A
>how do you put frosing or icing on a cake and make it look smooth?
(a) I end up putting nuts or coconut on cakes a lot to hide crumbs.
(b) a lot of times I just use fluffy frosting and make sure it swirls a
lot. If using buttercream it won't swirl as nicely, but you can hide
imperfections by swirling the icing with a new comb to create patterns.
(c) if I'm getting paid to decorate a cake then using cornelli lace
technique hides an awful lot (that's icing piped in a random pattern
squigly like, but the lines don't touch or cross each other. It's quite
easy & pretty.
Now, the real answer, which I hardly ever do ....
get a jar of apricot jelly, heat it up and add a bit of water, about 1/4 as
much water as jelly. So if you have an 8 oz jar add 1/4 cup water. Heat &
stir, when nice & liquid, brush the jelly all over the cake. Allow the
cake to set awhile, maybe an hour, this will seal the crumbs in the
cake. Apricot jelly doesn't have much of a taste that's why I use it. I
usually only do this for chocolate cakes that tend to crumb. Also, rather
than buying nice pastry brushes, which I'm going to ruin anyway, I just buy
cheap paint brushes & figure they are disposable. Family Dollar & Home
Depot tend to have smallish brushes for around 59 cents so I just use it &
toss it.
Finally, if you are bound & determined to get a smooth finish on your cake
.... just "iron" the silly thing. Get the icing or frosting as smooth as
you can. Then I set up a small folding table next to the sink, run the
water 'til it gets nice and hot. Hold your large spatula (the metal one,
not the plastic ones) -- I prefer the ofset spatula, but whatever you've
got on hand.... hold it under the hot water, shake off the hot water &
"iron" your frosting or icing. It will get pretty smooth that way,
especially if you have a good amount of butter or shortening in it. If I'm
working on a larger cake I'll just plug in the coffee pot with water and
use that to heat my spatula.
Remember, you aren't going to get your icing perfectly smooth. If you are
decorating it, that will hide a lot of flaws. Most people are in awe of
any kind of a decorated cake that you did, so they are not looking for the
imperfections. You will see a lot more imperfections than anyone else will
see.
I don't know what your level of decorating is, but if you can't decorate
very well just learn to pipe a simple border. Curling ribbon is grease
proof & the color won't leach into the icing. Just make a big "bow" of
curling ribbon & stick it in the middle of the cake. It looks spectacular
& hides a lot. If you aren't comfortable putting the curling ribbon bow
directly on the cake, then gently place a white doily on top of the cake &
poke the bow through the center of the doily...voila you have just hidden
the entire top of the cake. Same goes for silk flowers, but those have to
have a doily underneath. Wilton sells little water pics so you can put
fresh flowers on your cakes & the flowers will last a good long time. I
used those for my son's wedding cake & the roses were just as fresh at 5pm
as they were at 8am when I got them from the florest.
Blessed be the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape
Deirdre Dee (zosha)
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