cake decorating experts here please - really need your help

[TheFoosa]

I have to decorate a birthday cake, but previous attempts have been disasterous

when i stick the icing on the cake, it gets covered in cake crumbs and ends up looking all bumby

am i making the wrong kind of icing (just water & icing sugar, don't know what it's called)

any help greatly appreciated, please speak slowly & clearly because I know nothing

tia

bumpy not bumby

The easiest way I have found is to buy some ready-roll fondant icing from the supermarket

Then, you can just roll a large circle - big enough to cover the whole top of the cake and down the sides. Cover the whole cake top and sides with non-lumpy jam (warmed up in the microwave to make it a bit runnier. GThen lay the icing over the top and smooth it down. Cut off all the extra at the bottom.

That's how I would do it.

Definitely the wrong kind of icing.

You can do buttercream icing and it could work better. Like Littlefish says sugarpaste/ready roll icing is the easiest way to get a cake to look good.

Oh. Just thought. If you do use either glaice icing (the one you have been using) or buttercream you need to do a crumb coat. This is a very thin layer to catch all the crumbs. you allow that to dry and then do a thicker layer of the icing and make it smooth, this will stop the crumbs.

You should do this even if using sugarpaste as it helps it to stick. ( and if like me, think jam is gross)

i use royal icing over a base of buttercream. make sure the icing isnt too thin x

thanks everyone, very helpful

think i will try butter icing as cake is a fiddly shape

definately do buttercream icing, just google for a recipe. whip it up really nice, then do a thin coat (which will get a bit crumby, dont worry) and then wait for it to dry a bit and either do another thick coat which will be nice and clean or cover with sugarpaste/fondant rolled out from supermarket.

oh cake is fiddly shape, stick with buttercream.