I know i sound like a total amateur, but i am, so bear with me...ive only ever made two cakes that were actually decorated cakes (only one is in my gallery, broken camera on other), but i always have trouble wiht my frosting taking some crumbs away from the cake and just peeling off, makign it terrible to frost, and then i have crumbs all in the frosting...ive heard of a crumb coat but i have NO IDEA what it is...anyone wanna help me out?

oh and if it means anything to anyone, im totally against the use of fondant for whole cakes at the time, i mean im only thirteen and making cakes for friedns.

A crumb coat is a thin coat of icing that you just spread all over the cake before you ice your cake. Some will then place it in the fridges will others will wait a few minutes for it to crust over. Then you place your icing over that in a thicker layer. The crumb coat is suppose to seal in the crumbs and keep them out of the other layer of icing.

As far as the crumbs themselves, there are a few things to help with that. One is to make sure you use the right consistancy of icing. If your icing is too thick/stiff, it will end up pulling more crumbs off your cake because it does not attach like the thin icing does.

Also make sure that you keep icing between your spatula and cake at all times. And you want to avoid doing a back and forth motion with the spatula while you are spreading the icing on. When you do go back and forth instead of the same direction it can pulls the crumbs off the cake as well.

Using the cake icer tip can help as well with the crumbs as it puts a nice thick coat of icing on your cake that you then go back and smooth out.

THanks..i dont have a cake icing tip but ill look into getting one, adn ill try to make my frosting a tad less thick (i actually KNOW thats a problem, its always thick). Alrighty then...thx for the help!

also - the crumb coat is very thin. . . you should generally be able to see the cake through it. THIN icing anda THIN coat of it.

Welcome to CC xtraxtra......I think it's awesome that you're learning about baking and cake decorating at your age!! Keep asking any questions you have - there are so many people here that can help you. I still ask lots of questions, too, and I'm 49 !!!!!

Happy baking !!

Suzanne

I did a crumb coat for the first time last week on my purse cake. It was a 3-D sculpted cake, so a lot of the inside part of the cake was exposed to being frosted and made more crumbs to deal with. The crumb coat did wonders!!!

just a family recipe...like, 3/4 bag of pwdered sugar, 1/2 crisco stick, little bit of vanilla, little bit of milk...however much colorin gneeded

Hi,
What a great spirit you have for decorating cakes. I have found that a crumb coat is the only way to go. You can either use thinned icing as suggested or try a wash of apricot glaze. I know it sounds crazy, but you cannot taste it.

To make it, just empty a jar of apricot preserves in a saucepan. Bring it to a slow boil, strain it well. Measure what you have after you have strained it. Add half that amount in water. Bring the strained mixture and water back to a boil. Use a pastry brush to glaze cake. It doesn't take very much and you can store the rest in the fridge for a month. If you're using refrigerated portion, reheat in microwave before you glaze cake.

Let cake sit until glaze firms up, then you can wrap it in plastic wrap to decorate later or start right away. I lean toward this method of crumb coating if I have a large amount of cakes to do. I like the way the final coat of icing adheres to the glaze. But, try it out sometime and see what you think. I was skeptical at first because I thought you would taste the apricot. Not at all, and it helps to hold moisture in the cake. Good Luck!

well immabout to go take care of it, just lookin up the buttercream recipe im using this time