I have been trying to make cakes that don't crumble when I frost them or crumb coat them and I cannot seem to find a recipe that works. I could really use some help.

Can we see the recipe your using. Are you greesing you cake pans real good?And exactly what do you mean by "crumble"? Do they fall apart or just get a lot of crumbs?

I've used this recipe

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/1977/cake-mix-extender

regular box mix, and a scratch cake recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup milk
  
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
Directions:
1.   Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9x13 inch pan. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
2.   In a large bowl, cream sugar and shortening until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating just to combine. finally, stir in vanilla. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3.   Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

I grease the pans with baking spray that has flour in it. It works really well.
It seems when ever I start frosting my cakes they tear and get lots of crumbs as soon as I touch them with the frosting.

Is there a step I may be missing? Should I freeze them first?

I see why it's dry. It's a crap recipe. First do you like the shortening instead of butter?

You need to increase your liquids. Go a 1/4 C more on the milk, and sugar. That should help a lot. Add your vanilla to your milk. No reason to add extra mixing time. You can even add another egg if you wish.

Mike

Thanks Mike. Is that good for carving too? I really like to do the carved cakes, but as you can imagine they are hard to make with a cake that crumbles.

Thank you. I have been so frustrated by this.

Ok. I missed answering one of you questions though. I don't like to use shortening for cakes or frosting. It just seems wrong to me. I usually use butter. I just put the recipe as written.

Just saw this again and oh yeah, that is a crap recipe. Good luck with the new one.

Re: it being a crap recipe (and I'm not saying it's not... I don't have nearly enough baking experience to analyse it)...

I went to the recipe itself and it's reviews are at 9.0 out of 10 with 139 reviewers.

Granted, that's nothing like WASC, but I wonder how so many are getting good results with it. Maybe it's a humidity or altitude thing?

- Leisel

It might have also been raining when those 9 baked it.

Mike

Just to give an idea of scratch baking. You use shortening in pie crust to achieve a flaky crust, not a desired effect in cakes. I can see how suing shortening would make it crumbly where as butter will get that fine crumb. Now butter in pie crust has a good flavor, but does not benefit the texture at all.

Thanks everyone. I am looking forward to trying this out. I appreciate all the help.