I don't know what it is but I have the hardest time icing a cake with BC! I get crumbs in it, parts on top of the cake lift up. I follow the recipe to the T. ARRRRGGG!! I'm about to give up. I was suppose to make a chocolate 1/4 sheet cake last night for a shower they were having at work today. Something unexpected came up so I got home late. The cake was already bake so I just needed to decorate it. Well that was a mess, I just threw the whole thing away and ran out and bought a store cake 
. I was thinking of buying one of those icing tips, maybe that would make it easier.
What are your secrets..tips..??
Sorry for the mishap. Make sure the cake has properly cooled. Then, my suggestion is to crumb coat the cake first: (1) Ice the cake with a thin coat of buttercream icing; (2) Let the crumb coat crust; (3) now apply a second thicker coat of buttercream. Using the cake icer tip would really help!. If the icing is not smooth enough, you can smooth with a hot knife or, when the second coat crusts you can use a viva paper towel or parchment paper to smooth.
Good Luck!!
Hi this is the recipe that I use. It's still sweet but not sickly sweet and it smooths very nicely with the viva paper towel.
2 lbs icing sugar
1 envelope Dream Whip
2 cups Crisco
1/2 cup Boiling water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla ( clear )
1 tbsp clear corn syrup
2 tbsp - 1/4 cup flour
* flour acts as a stabilizer
Whip all ingredients together until fluffy.
It's pretty easy and my customers love it. Hope this helps.
what i do is i gob the bc onto my cake so that i'm really removing the icing rather than putting more on which is harder to do. the icer tip is such a great tool to have for this. i also use a bench scraper to smooth my bc. they're cheap and easier to use than a spatula. hth!
Don't worry I was right there with you not too long ago. I still can't get the icing as smooth as the pros around here but they've taught me a few things that really helped me out! What I do now is this:
Start with a thin crumb coat and refrigerate until crusted. Apply a thicker final layer and also refrigerate until crusted. Putting on the crumb coat and refrigerating it will help keep the crumbs out of the icing when you put on the thicker layer. I used to not be able to smooth buttercream to save my life, but Melvira shared the most wonderful buttercream tip EVER, saying that she used a foam paint roller to smooth her icing. Wouldn't you know it works like a dream! Just lightly run the roller over the icing once it's crusted and it does wonders for smoothing it out.. HTH!
A couple of things that may help.
1. Icer tip. It just covers the cake completely in frosting and makes frosting SO much easier for me.
2. Use a liberal amount of frosting. Don't scrimp. You can always take it off slowly as you smooth the cake.
3. Use the right consistancy. If your icing is too stiff, you will pull cake off with it as you attempt to ice.
4. Make sure your cake is completely cooled and you brush any stray crumbs off the cake and board before you begin.
5. Use a turntable or lazy susan, or anything that will spin your cake as you ice.
6. Experiment with angled spatulas, plaster spatulas (from home improvement stores), or even the wide bowl scrapers.
Hope all of that helps. It gets easier! It just takes some time figuring out what works for you, personally.
Good luck!!
Angie
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