Icing Smooth Surfaces, And How Far In Advance
Decorating By harpreet0311 Updated 28 Feb 2007 , 2:32am by sun33082
Good morning from Turkey! This is my first post although I have been a member for a year now...I have been browsing the forums tonight getting excited about making my daughter's birthday cake, for the second time, this year. I taught myself to decorate cakes last year out of necessity, since my family lives on an Air Force Base in southern Turkey and there just aren't any bakeries around
. I made her a 3D pooh last year on a two layer choolate 12 inch round, which I frosted with stars to look like flowers and grass. It turned out great so I am doing her cake again this year. Our BX on base sellsno cake making supplies so baking a cake means months of prepping in advance, shopping on ebay and placing orders with my sister...anyway I'll get to the point.
On Saturday we are having a big party for her 3rd birthday, and we expect about 50 or 60 guests (it's also a farewell for my husband who's going to the desert for a year soon). I am doing a Scooby theme, ad will have cupcakes with Scooby picks, and the Scooby hamburger cake on a 11 by 15 sheet cake. I am pretty confident in my ability to do Scooby and the cupcakes, but I am not so confident in my ability to ice the top f the sheet cake smooht. I got the Wilton large icing tip, but forgot to order a large enough bag for it to go in. I tried to improvise and snipped a freezer bag, which works for my smaller tips, but the tip just fell out. I have a small spatula but I have never done smooth icing. is it incredibly difficult? Should I use the paper towel method? Or should I just scrap the smooth icing and do stars on the sheet cake? I don't really want to do stars because the whole Scooby cake is stars and I think that might be overload...it worked on pooh since he was 3d and looked like he was sitting in a field.
Also, the party is Saturday but since we have invited everyone we now apparently, I have toms of work to do...is Wednesday too soon to start the cake? I do not want to freeze it, but could I bake it tomorrow and do a crumb coat, then decorate it Thursday? I know these are basic questions but I appreciate any advice.
Thanks in advance and sorry I ended up writing a novel.
You can bake the ake on Wednesday, wrap it compeletely in plastic wrap before it cools, and it will seal the cake for a day or two. You can leave it out or put it in the fridge. I wouldn't just crumb coat and refridgerate, because it could still dry out.
As far as smooth icing, I would use the paper towel method or even better, the Melvira method if you can get a roller.
Hope this helps
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