Questions: Decorating Character Cakes And Crumb Frosting?
Decorating By sarb21 Updated 23 Jun 2006 , 2:27pm by Molly2
I had thought I saw a topic on this and I can't find it so I will ask again. I am going to make the blues clues cake for my daughters birthday. In the post (I thought I saw) something was said about crumb frosting?? What is that and what is the easist way to go about decorating a character cake. Should I buy that 3 star tip??? Any suggestions and help would be appreciated!!
Do you mean crumb coating? That is doing a thin layer of icing first, letting it "crust" so that all the crumbs are captured and won't pull into your icing. Then you add your nice layer or decorate. For a character cake, the star tip might be the easiest way to start out. Good luck!!!
Do you mean crumb coating? That is doing a thin layer of icing first, letting it "crust" so that all the crumbs are captured and won't pull into your icing. Then you add your nice layer or decorate. For a character cake, the star tip might be the easiest way to start out. Good luck!!!
Yeah that is what I meant, crumb coating. If I put a thin layer on the cake then how will I see the outline to decorate the cake????
Just make sure the crumb coat has time to crust/dry before you do the decorating. Hope to see your cake posted soon! 
You don't really have to crumb coat a character cake. I never have and it still works great for icing. You just have to remember to ice the "background" areas on the top of the cake that won't require the star tip. Also remember to ice the sides of the cake before the doing the top and do the outlines on the top before you do the star tip.
I was never a really big fan of the star tip method on character cakes myself. I use the round tips. outline and fill in then brush smooth and press flat. I have several of them in my gallery for examples of how it looks, but it's another alternative to the stars (which kill my carpal tunnel to do-which is partly why I started doing them the way I do).
If you're covering the majority of the cake using the star tip, you don't have to crumb coat it. The stars should seal the cake as long as they're close enough together and there's no bare cake showing. What I usually do is ice the sides and any other areas that need to be smooth; do a quick outline of the design with a #2 or #3 tip, and then fill in with stars. The 3 star tip is a big timesaver and great if you really hate doing stars like I do!!
I was never a really big fan of the star tip method on character cakes myself. I use the round tips. outline and fill in then brush smooth and press flat. I have several of them in my gallery for examples of how it looks, but it's another alternative to the stars (which kill my carpal tunnel to do-which is partly why I started doing them the way I do).
Great tip SheilaF! thanks. I love your cakes btw...especially the little dolphins on your sea cake, lol.
Well I have done 2 character cakes and did it both ways, the first not crumb coated. I was afraid that I would loose the lines and details and not be able to see where I was supposed to decorate. Well I could hardly see the lines anyway! I think a lot of detail doesnt come out anyhow. I just had to look at the picture, and I did the best I could. I did have a problem with the black icing (which was chocolate) not wanting to "stick" to the cake. I was very frustrated, but the other colors were fine. It probably would have stuck if I had crumb coated in. It did come out pretty good though. The 2nd cake I did I decided to crumb coat. The advantage was that I was able to "draw" on the outlines with a toothpick before I started to use the star tip. I'd say that I would crumb coat from now on seeing that I couldnt see the outlines anyway.
I have never crumb coated a cake, but when I do my cakes I use the star for everything from background to the actual design. I did one with the smooth background and found that my kids didn't like it as much as total stars. My oldest said that it looked "cooler" with all stars. The way that you do the cake isn't as important to your kids as the fact that you did a really cool cake instead of buying one.
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