Cake decorating guide – cooling, patchwork, leveling and torting
Cake decorating guide – how to prepare a cake for decoration
Here are some of the basic cake preparation steps before you start icing or frosting your cake:
Cake decorating guide - Cooling a cake
- Once your cake is baked and is out of oven, you need to cool it at room temperature for at least 4 hours (for a 9 inch round cake). Larger cakes need a longer cooling period.
- Never try to cool your cake quickly by placing it in the refridgerator as it will affect the taste and texture of your cake.
- Never also try to cover a cake with icing before it has cooled down completely or else your icing will starting melting on the cake.
Cake decorating guide - Patchwork to get an even and level cake height
- Once your cake has completely cooled down, level the surface of your cake with a serrated knife or a cake leveler. Place the cake with the top facing down on a cake board or plate.
- At this point, the new cake top is what used to be the bottom of the cake. The reason to turn the cake upside down is to gain advantage of the flat surface from the bottom of the cake. Once placed upside down, you may notice some gap between the new cake bottom and the cake board.
- You will have to patch up this space or else the sides of your cake will start to slope slightly at the sides once you put icing on your cake.
- To do the patchwork, take some of the cake top that has been cut off earlier. Break it into crumbs. Next, take a little butter icing and mix with the crumbs to get a dough-like texture. Fill this mixture wherever there are gaps between the cake bottom and the cake board.
- Once the patchwork is done, your cake should have an even height and no gaps or space should be seen between the cake board and the cake.
Cake decorating guide - Cleaning cake of loose crumbs
- Loose crumbs, on your cake, if not cleaned before the cake is covered with icing, can really spoil your cake decoration. These crumbs will get mixed in your icing as you smoothen it on your cake and will end up giving your decorated cake a speckled and unprofessional appearance to your cake.
- To avoid such appearance, take some butter icing (firm consistency, i.e., not sticking to your fingers when you touch it lightly with your fingers) and roll it all over your cake with your fingers to collect loose crumbs on your cake.
- Once the cake is free of crumbs, it is now ready to be covered with icing.
- Alternatively, you could crumb coat your cake with a little soft butter cream. Just spread a thin layer of butter cream all over as a base icing before coating the actual icing on it.
Cake decorating guide - Layered or sandwiched cakes
- There are basicly two ways of making layered or sandwiched cakes. You can either divide a cake batter between two cake tins and bake two separate but same sized cakes and sandwich them once they are baked and cooled down, or alternatively, you could bake one cake and layer it once it has baked.
- If you are baking two separate cakes, this is what you have to do before cakes are sandwiched together:
- Level off the top of the cakes with a cake leveler or a serrated knife if the centres of the cakes have risen considerably higher than the sides.
- Place the first layer with the top facing up on a cake board. Spread the filling of your choice on the cake. Take the second cake and sandwich on the first, this time with the top of the cake facing down. At this point, both the top surfaces of your cakes should be sticking together with the cake filing.
- Again, if you notice any gap or space between the 2 sandwiched cakes, patch up the gap with some cake crumbs and butter icing (refer to patchwork above).
- Finally, clean up the entire surface of the sandwiched cake of any loose crumbs.
- If, on the other hand, you are baking one cake and layering it once it is baked, this is what you need to do:
- Level of the top of the cake with a cake leveler or a serrated knife if the centre of the cake has a peak. Clean the cake of any loose cake crumbs.
- Place the cake on a tray. Use a skewer to mark the layers on your cake side. With a cake leveler, tort the cake into layers of equal height.
- Transfer the bottom layer onto a cake board. Spread the filling of your choice on the cake layer. Place the second layer on top and continue until all layers of the cake are stacked.
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Finally, cover the cake with icing of your choice.
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