We've offered good tips before on how to frost a cake without too much mess, but we wanted to show you start to finish how we frost a cake. We're not experts at this, but we do love layer cake! Here's how we do it.
How To Frost a Layer Cake
Disclaimer: The frosting used here is a fluffy marshmallow icing. It's not supposed to be thin, sleek, or smooth. It's supposed to look like, well, marshmallows. Also, it's delicious.
• First, gather what you need. Here's what we brought to the icing station:
• Cake layers - Baked the previous day and fully cooled, then wrapped tightly in multiple layers of plastic wrap.
• Marshmallow icing - Color tip: Even though we normallu eschew Jell-O and fake coloring, all bets are off when it comes to small children's birthdays. In this case, we found that a tiny portion of strawberry Jell-O mix gave us the perfect pink tint, and just a hint of strawberry flavor.
• Cake plate
• Wax paper
• Offset spatula or broad knife
• Small mug of hot water
• Sprinkles, candy letters, and other birthday cake necessities
• Spread a small dab of icing on the cake plate.
• Cut narrow strips of wax paper and place them in a grid on the cake plate, leaving the center open. (This will help keep the plate clean.)
• Center your first layer on the plate.
• Stir the frosting smooth and smack several large globs onto the cake layer. Spread them with the spatula until even and smooth. Do make sure that the frosting is especially thick around the edges. Cakes are often a little thinner at the edges and domed in the center. Make sure there is a raised ridge of icing to help keep the cake layers even.
• Place the second layer on top and repeat the previous step.
• Place the third layer on top. Now apply a thin layer of icing all over the cake, spreading it evenly and thinly to "catch the crumbs." This should collect any loose crumbs and hold them firm, keeping them out of your final cake icing. Then apply a second layer, this time dipping the spatula in warm water between strokes to keep it warm and clean - this will help give a smoother finish. This works especially well with buttercream.
• Apply sprinkles, candles, decorations - this a good point to have a small one help. The newly five-year-old birthday girl put on all her own decorations here. (Can you tell that all she wanted was a "pink cake"?)
• When the cake is iced to your satisfaction, gently pull away the wax paper strips.
• Ta-da! Frosted cake. It's not that difficult, and even when it looks like a fluffy pink marshmallow, it's still very impressive. All you need to say is "three-layer cake" and people will be lining up with forks in hand.
Any more tips for cake icing?
Related: Beat the Box: Is a Box Mix Really Faster?
(Images: Faith Hopler)
Comments (11)
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I recommend letting your crumb coat set before icing the cake. You can put it in the fridge for 10 or 15 minutes (too short a time for the cake to dry, and the crumb coat will help prevent it from drying, anyway), or, as long as it's not too hot, just let it sit out until the crumb coat is hard. When I ice, I plop a big lot of icing right on top, even and smooth it out toward the cake's edges, then push the icing down the sides, to the plate.
view OneWallKitchen's profile
My tip (if you do want that smooth look, or even just to avoid crumbs when it's a fluffy coat) -- is to ice the layers as you instructed. Then do a very think layer on the top and sides, and refrigerate for a bit. Then take it out and ice. My apologies if this is redundant to the above comment.
view clamme's profile
ach, a THIN layer, not a think layer.
view clamme's profile
Another handy tool (but not essential) is a lazy susan. Put your cake plate on the susan and rotate to frost, instead of turning the plate all the time.
Also, do as the bakeries do: if you make errors in frosting the cake smoothly, you can use a frosting comb to add decoartive ridges on the side. You can also save/make cake crumbs from trimming the cake top or sides and use the to decorate the edges of the cake.
view jgphotomom's profile
I refrigerate after the crumb coat too. I've also frozen the cake layers before icing - that works really well if the cake is a very crumbly cake and keeps ripping when you're trying to frost.
view Nikita's profile
When I have to slice the cake into layers, I take a ruler and measure the thickness I want from the bottom of each piece, mark with toothpicks every couple of inches around the circumference. Then all you have to do while slicing is connect the dots, the result is professional looking evenly thick layers. Use two large flat spatulas (like the ones for flipping burgers) to transfer the layers.
Also, the top most layer should be the nicest looking bottom from one of the cakes flipped upside down, that's how you get a perfectly flat top.
view maidmoron's profile
I don't care how many crumbs get into that cake - it looks delicious!
view cara_mia's profile
Okay, I'm drooling over that cake - and it doesn't look like the cake here. Recipe please? Pretty please, with sugar on top?
view cara_mia's profile
@cara_mia - it actually is that dark chocolate cake, but the difference is that I used Hershey's special dark cocoa powder. This gives it that much darker color and a more "Oreo-cookie" chocolate taste.
view faith's profile
Now I need an excuse to make cake...
I wonder if Ghirardelli's cocoa powder will give me that dark color or the lighter color?
view cara_mia's profile
i'm glad this was a real life approach using frosting with a similar consistency of frosting that comes out of a can. i don't always feel like making my own and i've never been sure how to approach the unsmooth icing job. thanks!
view Pistachio's profile