Tcrumb Coat Or Not To Crumb Coat..that Is The Question
Decorating By teresadutton Updated 27 Jun 2014 , 12:13am by maybenot
I am doing my first chocolate gauche cake. I am going to whip some to fill the cake and I am going to pour some on top. My question is...I saw somewhere that someone said to crumb coat the cake first with crusting buttercream to give the cake a very smooth finished surface. Do you guys do that or do you just pour the gauche straight onto the cake? Thanks!!
yes i'd ice it first myself -- depends on the cake & the result you're after too -- if it was a boston cream pie no i would just pour it on --
so your saying crumb coat it with the whipped gauche instead of the buttercream? That makes sense I guess. :)
ATo be honest, i've never crumb coated a cake, esp when i cover it with fondant. I make sure my first layer of SMBC is smooth and relatively thick. So far never had a problem. *knock on wood*
I crumb coat all of my cakes because I allow them to settle afterward at room temp--overnight, if possible. This allows any bumps and bubbles to show and I can rectify those before the final icing coat.
With a GANACHE ["gauche" is French word for left and in English it means unsophisticated] covered cake, I'd crumb coat and finish coat in ganache.
Well, if it really is a "gauche" cake, then maybe it would be best to specifically avoid crumb-coating it. 
GAUCHE: lacking social polish.
GANACHE: a glaze made of chocolate and cream.
GOUACHE: opaque watercolor paint.
On a more serious note, I've never crumb-coated a cake, at least not successfully, because my BC tends to run so stiff that if I were to apply it thin enough for a crumb-coat, it would rip the top of the cake apart, which kind of defeats the whole purpose.
I'd like to remedy that, but I'm having a great deal of trouble figuring out how I'd go about doing that, without having all the frosting so loose, it would never crust.
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On a more serious note, I've never crumb-coated a cake, at least not successfully, because my BC tends to run so stiff that if I were to apply it thin enough for a crumb-coat, it would rip the top of the cake apart, which kind of defeats the whole purpose.
I'd like to remedy that, but I'm having a great deal of trouble figuring out how I'd go about doing that, without having all the frosting so loose, it would never crust.
Divide your stiff BC, 1/3 + 2/3. Take the 1/3 and add a little liquid to it. I prefer heavy cream, but others use milk or water. If the 1/3 is about a cup, try adding a teaspoon at a time. I doubt that you'd need more than 2 tsp.
You can leave the final coat pretty stiff, but even if you thin it a little so that it spreads easier, it'll still crust. Again, just a teaspoon of liquid can really improve the consistency without stopping crusting.
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