I am fairly new to this industry, and I am noticing that once I started selling my cake creations, that I am experiencing icing issues like I never did when I iced a cake at home. My main problem is the icing in the middle squishes out when I apply the top layer and apply the finishing layer of buttercream. Fondant makes it worse. My icing and cakes are room temperature. I have even cut back on the amount of icing I put in the middle, but nothing works. If I cut back on the icing, it will be all cake, no icing. I have even scraped off the excess, but it never ends! It is starting to cut into my profit because I am constantly having to remake cakes, fondant, and icing. Please help!
You should cool the cakes after they are filled. Put them in the fridge for a while before you ice the rest and apply fondant to cold cakes.
There is another thread about this same issue. I saw it just a few minutes ago.
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=633571&highlight=
Read this post, it is ling but might be helpful.
Good Luck
Make sure you use a good stiff dam to hold the filling in. Then chill it and you shouldn't have any problems.
Thanks so much! So let me get this right. I need thicker buttercream to ice with, chill cake, and then layer with second layer? Or do I layer then chill? I read that link, and that was amazing. I would be horrified that the tile would smash cake onto my countertops! I would cry, but my dog would be happy, lol
laceylace_2004 wrote:
My main problem is the icing in the middle squishes out...
If I cut back on the icing, it will be all cake, no icing.
Why did you quote this? Am I missing something?
Use a stiff icing to create a dam in which you will put your filling. The dam should be stiff enough so that you can mold it with your fingers. It will still pipe through a coupler or round tip no problem. You just have to squeeze really hard. After it's filled, you can either chill it or not. I don't usually chill cakes unless I have a perishable filling. The chilling is just to help you apply the fondant more smoothly, especially if you use a full layer of BC under the fondant. If your filling is just buttercream, then you can probably let it sit at room temperature. You also don't have to let it settle if your dam is stiff enough. I have iced several cakes right away without letting them settle. The tie-dye cake in my pics was iced and assembled that morning. The bottom tier was a black forest cake with whipped cream and cherries for the filling. That is a very soft, loose filling and it stayed in because I used a crazy stiff dam.
So you have your bottom layer, pipe the dam and fill, then replace second layer. If you are doing cakes with more than two layers then you would obviously do that in between each layer. If it makes you feel better to settle the cake then you can put something heavy on top like a tile or cookbook. Then ice it as normal and cover it in fondant. Hope this helps.
I was referring to putting only a small amount of icing in the filling thinking I was using too much. I thought if I put less, then it wouldn't come out on the sides. If I used less icing for the filler, the icing would be nonexistent. Sorry for the confusion!
Thank y'all so much! I never heard of a stiff dam until today.
Lacey, I perfectly understood what you were asking, just not why CWR41 re-posted from your post, LOL. Anyway, good luck!
Yes, I quoted the OP.
Around here, we don't refer to spreading "icing in the middle" as "filling", nor using a filling which requires a dam. (Just thought "filling" didn't apply to the question, when the OP was asking about icing in the title and the post.)
Anything sandwiched between cake layers is filling, and that goes for most decorators that I know. The dam would be used regardless of what that filling is. I have actually had a bulge occur even when using BC in between the layers if I don't use a dam. The strange thing is that I have only experienced any bulging using American buttercream recipes.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%