Buttercream icing

[Hopeitsallok]

Hi I’m looking for some tips please.

Planning on making my ds a birthday cake and want to cover it with buttercream icing. Whenever I watch videos of people doing this it always goes on so smoothly and seems effortless but when I do it it seems to drag on the sponge and takes big chunks out of it!

Please help 😁

[dementedpixie]

Maybe need to make it looser by adding a little milk to the mix. Or refrigerate the sponge for a short while before using it.

[JMG1234]

I'm no pro but I find dipping a palette knife into hot water and the smoothing the buttercream helps

[formerbabe]

Pop the cake in the freezer for a bit...then it's easier to ice.

[dingit]

You need to do a crumb coat. So a layer goes on and you put in the fridge to harden. Your next layer will go on smooth. Probably not explained well but you can google it.

[Hopeitsallok]

Thanks, this is helpful. I think I am making it far too thick and that’s why it’s pulling the sponge. I’ll thin it down and try sticking the sponge in the fridge beforehand too

Thanks everyone 👍

[Plural]

Agree with the other posters. Freeze the cake and also do a crumb coat then fridge /freeze briefly

Also have a cup of hot water and a kitchen towel. Dip the palette knife in the water to heat it up then wipe it dry before using on the buttercream

[Hopeitsallok]

Also I meant to ask how easy is it to cover with fondant icing? Again it looks easy but maybe it’s something I should practice beforehand, don’t want to make a hash of ds’s cake

[formerbabe]

A round cake is pretty easy to cover with fondant....you can even buy it pre rolled or buy the blocks and roll yourself. You can buy a kind of smoothing tool which helps to give a more professional finish.

[MotherForkinShirtBalls]

Crumb coat plus warmed palate knife. And make sure you are using a thick enough coat, too thin is harder.