Help- My The Frosting Is Melting Off My Cake

Decorating By shannonlolly Updated 15 Aug 2011 , 3:59pm by esangston

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shannonlolly Posted 14 Aug 2011 , 5:32am
post #1 of 10

To refrigerate or not to refrigerate...? I live it northern CA where is it warm weather right now. I keep reading not to refrigerate cakes, but I've been afraid. I've also noticed my cakes sweat when they come out of the fridge so I had planned to keep this one at room temp. But that did not work out well for me... icon_cry.gif

So here is what I did:
As for my frosting:
I've been using serious cakes buttercream recipe and it has 22tsp butter and 2/3cup shortening for a 2lb bag of powdered sugar. I used half-n-half this time instead of cream. Tasted better I thought.
I had a hard time getting my layers not to show through, so I had to apply several coats of frosting to the sides. I put the cake in the fridge after frosting and before decorating. Everything was fine when I started all my damask design. Then I put it in a box and went out for a few hours. When I came back it was buldging and it kind of looks like the frosting is sliding off. I repaired what I could and finished the cake. Stuck it in the fridge and told my friend to just take it out 1hr before serving.

Help- I want to learn from this disaster so it doesn't happen again

9 replies
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caymancake Posted 14 Aug 2011 , 5:47am
post #2 of 10

Try increasing the shortening and reducing the butter. I live in the Caribbean and I use quite a bit of shortening for my icing recipes...helps a lot with the heat factor! Hope that helps!

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shannonlolly Posted 14 Aug 2011 , 5:51am
post #3 of 10

On my next project I'll try a new recipe for frosting but what about refrigeration?

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bcake1960 Posted 14 Aug 2011 , 5:59am
post #4 of 10

Shannonlolly... I live in Northern CA as well .. Give Sugarshacks Recipe a try.. it is great and I have no problem with it .. the recipe is here on CC. Good luck.. icon_smile.gif

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MacsMom Posted 14 Aug 2011 , 6:00am
post #5 of 10

I live in central CA where it is frequently above 100. I use all shortening and add butter flavoring, and I use vanilla coffee creamer instead of milk. Key to hot weather: Add cornstarch: 2 tbls to 1/4 cup.

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shannonlolly Posted 15 Aug 2011 , 1:08pm
post #6 of 10

Should I refrigerate my cakes at all? I have been and then they sweat.

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AnnieCahill Posted 15 Aug 2011 , 1:11pm
post #7 of 10

Increase the shortening to butter ratio. The exact same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago (I live in northern VA) and it was like putting soft serve onto my cake. I eventually ended up using more shortening than butter and it was fine and I did not refrigerate.

You don't have to refrigerate, but if you do, then just let the cake get sweaty and hopefully it will evaporate. There is nothing more you can really do.

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LindaF144a Posted 15 Aug 2011 , 1:21pm
post #8 of 10

No one is addressing the bulge. You did not let the cake settle before frosting. Look on here for Leah's tip of setting a light weight onto the top of the cake for an hour before frosting.

Here is something I do in my shop. I cut each layer in half and frost between those layers also. I then have four layers of cake and three layers of frosting. The weight of the cake is now dispersed between several layers of frosting and there is no bulge. The one time I did frost a cake only single layer at a customer's request I got the bulge. it was easy to fix before frosting, but it just proved my theory of dispersing the weight. So it you want to avoid the bulge, try this trick too.

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MacsMom Posted 15 Aug 2011 , 3:39pm
post #9 of 10
Quote:
Originally Posted by LindaF144a

No one is addressing the bulge. You did not let the cake settle before frosting. Look on here for Leah's tip of setting a light weight onto the top of the cake for an hour before frosting.

Here is something I do in my shop. I cut each layer in half and frost between those layers also. I then have four layers of cake and three layers of frosting. The weight of the cake is now dispersed between several layers of frosting and there is no bulge. The one time I did frost a cake only single layer at a customer's request I got the bulge. it was easy to fix before frosting, but it just proved my theory of dispersing the weight. So it you want to avoid the bulge, try this trick too.




Awesome, thanks for the tips!

Yes, anything formt he fridge develops condensation... But it dries within 2 hours (depending on humidity). Only twice it took too long to dry because it was raining, so I used a hairdryer on my cake and it worked wonderfully.

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esangston Posted 15 Aug 2011 , 3:59pm
post #10 of 10

I only put my cake in the fridge when I use a filling that requires it... My buttercream is all shortening with butter flavor and it's pretty great... I use wiltons recipe with a few alterations... I live in ga so heat has never been an issue... I also cut my tiers in half... Also make sure you don't put too much filling inside and you use a ring of buttercream to contain fillings.

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