I have made about 4 cakes now since I started decorating. The first one I did I used Wilton's chocolate buttercream and smoothed in using the viva method. It worked wonderful and the cake was super smooth with no crumbs. Well the 3 cakes I've done since have had crumbs. I do a crumb layer but then I dont have enough frosting for the other layer. THe cake I made today I made a batch, used it for a the crumb layer then made another half of a batch that was much thinner. It spread wonderfully with no crumbs but then it was so smooth it didn't crust! Is there any way to fix this or do you have any tips?

How thick is the crumb coat you are putting on the cake? You just want a very thin layer of icing, that you can see thru, for the crumb coat. You should have plenty of icing to ice the cake even with a crumb coat, I would think. Are you using a hlf butter, half crisco icing? Maybe you thinned it too much for your final coat of icing. Hope this helps.


Cindy

Yes it's half butter half shortening. It seems like if I don't put a thick enough crumb coat on, the cake pulls up in patches and gets a ton of crumbs.

How long are you waiting in between the crumb coat and the final layer? Maybe let the crumb coat sit a little longer? Maybe even try putting the crumb coated cake in the fridge to help with the final layer of icing...? Just some thoughts...

HTH's!!

Karen

Don't give up - you'll get the feel for icing a cake. You'll know the right consistency, how long to wait before the next layer, etc. It's all about giving it another try .