Hi. I'm REALLY new at this cake decorating stuff. One day, I want to be great, but for now, I need a lot of practice. My iguana cake (see my gallery since I just uploaded it) I did last night was my first FBCT. I need to practice my shells. Also, I wasn't too happy with the taste of the BC. I used the "Buttercream Icing" recipe on here. I liked how it tasted with closer to 3 cups of powdered sugar, but thought I had to add the 4th becuz the recipe said so. I think next time, I'll stick w/ just 3. I used a cake mix (I wouldn't normally do this, but I wanted to concentrate on my FBCT most) and my family said it tasted almost banana-y for some reason, even though it was a white cake mix from betty croker. Any suggestions or feedback (be honest!) would be appreciated. I am doing my sister's graduation cake next weekend and need MAJOR improvement by then or I'm going to embarrass myself!! Thanks!
Not sure what kind of feedback you want as presumably the graduation cake will be very different? In this cake the lizard looks good. The buttercream could do with more smoothing - but I don't work with buttecream so I wouldn't have any wonderful suggestions of how to acheive this - but I'm sure lots more people do. Cake decorating is rewarding right from the start as people are always amazed by any cake - no matter how 'bad' it looks to you, it will always be better than most people ever see on a cake. Enjoy yourself and try one new thing per cake (any more than one and you may be in for stress!)
Another way to make the top smooth is to do the entire top of the cake as a FBCT. Your design then doesn't stand out and is just one smooth top.
Melissa
Here is a link to the melvira method=) Definately try it, everyone raves at how smooth they can get their BC with it! Jen
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-49423-melvira.html+tutorial
I think your FBTC looks great! Smooth icing comes with lots and lots of practice. For me that has been one of the hardest things to achieve and I definitely haven't perfected it yet! Just keep practicing. For my BC icing I use 2lbs (8 cups 10x sugar), 2 sticks unsalted butter, 3/4 c. high ratio shortening, 2 tsp. vanilla, any other flavorings I might want to use, and enough heavy cream to give me the consistency I want. Enjoy making your sister's cake and don't stress over it. I'm sure it will be great.
Thanks a lot, everyone! I liked the suggestions. I think it would have looked better with a bigger iguana. And the icing definitely needs to be smoother. I was wondering why my FBCT was popping out and how to correct that. I never thought of doing the whole top as a FBCT. Wow.
I have a lot to learn!!
ok i am new to this but what is FBCT? I dont understand alot of these terms that are used on this site so i guess ill have to ask. Maybe an abbreviation list would help folks like me
I found these on the forum, and use them constantly! Maybe this will help
ACD = American Cake Decorating magazine
BC = Buttercream or Betty Crocker
BCT = frozen Buttercream Transfer
BF = Boy/Best Friend
BIL = Brother-In-Law
BTW = By The Way
BUMP = Bring Up My Post or Bump Up My Post
CC = Cake Central
CCC = Cupcake Cake
CMD = Cake Mix Doctor
CT = Chocolate Transfer
DD = Dear Daughter/Dad
DF = Dear Father/Friend
DH = Dear Husband or Duncan Hines
DM = Dear Mother
DOS = Day of Sharing
DS = Dear Son/Sister
DW = Dear Wife
FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions
FBCT = Frozen Buttercream Transfer
FIL = Father-In-Law
GFY = Good For You
GMT = Greenwich Mean Time
GP = Gum Paste
HTH = Hope That Helps
ICES = The International Cake Exploration Societe'
IMBC = Italian Meringue Buttercream
IMHO = In My Humble Opinion
IMO = In My Opinion
ISO = In Search Of
JMO = Just My Opinion
KA = KitchenAid Mixer
KK = Kopykake
LOL = Laughing Out Loud
MBN = Mailbox News magazine
MIL = Mother-In-Law
MMF = Marshmallow Fondant
MOB = Mother of the Bride
MOG = Mother of the Groom
NFSC = No Fail Sugar Cookies
OP = Opening Post or Poster
OT = Off Topic
PM = Private Message
PS = Powdered Sugar
RBC = Rolled Buttercream
RCT = Rice Crispie Treats
RI = Royal Icing
RKT = Rice Krispie Treats
ROFL = Rolling On Floor Laughing
ROFLMAO = Rolling On Floor Laughing My A** Off
SIL = Sister/Son-In-Law
SMBC = Swiss Meringue Buttercream
TIA = Thanks In Advance
TY = Thank You
WASC = White Almond Sour Cream Cake
WBH = The Whimsical Bakehouse
WMI = Wilton Method Instructor
WTG = Way To Go
YB = Yearbook (Wilton)
I think you did a great job! Even the pros are still practicing and trying to "perfect" things. Be patient with yourself and make a batch of buttercream to practice with. Practice a differnent technique everyday with it and you can use anything to practice on. Take some boxes, wrap in plastic wrap and there you have it, a cake dummy. Your off to a great start!
Thank you lchristi27. that helps a bunch. Had me all confused w/these abbreviations..lol
Looks good! Just a note that if you do decide to reduce the amount of powdered sugar in your recipe it may not crust. It really helps to use a crusting buttercream for smoothing.
I agree your FBCT looks great, I never thought of making one as large as the cake to minimize problems, that's a great idea. thanks berryblondeboys for the idea.
Like everyone said, practice is key, if you check out peoples pages you will notice from their first cake the improvement on each cake, so just keep on practicing.
Also, dont forget the cake plate or cake board, I often do or think of it once I have to set the cake and I am runing around trying to figure out what I will do, a few times that has back fired! Now I try and think of it as I design the cake and make sure I have everything I need. If you want something special, picking up cake board paper is good for special cakes, it's a little more expensive, but presentations is great.
You did great, keep it up.
Good luck on the graduation cake.
I think your iguana is adorable! You might want to try to get your buttercream a little smoother. I've tried the methods that everyone talks about on here, but sometimes, I just use some parchment paper and smooth it out my rubbing my hand over he paper--the heat from my hand makes the buttercream smooth--as long as it hasn't crusted to hard!
Thanks again, guys. This was just a practice cake to try out the FBCT and the buttercream recipe itself. It was just for family, so I didn't embarrass myself totally!
I wanted to try the Melvira method but I still have to get the foam roller for that. That will make a big difference in the final look.
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