How To Frost A Cake
Hi all! There were a few of you that requested a how to frost a cake tutorial, so here it is. These are some of my best tips, but of course, practice a lot. And also don’t be too hard on yourself. People will really appreciate your cakes and all of the effort you put into them.
These are some of the items that I have found significantly helps with the ease of layering your cakes. And they are inexpensive items too.
Offset cake spatula or pastry knife - I have 2 Ateco brand knifes
Dough scraper/cake cleaner
Clean towel or cup to scrape off excess frosting
Cake turntable - if you don’t have one, no worries. I decorated cakes for 8 years before buying one and they came out great
And of course, don’t forget your cooled cakes and buttercream!
I put the photos above in chronological order, left to right, top to bottom - so that it would be easier to figure out your steps.
Get your cake turntable or cake plate, if your using a cake turnable I usually put a small piece of non slippery mat underneath so the cake board doesn’t move.
Cake board goes on top (I used a 6 inch cardboard round because I had a 6 inch cake) with a small dollop of icing so the cake will stick to the board.
Place your 1st cake layer on, smooth side down.
Put a good amount of icing on the first cake, smooth out with your small palate knife. It is better if you have too much frosting than too little. I always try to have about a 1/2 inch of frosting in-between my layer cakes.
Second layer cake, repeat and frost. Look from the sides to make sure cake layers are stacking evenly.
Place last cake layer on, smooth side up.
Put a good amount of frosting on top of the cake, spread to the edges and use your small palate knife to push over edges. Start to apply frosting on the sides of your cake. This is your crumb coat, it will literally lock in the crumbs. Don’t worry about having it perfect, smooth out and place into fridge for about 45 minutes. If you need to cool down your frosting too, you can place in the fridge, but not too long - maybe 5 minutes, otherwise it will too difficult to spread.
Take cake out of fridge, and get the bench scraper. Apply more frosting with the palate knife, you shouldn’t see any crumbs after applying more frosting. Hold the bench scraper (see photo) vertically with dominant hand and turn the cake table or plate with other hand. Scrape off excess into bowl otherwise it will clump onto cake. Use bench scraper to smooth the top of the cake - I like to work outwards in.
Know when to stop. In another blog post I will show you how to decorate the cake, which will cover up some unevenness if there is any.
