cake decorating

[amccomb]

So, I made an italian meringue buttercream and a regular buttercream last night to ice the cakes I made as trial runs for my mom's wedding cake. The cakes, by the way, were "The Best Chocolate" and "The Best White" from egullet. I am mailing my mom slices of the cake to see which icing she prefers and to make sure she approves of the cakes.

Anyway, my question is, how do I get the icing nice and smooth like bakeries do it? My icing was a nice spreadable consistancy, but I couldn't get it perfectly smooth. I had it on a turntable and used my biggest icing spatula, but it still had streaks all over it. It kind of looks like maybe the icing had tiny air pockets or something.

ANyway, I would appreciate any tips for smoothing the icing!

Thanks!

[Toliver]

I'm sure the pros will weigh in, but a quick method would be to run hot water over your spatula, dry it off then use the spatula to quickly smooth the icing. The residual heat should melt the butter enough to smooth it out.

[ladyyoung98]

something else u can use since it seems as though u r going to be using decorator tips to decorate the cake.... there is a decorator tip specifically for icing cakes..i dont know how it works for anyone else but i have foudn when i use that and a flat metal spatula..i never have the streaking problem...im not sure why i dont.... but it works for me...u can give that a try too if u wish..as well as the other method suggested and see which works best for u... i think we all have our ways.....lol

[Steve Klc]

It might be dexterity, it might be technique--but there are pros who do this better than others. There are little tips and trucs not often talked about that separate us, there are ways to make your italian meringue buttercream perform better by not aerating it too much, by not whipping it on too high a speed, by cranking it down to deflate those micro-bubbles, by not whipping it too much when you add your butter in once the meringue has cooled down a bit, making it ahead of time and letting it rest--reconstituted ital mer bc always seems to be more creamy and dense, less airy, and more cleanly applied; the butter in a good bc means you can go back over the heat and warm it gently anytime you need to, especially if you're working in a cold room; you have to be careful when you add your sugar as well, not adding it too quickly so it cooks some of the egg whites when it comes in contact with it, those lumps stay; also the kind of spatula you use is important, so is how you adjust to your spatula, how it fits in your hand, how coordinated you are.

I use a somewhat flexible straight metal spatula--again, a personal choice among many valid options-- and hold it upside down on the metal rather than on the handle when I do the sides, kind of like I'm holding a ping pong paddle with a Western grip about to put underspin on a shot, to spread and scrape along its edge. I use the same spatula on the top, just hold it differently; on top, my hand is more on the handle, the spatula flat and I spread the bc back and forth more, from inside to the outer edge as I'm spinning the turntable slightly. When I was a student I was lucky to learn this from my first teacher, Mark Ramsdell of L'Academie de Cuisine, a really skilled wedding cake person. I never needed to experiment and try different methods.

I, too, do the hot water thing toliver does--so crumb coat, 1st, 2nd, 3rd bc coats, then let it set up completely hard in the fridge and hot spatula/scrape it before you stack your tiers. Good luck.

[alligande]

Try using a SS spakling knife, the type hard ware stores sell for filling holes in walls. dont try to apply the icing in one go, build up the layers and of course the hot water trick works very well.

[amccomb]

So, I went to the local "cake supply" store and asked them about how they smooth their icing. Their response - after the last icing application has "formed a crust", use a clean kitchen sponge, wet it, ring it out, and pat the cake. The residual moisture smooths out the marks.

Lots of things to try out! Thanks for the ideas, everyone!

[chefpeon]

after the last icing application has "formed a crust"

Um...er....the only icing I know that forms a crust is shortening based icing.

<cough>

[amccomb]

Hmm...neither icing I made had shortening, but I would be willing to bet big bucks that the place I asked at does shortening based icing. Darn! I was hoping I had another good tip! In all honesty, my mom would probably prefer the shortening "buttercream" to any that I made, anyway. They sell it by the five gallon bucket at this place, maybe I should just make my mom happy and buy it there.

[KarenS]

Use your mixer paddle on medium speed to prep your buttercream- this helps remove the air bubbles. Keep your spatula straight up and down (hold it upside down), spin the wheel. Focus on the center of your spatula for preasure (not the tip). Whe your sides are fairly smooth, turn the spatula so that the focus is on the center EDGE of the spatula- and not the flat of the blade. Do the top the same way, pull straight towards you with the center of the spatula. Clean your spatula off EVERY time. When almost smooth, turn the spatula so that you are using the center edge. Pull straight towrds you and turn- keep doing this all the way around the cake.

