Hi

This is my first ever post and am nervous!!

I would like to make my dad a cake for father's day. Can someone please confirm in which order I am suppose to do things. Firstly & obviously I bake a cake. The only one I can bake at the moment is a Madeira cake. Is it after it has cooled down, I level it and fill it in the middle with buttercream. Then how long do I wait for until I put sugarpaste on it? Also, in between putting on buttercream and sugarpaste, where do I keep the cake - fridge? Also, if I start on the cake this weekend, will it be ok until next week?

I usually fill and frost at the same time. After that, you need to wait at least fifteen minutes for your frosting to crust, if you're using a crusting frosting, or put it in the fridge until it hardens up otherwise. Then you can add your decorations.

I woul definitely NOT do a cake this weekend for next weekend. I would wait until Thursday or Friday at the EARLIEST. Otherwise, the cake will go stale for sure and possibly start growing unfriendly visitors.

The earliest I make my cakes is on Thursday if they are for Saturday. I make other things earlier so they are ready (buttercream, chocolate decorations, fondant), but not the cake. It's either going to get stale or worse, like varika said "start growing unfriendly visitors". Then you would have to start all over, you'd be upset and stressed and mad and you wouldn't enjoy making your cake.

welcome to cc, first and foremost!!! it's a great place to be and a wonderful place to learn! i started caking 3 years ago, am self taught mostly from cc, and now am earning top dollar in my area, so i have nothing to say but good things for this helpful community!

the typical order of things is to:

bake when you have time; when it's fully cooled, double wrap with saran and then two layers also of aluminum foil. put it in the freezer until the time you need it...not only does this let you bake on YOUR schedule instead of being rushed at the last minute, but also gives the cake a chance to settle and become a bit denser. trust me, it will hold up much better to carving or stacking if you do this. KEEP IN MIND THAT FROZEN IS NOT THE OPPOSITE OF FRESH...STALE IS. IF YOU TAKE THE STEPS TO FREEZE PROPERLY, THE CAKE WILL ACTUALLY BE MOISTER ONCE THAWED OUT, SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN!!!

the day before the cake is needed should be your decorating day. take the cakes out of the freezer early morning or even the night before, and let them come to room temp, still in their wrapping. this will make them reabsorb the moisture. when room temp, remove wraps and "torte" them, which means horizontally cutting them into however many layers you need.

make a stiff dam of the icing of your choice around the outside perimeter of the cake, and then fill in the middle with a little thinner consistency of the icing..still thick but not unspreadable with a spatula. keep making these layers of cake/filling/cake until all cakes are filled and iced.

place each cake on it's own cake board, put on top of a turntable, and use your offset spatulas to ice the sides...this will be your crumbcoat to hold down the crumbs and keep them out of your final coat of icing. i have found that i personally work best using hot spatulas wiped dry to smooth put on my crumbcoat, since it really helps with the "lifting" of the icing. use a large amount of icing, and then go back and take the excess off bit by bit, until you only have a thin layer of icing holding down the crumbs...a paint scraper/bench scraper works great for this!!

once crumb coat has been applied, put the cakes back in the freezer for 10 -15 minutes to firm up the icing...you don't have to wrap the cakes since they're only in there for a few minutes.

after appropriate amt of time, take back out and put another final coat of icing over crumbcoat...you're now ready for fondant!!!

if doing this directly after your final coat of icing, you should be fine, but if icing has already crusted, you will need to mist with water to make it a bit tacky again and help the fondant stick. prepare fondant, (i personally use marshmallow) to the correct diameter you need to cover cake, and make sure to lightly flour or cornstarch it before moving to avoid sticking to itself; gently lift and lay over your cake. start smoothing from the top, pushing air bubbles out and down. if any should appear after you're done, simply make a small prick with a pen, and the bubble will disappear.


SIDE NOTE: if planning on stacking layers/cakes on top of each other, you can only go up 4-6 inches safely without using dowel rods to take the weight from above. common practice is to use as many dowels below as the inches of the cake above..for example, if i'm stacking a 8" on top of a 10", i would need to evenly space 8 dowels in the 10" cake to help support the weight of the 8" cake above.


I HOPE THIS HELPS! GOOD LUCK!
STAR

Thank you everyone for your replies. It's been a great help.

I think I'm going to enjoy being a member!!!

Don't be nervous! Everyone around here is great!

Welcome to Cake Central! Here's a list of acronyms to help you out.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-2926.html

You are going to love it here. I've only been a member for short time and these folks are the greatest. They are so helpful and supportive. I don't think I would even consider doing some of the things that I try if it wasn't for all the people here and their encouragement. Not necessarily to me, but just in general.

Good luck and enjoy making your cake.

I'm in my 40's and have never ever joined any forums/chat rooms etc., so didn't know what to expect. I'm keen on learning how to bake & decorate cakes and perhaps do it as a business. Hope I haven't left it too late!!! The cake courses here wont start until September now and thought I'd see how far I get myself, hence joining CC. From the helpful replies, I'm glad I've joined.

MixinVixen, good job with the explanation! I only have one question. If one is going to be covering a cake in fondant, then why bother putting a crumbcoat on before you ice? It's always been my understanding that a crumbcoat is there to prevent unsightly crumbs in your frosting, but if there's going to be fondant on top of that, then who cares?

Everyone does their cakes a little differently and I am no exception. I forgo the whole crumbcoat step and just apply my icing with a speed icer. Repeat after me, "Speed icers are my friend. They apply the correct amount of frosting for either a buttercream filling or the outer icing, and (hence the name) they make my icing speedy!" I learned caking with using a speed icer. I was shocked when I heard some people never use them. As I mentioned above, a speed icer applies the perfect amount of frosting so you don't even need to apply a crumbcoat. You just gotta be careful around the edges when you're smoothing it so as to not hit the cake, but we do that anyways.

Have fun! Check out the link in my siggy if you need to learn buttercream roses, or if you just wanna see a cool boarder!

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I have another best friend in the caking industry. It is called Glad Press n Seal plastic wrap. Wrapping cakes/cuppies to store in the freezer is so easy with this stuff!

what's a speed icer?

i like to crumbcoat before fondanting, cause it seems to give me one more layer of stability, kinda acts as spackling, and also seems to help keep the thicker 2nd layer from peeling off.