How To Ice A Wedding Cake With Buttercream?

Wedding cake icing is a popular choice for many, as it creates a smooth, creamy texture that can be flavored with various ingredients. Buttercream and fondant are two main choices for finishing a cake. To achieve a smooth finish, gather the right tools, such as a cake turntable, palette knife, and cake scraper.

To make buttercream, boil apricot jam, knead the marzipan, dust the work surface with icing sugar, and roll it out into a rough square. Apply buttercream to the sides of the cake, starting at the bottom and working your way up to the top. Beat 600g sifted icing sugar and 300g butter together with your chosen flavoring and coloring, adding 2-3 tbsp of boiling water to loosen and beat until smooth.

Fluff the buttercream onto cupcakes or smear them in the middle and over the top of a 20cm cake using a palette knife. Firmly press dowels into the cake until each dowel sits flush with the cake top. Ice each tier with buttercream, smooth flat using an uneven spatula or professional icing smoother.

For a smoother buttercream, use more powdered sugar or all vegetable shortening without butter. For a more visually appealing icing, use 1 teaspoon butter flavor for each 1/2 cup shortening.

What is the trick to buttercream frosting?

6 Secrets for Perfect Buttercream: Use the right powdered sugar. … Beat the butter! … Use cream or milk, but use the right amount. … Add sugar to taste. … Don’t add too much liquid to your buttercream. … Keep your buttercream from melting on a hot or humid day. This post may include affiliate links. Read our policy. Buttercream, frosting, or icing can ruin a cake if it’s not perfect. Today I’m sharing my best tips for making perfect buttercream.

Watch the video below to see answers to common buttercream questions!

How do you get buttercream to stick to a cake?

How do I make buttercream frosting stick to a cake? Chill the cake for 2 hours before frosting. Be patient! If you frost the cake before it cools, the butter will melt and soak into the cake. You’ve made the batter and baked your cakes, but there’s more to do! Frosting a cake is easy, but you might be wondering how to get a smooth finish or prevent the frosting from soaking into the cake. We’ve got you covered. Read on for answers to your cake questions.

1 This is a great frosting for beginners or when you’re short on time. Mix softened butter and powdered sugar to make a thick, fluffy frosting. It’s sweet, so it’s hard to add fruit preserves or caramel. It’s grainy but has a classic buttery flavor.

How to get perfectly smooth buttercream?

Instructions: Beat 2 cups of butter for 30 seconds until smooth. Mix in vanilla and salt. Slowly add in 7 cups of powdered sugar. Add 3 Tbsp of cream or milk halfway through. I like to put a kitchen towel over my mixer to catch any powdered sugar. Mix on low until the ingredients are fully mixed and the frosting is the right consistency. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. If the frosting is too thick, add more cream (1 Tbsp at a time). If the frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If you want to color the buttercream, add the gel food coloring once the frosting is mixed. Beat on low until it reaches the desired color. To make the frosting extra smooth, stir it by hand for a minute or two right before you use it. It’s a workout, but it’s worth it! Push the frosting around the side of the bowl. This will make it easier to smooth onto cakes or pipe.

Yield: One batch of buttercream makes about 6 cups, enough for a 7- or 8-inch layer cake with 3 layers or about 3 dozen cupcakes. If you’re struggling to get your frosting smooth, I share tips for making super smooth buttercream here.

What icing is best for a wedding cake?

Fondant. Fondant icing is a traditional wedding favorite because it makes cakes look smooth and polished. Fondant is made from powdered sugar, corn syrup, and water. The paste is rolled out to make it smooth and is rolled onto the cake to make it look polished. Fondant icing is flexible and durable, which lets us make intricate designs. Fondant icing is not for everyone. Once dry, it has a chewy texture and a sugary taste. Fondant is easy to remove from a cake. Wedding guests often just enjoy the cake without the fondant icing. If you want a smooth wedding cake, use fondant icing. Buttercream can be smoothed out, but it won’t be as smooth as fondant. If you want elaborate designs, we advise picking fondant.

How do you keep buttercream from melting on a wedding cake?

Keep buttercream cool to prevent it from melting. Keep it cool. If it’s warm where you are, your buttercream cake will be too. As cake makers, we often try different mediums and eventually find one we like. For me, it’s buttercream. Buttercream has many pros, like being easy to use and tasting good. But there are also some problems, but we often ignore them because they scare us. They say love is blind.

Condensation, cracks, melting…three things that would scare any buttercream cake maker. Brace yourself, they do happen.

How long do you have to leave buttercream on before icing?

Your cake is now covered in a crumb coat. It should be thin so you can see the cake through the buttercream. Check the cake is level and standing straight. If the cake is leaning, use your bench scraper to push it straight and smooth the sides. Refrigerate the cake for at least 30 minutes until the crumb coat is chilled. If it’s a warm day and your buttercream was soft, you may need to chill the crumb coat for 45-60 minutes. Cover the bowl of remaining buttercream with plastic wrap. If your kitchen is warm, put the buttercream in the refrigerator to keep it cool. While you’re waiting, make yourself a cup of coffee and decide how you want to decorate your cake.

