How to Avoid the Three Big Errors Cake Decorators Make

A wise cake decorator is also a perfectionist. While we all know that perfection doesnt exist, that doesnt stop any of us from trying! We all want to make the best-tasting and the most beautiful (or cute!) cake possible. This is because we want to make people happy. But to do so, we need a little help and guidance to see us through some of the more difficult cake baking and decorating techniques. These tips will hopefully provide you good advice in conquering cake decorating challenges.

1. Whats the best way to stop frozen cakes from drying?

In baking, it is important to plan ahead of time to avoid doing last-minute touches, so sometimes you even have to say no to your own childs request. Yet who can forego to rush orders, right? It will be useful if you are informed at least twelve hours before you need to deliver them.

Preplanning cake making may involve identifying how to properly freeze the cakes so that when the deadline is nearing, all you have to do is decorate them.

But, freezing them may cause the cakes to taste blunt and become dry. So you need to wrap and store them appropriately. It is also ideal to not put the icing when youre freezing the cake.

For wrapping, you can use a plastic wrap which you have to put in two to three layers into the cake. The aluminum foil, meanwhile, comes in handy in order to keep the moisture out of the wrapped cake. This will also extend the freshness of the cake.

The cake must be taken from the refrigerator at least a day before you put the icing and decorate it so it can melt completely.

The cake must be thawed according to room temperature before adding the icing.

When the cake has icing, it will sweat during defrosting so its not ideal to place icing before freezing the cake.

In the end, the pattern and decoration will look messy and sloppy, which, of course, no one likes at all.

So bake cakes as early as possible.

2. How do I prevent my filling from bulging out the sides of my cake into the icing?

In the cake decorating world, there is a big struggle being fought every day in kitchens around the world. Its the Battle of the Bulge, and annoyed bakers are desperately calling out for help.

There is the usual question as to how you can avoid filling from bulging into the edges of the cake and then into the icing.

Probably you can begin with baking the cake before putting on the filling. You can bake the cake at least a day before so that it will be more settled to hold heavy filling.

There are actually some processes that you can follow too just so the filling will not overflow.

a.) Pipe (with a No.10 round tip or similar large size) an icing dam around the outer edge of each layer to hold the filling. The dam will act as a barrier and will stop the filling from escaping to the outer edge of the cake.

b.) You can also make use of crumb coats from a much thinner version of your final icing to cover the entire cake.

c.) Then allow the cake to firm up by storing it in a freezer for two to three hours.

If chilled, the icing dams and the crumb coat will work together to seal your cake and contain the filling. Then you can already add the final icing. And expect no more bulging after.

3. Im having difficulty with crumbs. Can I still do something?

Do not ignore the crumbs. They are as annoying as any other baking problem youll encounter.

No wonder a lot of bakers are getting nuts over this; they just dont know, however, theres a good way to end this.

Do you know of crumb coat? It is a layer of glaze or icing that is thin and that you can put in the assembled cake so the crumbs will stick in the surface of the cake.

All you need to do is to mix the icing with any liquid in the recipe such as milk, cream, or water until they turn thick. Apply it in the entire cake.

If the cake dries up, the crumb sticks to the cakes top layer. You can make the drying process faster by freezing your cake. Though it will add extra time to the baking process, the benefit you get out of this is great.

Yes, how can you go wrong when you have these techniques?