911 HELP With Icing a cake W/out crumbs!!!

[CarlAird]

I've tried everything! cooling the cake, brushing the cake, placing a mound on top, doing a thin layer first
EVERYTHING! AND STILL I BRING UP CRUMBS!
So much its makes me wanna throw up when I see it!
HELP!!!!!!!

[Free Rider]

Icing a cake is a subtractive process. You should not be adding any more after the first load to cover. Push the icing across the cake and remove the excess. Hope that makes sense. If not, I'll have to explain it again tomorrow as I'm too tired right now.

[Desserts4Life]

You can do a couple of things to help yourself. Once your cake has cooled & you've cut your layers, clean your work area to try & keep the area free from crumbs.

You want to spread a little bit of buttercream or "icing" at a time. Don't slather on a ton of icing at one time because it will "pull" the cake. Start with a small amount to give your cake a thin "crumb coat". Refrigerate it for about an hour or so. Bring the cake out & when you start your "final icing", make sure to swipe your spatula clean (each time) into another container or onto a towel to not put crumbs that may have gotten on there, back into your main bowl of icing. Does that make sense? So, spread from the main bowl of icing, decorate cake, wipe spatula clean, then back into the main bowl of icing again. This should help control your crumbs.

Also, don't get too stressed out over it. If you plan to decorate further, you can always cover your "mistakes" ;-). Good luck. You can email me if you'd like.

[m brown]

bake, remove from pan/cool down, wrap and chill overnight.

cut, wash, fill, chill 1/2 hour

crumb coat with bc, chill 1/2 hour

when crumb coat is hard, place dollups of icing on top of cake and work at flat angles from side to side with offset spatula/palate knife, put icing on off set spatula and cover sides. remove xs icing and smooth.

MAKE SURE YOUR BC ICING IS SOFT ENOUGH TO SPREAD, NOT DRIPPY OR HARD.

DO NOT LIFT UP YOUR PALATE KNIFE UP FROM THE SURFACE OF THE CAKE, ALWAYS MOVE ON ANGLES AND LIFT OFF CAKE LIKE AN AIRPLANE. WEEEEEE!

Use clean (no crumbs for finish coat) butter cream or whipped cream.

I can teach you in the NY area

[CarlAird]

THANK YOU EVERYONE! M Brown are you a wilton Teacher!!? I'm in Wilton class now and my teacher can work a cake with not one crumb! I did try eveything as above I didnt use an off set spatual I must check my recipe for icing
*******I'm using the wilton recipe 1 cup veg shortning and 4 cups sugar plus some more suff
its what they say is for cakes maybey I should wip it longer???

[Free Rider]

Originally Posted by CarlAird

THANK YOU EVERYONE! M Brown are you a wilton Teacher!!? I'm in Wilton class now and my teacher can work a cake with not one crumb! I did try eveything as above I didnt use an off set spatual I must check my recipe for icing
*******I'm using the wilton recipe 1 cup veg shortning and 4 cups sugar plus some more suff
its what they say is for cakes maybey I should wip it longer???

If you're using the Wilton class buttercream, add enough water to make it "thin" for the icing. Alton Brown does a great bit on how to ice a cake and I would suggest you get hold of a copy of the video if you can.

Other favorite Wilton techniques are the "Viva method" and the "upsidedown method". I've linked the upside-down one here because I think it's creative: http://www.cakecentral.com/article6-...oth-Icing.html

[CarlAird]

Thank You!
THATS HYSTERICAL!!!!!!!

[bgan10]

I find that it makes it easy to apply if the icing is heated a little bit. I have put icing on some very crumbly cakes with no problem with a little heat. If that makes any sense

[cakerookie]

Just crumb coat it. Boil a little apricot preserves, strain and brush on the cake and allow to cool.

Rgds Rook