Final Coat Now it’s time to finish frosting your cake. If you’re doing a piped design, fill a piping bag with buttercream and pipe it onto your crumb coat. With your cake on your turntable, spread some buttercream on the top and edges. Add more buttercream to your icing spatula and frost the sides of the cake. Use enough. If you use too little buttercream, your spatula will dig into the crumb coat, making it hard to frost. Once you’ve covered the cake, use the icing spatula to swirl the buttercream. For a smooth finish, use a bench scraper to sweep the side of the cake as you spin the turntable. Smooth the buttercream, but don’t remove too much. Use a light touch. If cake is showing through, frosting is too thin. Add more frosting. If there are gaps in the buttercream, add more and smooth it with a bench scraper. Practice makes perfect, so don’t worry if your buttercream isn’t perfect the first time.

Should buttercream be cold before frosting?

Buttercream frosting. Buttercream frostings use lots of butter. These frostings go well with any kind of butter cake, sponge cake, or fruit-filled cake, but not flourless cakes. Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature. If frosting looks curdled, it’s probably because ingredients were too warm or too cold. You can make buttercream frosting up to two weeks ahead and store it in the refrigerator. Bring it to room temperature before frosting your cake. Here’s a simple method: In a bowl, mix 4 egg whites, a pinch of salt, and 1 cup sugar. Put the bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Remove the bowl from the heat and beat until peaks form. Beat in the butter, one spoonful at a time, until smooth. Then, add your flavoring. If the frosting or your kitchen is too warm, put the bowl in the fridge for a few minutes, then continue beating. If it’s too cold, let it warm up, then beat until it comes together. It might take a few minutes, so don’t give up.

How do you make wedding cake icing smooth?

This layer should be thicker than your crumb coat. Your cake layers should be hidden. Use a bench scraper to smooth the frosting around the cake. Spread the frosting around the cake, not off it. Hold your bench scraper at a 90-degree angle to the cake. Scrape off excess buttercream after each pass around the cake. #6: Fill in the frosting gaps. After your first few passes, you might see some small spots that need more frosting. Add small dabs of extra buttercream to these areas and smooth again with your bench scraper.

What frosting do professionals use for cakes?

This Swiss buttercream is light and delicious. Egg whites and sugar make a warm frosting you can use on anything. This buttercream is great for filling layers or frosting cakes. Swiss buttercream is soft, so use it for frosting cakes, not piping or decorating. Cool the mixture before adding butter. For something light but durable, try Italian meringue buttercream. This frosting is sturdier than Swiss buttercream because of different ingredients. This buttercream is great for filling or frosting cakes. It takes a little extra work, but it’s worth it! This buttercream is best the day it’s made. Pasteurized eggs can be used, but they won’t whip up as well and will yield less frosting. If using pasteurized eggs, start adding hot sugar syrup when eggs reach soft peaks.

How do you ice a cake smooth with buttercream?

I’m putting some buttercream on the cake. On top of my cake in a thin layer. I’m also going to run. More around that side to cover the whole cake. For the buttercream.

How to ice a cake with buttercream for beginners?

Spoon buttercream onto the cake. Use a spatula or knife to smooth the buttercream to the edge. Use the spatula or knife to smooth buttercream over the sides of the cake in sections, then turn the cake and repeat. For a smooth finish, hold a knife flat at the edge of the cake furthest from you and drag it towards you. Repeat if necessary. Hold a palette knife or plastic scraper at a 90-degree angle to the cake. Use the other hand to spin the cake as you smooth the buttercream. This is easiest on a turntable. If not, do this in sections and smooth the joins with the palette knife. To get a feathered frosty effect, press the flat side of a palette knife or spatula onto the cake and lift. Repeat on the whole cake.

How to make buttercream. Mix 600g icing sugar and 300g butter with your chosen flavoring and food coloring. Add 2-3 tbsp boiling water and beat until smooth. Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe it onto cupcakes, or simply spoon it into the middle of a cake and smooth it over the top and side. Use equal amounts of icing sugar and butter unless you’re adding a lot of liquid.

What is the most stable icing for a wedding cake?

Choose Italian meringue buttercream if you need to hold up large layer cakes or intricate designs. This buttercream performed well in my tests. I want a sweet buttercream with a butter flavor. I need a pure white buttercream. Don’t choose Italian meringue buttercream if you don’t own a stand mixer. Some buttercreams can be made with a hand mixer (like Russian, American Dreamy, and Ermine). This one is hardest to make without a mixer because you have to pour in the sugar syrup while the mixer is going. You need a buttercream with 100% cooked egg whites. The egg mixture will be cooler than you think. The heat isn’t distributed evenly through the egg whites, so they don’t whip properly. These are buttercreams I’ve developed after studying the others. It uses the Sugarologie method, which involves making a flavored or colored sugar syrup and then blending it with cold (sometimes frozen) butter. The buttercreams are unique in flavor, glossy, and ready to pipe and frost cakes.