Cake help

[Redskylark]

Morning ladies

Please can anyone give me some tips of making a fab birthday cake, it's my dds birthday and with lockdown I'm trying to make lots of effort at home

I'm doing a vanilla sponge and will be icing it with buttercream and doing a drip effect.

Now usually on special cakes i end up using fondant icing because my cakes always end up a little crumbly around the edge and messing up the buttercream

How can I avoid this? I use silicone cake moulds, would it help for me to line them with baking paper? Is it something to do with how long they are cooked for? They arent ever crumbly inside but it all goes wrong when I put the buttercream on

Also how can I make cakes that are really nice and level? Sometimes they are perfect sometimes they have a slope

Disclaimer: not an expert 😊. I trim the cake layers after baking to get them flat if needed, then freeze. When they're nice and firm, I put on the crumb coating (thin layer of butter cream), then when that's finished (firm), I do the rest of the decorating, whether it be more butter cream or fondant - this will depend on what picture the DC have asked for!

Good luck with the cake! I've never done a drip effect before and was looking forward to trying it for my own cake last year, then went down with flu 🙄 - still planning to try next time!

Thank you! I will clear a space in the freezer
My aim is to make it super light and fluffy but obviously that will make it more crumbly but I can see how freezing would help! I can buttercream up carrot cakes perfectly so there must be something a miss in my vanilla sponge recipe

Fingers crossed

I always use metal tins with the bottoms that you can push up to gently slide the cake layers out. Only disasters I've ever had have been with silicone moulds - same when making bread now I think about it. Good rigid tin makes good firm loaves. Good luck for birthday!

Have you tried putting a thin layer of buttercream on and then putting in the fridge until cold enough that you can add a second layer? A thin layer can hold crumbly cake edges together whilst a second layer is added and as long as each layer isn't too thick the finish won't be either.

I find freezing cakes makes them dryer but maybe if you're eating them straight away it wouldn't be a problem.

I always fondant in the outside as, like you, my edges do not look as presentable when coated in buttercream.

Yep - crumb coat first and chill the cake. This will glue all the crumbly bits together and you can then put the proper layer of buttercream on. There’s tons of YouTube videos about.

You can trim them before you put the first layer on to even them up. But I always find metal tins much better than silicone, they give the outside of the cake more structure also.

Wrap your cakes up well and freeze. Make a portion of your buttercream thinner by adding a little boiling water. This will prevent the buttercream pulling the cake apart. It’s similar to how hard butter will pull bread apart but softened butter won’t.
Take the cakes out, level the tops using a ruler to check they are the same all the way round and then use the thinned buttercream to do a crumbcoat while the cake is still cold. Chill the cake in the fridge till the crumbcoat has set. Then cover in buttercream. Chill in the fridge or freezer for 10 mins and then use a pallet knife and a cup of boiling water to gently smooth the outer layer of buttercream.

Thank you all very much for your help and tips! I'm making it tonight and have everything crossed.