Prepping and Crumb Coating a Cake
True beauty starts from the inside, whether it's a person or a cake, and my aim at Viva La Buttercream, is to inspire a little of both.
Any cake made with love is perfect on it's own, but if you want to take your cake to the next level, the inside is the place to start.
Even layers, and straight sides practically SCREAM professional cake, at least they would if cakes could scream, which would be weird.... I digress.
Just what is involved in getting a professional looking cake? Pull up a chair, let's chat.
Layers, Baby.
Getting even layers isn't as hard as you might think. With the right tools, you can create perfectly even layers at home, and without expensive equipment.
Check out my blog post on Cake Cutting Tools here.
The Icing IN the Cake
A BIG part of your cake's look, and taste, is your icing.While we might think long and hard about what we want the outside to look like, what about the filling? Will it match the outside? Or are you using a different flavour? Will you be using additional fillings like Jam, Syrups or purees? Keep in mind too, custard, mousse, and other soft or runny fillings can be very de-stabilising, and will almost certainly require refrigeration. All of this should be considered when layering your cake.
For example, do find Buttercream too sweet? Probably best not to fill your cake with thick layers of Buttercream and Strawberry Syrup then. Conversely, if you have a deliciously bitter Dark Chocolate Cake, Buttercream with Strawberry Syrup can make it sing (once again, IF cakes had vocal chords).
To trim or not to trim?
I like to trim my cake. Why? Couple of reasons.
Perfect, straight sides. Makes the inside of the cake look great when it's cut.
Let's you use your existing cake board as a guide to ice your cake, and really really smoothly too.
So do you need to trim the sides of your cake? NO. You can leave it as it is, it's not mandatory, but it does give a more professional result. If you are SELLING cakes, you may want to consider doing this if you don't already. As I mentioned before, it takes your cake to the next level, and perfect layers are pretty much expected in the high end market.
What about all that wasted cake?? Well, if you are layering your cakes, you probably already have left over cake. These scraps can be frozen for later use as cake pops, or used as bribery so your family will leave your cake be. I tend to lean towards the latter!
Viva La Buttercream x