I'm new to the world of cake decorating and was wondering about some of the terminology, what it means and some of the techniques and how to do them.

Crumb coat - what is it and how is it done? I'm doing a cake for this weekend and would love to keep crumbs out of the buttercream.
shortening - Seeing as how I live at the back end of the earth, I don't know what you're talking about. All we get here to use in buttercream is white margarine. So -
What does torting mean?

There are others, but I can't think of them now. Thanks!

What is Crisco?

Crisco is a name brand of vegetable shortening.

Crumb coating is the application of a thin coat of icing to seal in the crumbs on your cake surfaces, before you apply the final icing coat. It keeps crumbs from being pulled up into your icing.

Torting is the cutting of a cake layer into thinner layers. It makes a cake look pretty when cut, and gives more places to put filling.

Crisco is just a brand name for Shortening. Crum coating is just a thin coat of frosting you put on your cake to seal in all the crumbs. It's very thin and not pretty. Then you refrigerate to set the frosting. Then you can frost successfully without getting any crumbs in your topcoat. Shortening is just another term for lard.

So where exactly is the back end of the earth?

shortening and crisco are the same thing...
the best description i can give is lard?

Okay, Crisco is a brand name shortening. Shortening is white solid all vegetable oil. I don't really know any other way to describe it.
Crumb coat - you thin out your icing a bit so that it is nice a spreadable and then you ice the cake with a very thin coat. You want to get the crumbs in the icing and you will be able to see the cake through the icing. You let the icing set to crust over (or if you are using an icing that will not crust, put it in the fridge so that it will harden) and then you put on your final coat of icing. What the crumb coat does is trap the crumbs so that they do not come through on your final coat.
Torting - cutting a cake (single layer) into two or more layers and filling them with icing or whatever filling you prefer. I usually do not torte unless I want more height to my cake or I am using a special filling. May cakes are usually just two layers with a filling in between.
When you think of any more just let us know!
HTH,
HeatherMari

crumb coat- light coating of frosting to seal in crumbs
shortening- white fat from vegetables
torting- slicing a cake into layers normally with a knife to fill
criso- a brand of shortening

hth!

Thanks everyone! That really helps! We have something here that I think might be similar to shortening, but I used it in buttercream once and it tasted like soft plastic. Soft plastic that coats your mouth in a layer of fat. Not doing THAT again! When you said lard, I started thinking... "like animal fat?" , then I read vegetable fat. Phew! That would just be nasty!

Oh yeah, I live in South Africa. Maybe not totally the back end of the earth, but right around the corner.

I am using whipped ganache for the filling and poured ganache for the icing. How do you thing out whipped ganache for a crumb coating? Can I just make a tasteless icing specifically for the crumb coat?

You take a small amount of the poured ganache (like a couple of tablespoons) and spread over the cake in a very thin layer for your crumbcoat.

Okay I made the cake. It has to feed 10 + people so I made three layers chocolate cake with whipped ganache filling and poured ganache frosting - a little rich I think. I was going to put small white chocolate hearts right around the edge but the chocolate I bought wouldnt melt properly. The couples initials are in the middle. Its looking a little plain at the moment but I dont know what else to do.

but I had a problem with the poured fondant, It was pretty thick even though I used it immediately? Anyone know why this is?

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Sorry about the photo I dont know how to make it smaller

Rather than crumb coating you can paint simple syrup on your cake to seal in the moistness and prevent crumbs from coming loose from your cake before you pour the ganache on it.

I'm not sure of the recipe, but its usually just a water, sugar and sometimes liquor to add a bit of flavor heated up a bit to make a syrup. Also you can heat up apricot preserves and put them through a strainer to get clumps out and then brush that on your cake. It should not impart any flavor to the cake. You might want to look around the recipe section to see if simple syrup is on there.