Hello,

I'm fairly new to doing cakes, and although I've done a lot for my own family, I'm doing my first large cake for a friend's son's birthday.

It's going to be a two large cake, and I wanted to do a crumb coat, which I've never done before. Do you just use the normal buttercream icing for that?

Thank you, I thought I had better ask, so I don't mess it up!

Natalie

I use IndyDebi's crusting buttercream for crumb coat, or ganache if I need very sharp edges.

Yes, I use what ever I am using to ice the cake in.

I used to crumb coat and when I did I used the same icing I frosted with. Recently I quit doing a crumb coat. I just put on a heavy coat of icing and I have no issues with the crumbs. Learned this from Sharon Zambito's DVD's. Less time and it works.

I haven't tried ganache as a crumb coat before, so I can't speak to that. I would love to try a white chocolate ganache crumb coat for a WASC cake.

I almost always use unflavored American Buttercream to crumb coat my cakes, even the ones that I ice with meringue buttercreams. After the crumb coat I put the cake in the fridge for a couple hours or in the freezer for 15-20 minutes and then put the final icing on and smooth with a hot spatula.