I keep reading posts about it, but don't know what it is...

A crumb coat is a thin coat (it's Ok if you see cake through it) you put on the cake before doing the final icing coat. It helps seal the cake and crumbs so that when you apply your final coat there are no crumbs in it. Some people crumb coat the cakes and then freeze and say that because they're sealed they are kept really fresh for when they're ready to decorate them. You also use it under fondant, as the gluing agent, or before you do the basketweave. I usually don't crumb coat my cakes unless I cover them in fondant or do the basketweave but I can see the benefits of it.

Hope this helps.

Inma

Inma ~

Do they then decorate a frozen cake or let it thaw?

Thanks!

Tracey

Tracey,

I believe they let it thaw but I have never done it so maybe someone with more experience could let you know for sure. I assume that you would want it mostly thawed so that all the condensation of water disappears before you add the new frosting to it. I do know, though, that if you're sculpting a cake it works better if you don't thaw it too much since it will help you carve it without having too many crumbs.

Inma

Oh so it is a thin coat of icing. I always thought it was simple syrup brushed over...

A thin coat of thinned icing. You can actually thin your icing a little more than what you use to ice your cake, it makes it even eaisier to spread and is not really stickier but works like it is.

A crumb coating is something I can't live without...unless you want to be picking a million crumbs out of your icing.

You can use apricot glaze, I thin it down, as a crumbcoat or a sugar simple syrup but you do not soak your cake. These are also called crumbcoats because they seal in the crumbs.
Apricot glaze is normally pure apricot jam that you heat to boil for about 5 minutes, remove and sieve so that you remove any bits of pulp and such and use hot on your cake. You can crumbcoat with the glaze on a hot or cool cake but with buttercream crumbcoats you must wait until the cake is cooled.
I think down the apricot jam by measuring how much jam there is say, 2 cups, then adding half that amount in water, so 1 cup and bring it to a boil, boiling 5 minutes. Then sieve and refrigerate until needed. I then reheat usually about 1/4 cup in a pyrex custard cup in the microwave for around 40 seconds or until it comes to a boil. Use a pastry brush to brush on sparingly. Let cake and glaze cool and then wrap and freeze or ice.
Hugs Squirrelly

So if you were to crumb coat a chocolate cake that you intend to frost with ganache... would you be able to crumb coat with ganache also?

I haven't tried that one but I think it would work, or a thinned raspberry jam ( no seeds ) would be good

Oh that sounds good too! Thanks!

I always had trouble with my cake "lifting" and crumbs getting all into my frosting when I frosted a cake. My teacher of my cake decorating class taught us the trick of first doing a crumb coat, putting in fridge or freezer just until the BC crusts and then finishing the frosting. I cannot live without it. It has made such a difference! Your cakes should be thawed when decorating. Once, I decorated a cake, due to time constraints, when it was not completely thawed. It started to sweat and some of my colored decorations started to "bleed" down the sides. Not pretty.