I have been reading the forums now and keep hearing about
"Crumb coats". I think I know what you mean.......I thin layer that you dont really care if the crumbs show thru.

My real question is, I just watched a video on making a nice smooth BC cake and it said to put a crumb coat on FIRST, then let it crust and put a Second layer over that one and that is the one you work smooth.

How think is the crumb coat, seems like a lot of frosting.

OK that is probably three questions or more.

First off, welcome to CC!

As for a crumb coat, it's basically a very thin base coat of icing used to seal in the crumbs to make icing the cake easier.

Some people crumb coat, refrigerate the cake for a few minutes to let it firm up, then finish with a regular coat of icing.

Hope that helped. Good luck!

Not a dumb question at all!

The crumb coat is very thin, like you said... it seals in the crumbs so that when you put the 'real' layer of icing on, you won't end up with crumbs showing through. It will be so thin that you'll still see some of the cake showing through... let it sit for about 10 minutes, then put on your 'thicker' layer of icing. This layer determines how thick it will be overall.

Hope that helps

A crumb coat is the first layer of icing that you put on your cake. The idea is to lock in the crumbs by spreading a thin layer of icing over the entire cake. Once it crusts, you add another layer of the same icing . Because you have a firm surface you won't get crumbs in your final layering of icing. Hope this helps.