I agree with Steve, the quality of your spatula makes a big difference. Thin and flexible ( I have found the best to be made in France)- I used to joke that if I lost my favorite spatula- I would retire (I have almost lost it a couple of times, and once had a loyal sous chef who dug around in a dumpster in a garage to look for it- he knew what it meant to me!). So now I have three flexible French favorites!

You can also mist your cake with a spray bottle and heat your spatula with a propane torch.

I have never used a sponge...

[PastryLady]

Most people use the gently heated spatula technique. I don't think I would use a torch as it would be too hot. Hot water does the trick usually. I sprayed a cake in a decorating class but only when using the fake buttercream ( you know the shortning stuff). I totally agree using medium to medium low on the mixer with a whip to get the air smoothed out. Many mistakes with real buttercream is whipping it on too high a speed or trying to spread it when it is actually too cold. This is what I experienced myself anyways. I am impressed you are sending your mom samples through the mail! Yummy mail!!! Lots of people give real buttercream a bad reputation because they eat it cold. Real buttercream is really not appealing cold. You are eating sweetened butter, room temp is always better on the palate. Also, I have a favorite spatula too. I even engraved my name in it. Medium sized spatula and pretty firm. I hate the ones that are really flexible and the bigger spatulas I find are best for sheet cakes. So that is my ramblings anyways. Hope it helps!

[Wendy DeBord]

Over the years I've gone thru a couple different styles/techniques.........

I used to use the hot knive technique (thats what my Mother did/ thats how I followed) but I didn't like the color changes I'd get when using that techinque with a darker colored icing. When it came down to shaped cakes or cakes with intense details going over and over one area with heat darkens the color enough to make inconsistant colors. I also occasionally had too much water build up on the cardboard base which weakens the stength of the cardboard.

Then I learned (from a great decorator who does volume) to base coat, then refridgerate. Then you come back with your second coat on a really cold cake and it smooths out like silk. Except occasionally I'd get one area that defied my goals of perfection because I'd put the frosting on too heavy or too thin which changed the way that the icing reacted as my spatula hit it (like sticking).

Then I tried the upside down method (I read at a cake decorating site). My first several tries worked well. The concept is you spread your icing on a parchment circle, place the cake upside down on that. So you'd have an even perfect layer of frosting when your re-invert this cake. Then you smooth your sides. Freeze the cake until the icing is very cold, then you re-invert and peel off the parchment, your suposed to get perfect top edges. This technique didn't work for me because I was impatient with freezing and or I'd have a multi layered and filled cake and the act of turning it over meant I needed to begin with a frozen cake or risk shifting layers as I inverted it to start. I also found I needed to go back and fix something or another so the frozen cake wasn't an advantage.

Then someone taught me to use huge bladed spatula. I think it's what's used for spackling drywall. I've stayed with this now for several years and think it's the fastest most accurate method for me. I used to use any sized spatula leaning toward smaller ones. Having a large spatula means you only have to hit your sides or top with one pass. If you have a small bent handle spatula you must pass at least twice and that allows you do get off vertical on each pass. So, I pipe on my frosting, then I get my sides vertical with the large spatula first pass around on the turn table, then I do my top getting it level.........then I do go back and take off any access frosting (scrapping it up with my large spatula). Last pass I'm then smoothing my edges where I took off the excess and re-checking my angles that I'm 'sguare' both on my sides and top. I've given up on the smooth as glass surface that the hot water gives you, although it's nice the color and water issues are more of a hindrence for me. I can come pretty close with a large spatula............but of course thats taken me years to get there.

Regardless of which method you choose to learn with, I believe using a large spatula is very important and so is a smooth frosting to begin with (as KarenS mentioned before me).

Edited to add: * After re-reading your question it seems like bubbles in your frosting was the problem. I find that first mixing up my batch ....if I let it sit for a while either in the cooler or not, then I go back on low speed and give it a couple turns in the mixer, that gets out alot of air bubbles. They got there in the first place by whipping on too high of a speed for too long.

Oh I remembered another one......some people swear by using a paper towel (plain with no embosed pattern) over the cold iced cake. They feel they can smooth down any perfections that way. But I've not found that to be accurate personally.

[DiH]

Taking my cue from Sinclair's "upside down method", I tried something this morning - with excellent and extremely smooth results. Thanks, Sinclair, for the inspiration!

On parchment paper, draw two separate patterns/outlines... 1) cake top, and 2) side of cake. Ice the paper as you would your cake. Invert the iced paper onto the cake, press to adhere, then put cake in freezer until the paper can be safely removed. Voila! Smooth icing with a minimum amount of finish work.

Note: This worked great on both an 8" and a 10" cake but considering the length of that side strip, for a larger cake you might need a helper... or really, really long arms.

Di