Mine are always rounded, how does everyone keep their corners on their cakes so nice looking??? I did 5 sheet cakes for this weekend and I struggled with each one. Any suggestions?

Are you using BC or fondant?

I use fondant almost 100% of the time, and use a layer of ganache under the fondant which can be moulded using a hot knife to create very clean, sharp corners. Then the thinner fondant over that also becomes clean and sharp.

If its BC you are asking about, I am sure better-qualified folks will come by soon!

Thanks for the info on the fondant Evoir, I struggle with that as well. Actually the 5 cakes I just finished were BC.

Right before you smooth your icing take a coupler only size piping bag and pipe a big fat juicy stream of icing up each corner--this gives you more icing than you need -- and then you can smooth off the excess and reveal the pretty and sharp corner awaiting discovery.

I use a dough cutter to smooth it from there.

Smooth sharp thoughts for you.

I went to Lowe's and bought 2 painters paddles and use them to square off my corners works great they cost me about .75 cents a piece

Molly2

When I do try and square off, you can usually see the cake. I lose a ton of frosting....do you load the corners with extra bc?

I have no suggestions...when I first ask the questions to a well experienced artist I was told it takes practice. That is what I have done.

I think my biggest problem is not having my buttercream the right consistency. I still have trouble with it - too soft, too thick - I need to take a lesson in making buttercream. My Wilton instructor (4 years ago) was really no help at all .... anyone live in Bryan/College Station who is willing to teach me?

I've read all the square corner tricks, but my bc is usually too soft to get the corners really sharp.

[quote="k8memphis"]Right before you smooth your icing take a coupler only size piping bag and pipe a big fat juicy stream of icing up each corner--this gives you more icing than you need -- and then you can smooth off the excess and reveal the pretty and sharp corner awaiting discovery.
quote]

Do you have a pic of this?? are you piping the big fat juicy stream of icing on only the corners or all the way around??

I'm in Texas with no place to buy Sweetex and I think it is already too hot to have it shipped, so I'm pretty much stuck with store brand trans-fat shortening. Unless it is an outside event (like the wedding last weekend - BAD ), I use half butter and half shortening. I'm doing another square wedding cake in July, so I'll keep practicing until then.

Also, make sure you have really square-edged pans like Magic Line. I recently bought a set of Magic Line pans and I was giddy the first time I baked with them. I have never seen cake edges so sharp!

If you are covering a square cake with fondant, do you find that the really sharp corners (Magic Line) are harder to cover? I don't "do" fondant, but I am doing a square wedding cake in July that I will have to cover. I want to make this as easy as I can.

Thanks!

If you look in my pictures at the Gerber Daisies cake you can see how the Magic Line looks under fondant. It was my first time doing a square cake in fondant and I found it really easy.

Great picture by the way, Jamie!

Thanks, cherrycakes. Great cake!

Yes, Jamie, thanks so much for posting that photo. It really shows the difference in the pans. I thought I was about through buying cake pans, but I guess I'd better start saving my money again!

Where do people buy their Magic Line pans? I have to get at least one size (maybe two) for this wedding, but I'm not sure I want to try tiers with Wilton and tiers with Magic Line. If I can't afford to get all of the ML, I may have to stick with my Wilton for this one.

Thanks!

I also recommend sugarshack's DVD "Perfecting The Art of Butter Cream" www.sugaredproductions.com She shows step by step how to get perfectly smooth cakes and very square corners. Her DVDs are inexpensive and are money well spent.

any cake you ice, whether fondant, buttercream, imbc, smbc,etc. is only as sharp as you know how to do them.. making corners , sharp.. or edge of cake sharp.. even on round cakes,etc.. practice and using the right tools define all this.. sharons dvd's and jennifer dontz dvd's prove this. if you don,t know how to sharpen the edges or corners with your icing.. then , they won,t be sharp .. no matter what pan you use.. hth

I recently did a square cake. I added extra icing on the corners as k8memphis suggested. I also did another tip that I picked up from CC (I think it's from indydebi) and used a bench scraper starting beyond the cake and bringing it forward to form the corner. This way I was far enough away from the cake to just make the corner out of icing.
HTH

I noticed you are in Texas. Cake Carousel in Richardson carries ML pans and they will ship them to you.

Here's something real important--if you bake in a rounded edge pan there's no worries. Fill your cake as usual--then I mean I get mine nice & cold then I shave/trim the edges for all my cakes. It makes such a great difference when icing any shape cake.

Most easily icing conforms to the shape of the cake under it. More difficult it is to hide the imperfections of the cake underneath the icing and create a new smooth surface with the icing- independent of the true surface of the cake-- yes?

But nice sharp corners do need a carefully calculated amount of icing built up like I suggest here upthread. The biggest problem doing good edges or corners on any cake is not enough build up of icing. If there's not enough icing there in the first place --you cannot remoive it and smooth it away to reveal a pretty edge. Think like a sculptor.

So anyhow, just an icing/shaving thought for you.
This episode of how K8t Duzit is brought to you by Nair.

Another thing I really rely on, is foam core for a cake base. I mean, instead of cardboard, I cut a foam core slightly larger that the square cake, and gives a nice big edge for the bench scraper to guide along when icing....helps immensely. That and Magic Line....which are awesome.

k8, I hate to sound like a dummy here, but I'm going to ask anyway. When you shave/trim the edges, do you take off the whole side of the cake from corner to corner? Do you use a knife or is there a special tool to make sure it is straight up and down? This sounds great to me - I've tried the making it square with buttercream and it just hasn't worked.

Thanks.

K8 made a point I almost always forget to emphasize. You are building icing up, putting more on than is necessary (me anyhow), and "sculpting" the excess off to revel your final product.