dry because after I leveled it, I took a long time reading how to do the upside-down icing...so it was sitting there a while, leveled, before I started icing it. Anyway, I've been baking cakes about 7 months and have never been properly taught about baking, so I do have some questions:
1. I leveled the cake right out of the oven before it was out of the pan. Pretty sure this was mistake #1? Let it cool completely first, right?
2. After icing the cake, it sat out overnight without a cover (My cake dome is at my parent's house)...so the next day, the outer layer of icing was probably hard. Would this contribute?
3. How do you prevent icing colors from bleeding onto each other while also keeping the icing fresh? Several cakes ago, I finished a cake and boxed & taped it up. The next morning the colors bled together. Someone on this forum said to leave the cake out so the icing can breathe (using buttercream) - but if I leave it out, uncovered, the icing gets hard and crusty! What do I do?
Thank you if you made it this far! I really appreciate your help!
Well, the loudest, hardest to please, most complaining whiney woman at my church informed me today that the cake I GAVE her last week was "dry as toast" and she threw it out!!!!!
(it was just a cake I baked to practice the upside-down icing technique, I decided to give it away after I baked it and she said she'd take it)...Now, in her defense, I did tell her when she picked it up that the edges could have been dry because after I leveled it, I took a long time reading how to do the upside-down icing...so it was sitting there a while, leveled, before I started icing it. Anyway, I've been baking cakes about 7 months and have never been properly taught about baking, so I do have some questions:1. I leveled the cake right out of the oven before it was out of the pan. Pretty sure this was mistake #1? Let it cool completely first, right?
2. After icing the cake, it sat out overnight without a cover (My cake dome is at my parent's house)...so the next day, the outer layer of icing was probably hard. Would this contribute?
3. How do you prevent icing colors from bleeding onto each other while also keeping the icing fresh? Several cakes ago, I finished a cake and boxed & taped it up. The next morning the colors bled together. Someone on this forum said to leave the cake out so the icing can breathe (using buttercream) - but if I leave it out, uncovered, the icing gets hard and crusty! What do I do?
Thank you if you made it this far! I really appreciate your help!
It is especially helpful if you bake late in the day and your cakes need time to "settle" overnight before you decorated. So my steps are: bake-cool-freeze-take out and level bu cutting off the tops - fill and crumb coat - refrigerate - take out and ice - refrigerate - and only then decorate. I found this works the best for me, but then again, NYC is a very humid place and I am right by the ocean, and so much refrigeration may not be necessary elsewhere.
