Hi,

I'm new to cake baking...have been making candies and cookies for some time but now that I am a new mom (I had my daughter in June) I want to try making more 'advanced' cakes. I usually use icing that is quite fluffy but I was wondering what kind of icing people use to make the hard, smooth finishes.

I am planning on doing a cake for my daughter's blessing in October and want to practice first. It's going to be a Autumn theme colored cake. I have a buttercream recipe for icing...do I use this? Any tips would be much welcomed.

Look forward to chatting with you all.

Casey

Welcome to Cake Central!!! You are correct about buttercream. Is your recipe half butter, half crisco?

There are several recipes on this site in the recipe section. You might want to try a couple of different versions to see which one you like best.

Cindy

Hi casey,
first of all , welcome to CC...
It's always good to meet new members. We are all very helpful here.
Congratulations on your new baby also.

Well, smooth icing to me always means Fondant. I am very much in favor of Marshmallow Fondant. I love the texture, the convenience, durability and the ease of it. You can make almost anything out of it.
I have here two photos that have an Autumn theme. I have posted this a few times, so to the others who have seen it a few times, I apologize..
thanks

Welcome! The hard smooth finish icing to which you refer is fondant. It is a type of "sugar dough" which is rolled out and layed on a cake. Instructions for applying fondant are found in cake decorating books or online. I don't use fondant a lot because in my area most people don't like it. When I DO use it I flavor it with tropical punch oil. I prefer the buttercream that uses Crisco and butter flavoring because you can make it as stiff as you would like for decorating and it smooths nicely if you allow it to "crust" first and then use either wax or parchment paper to smooth it.

My favorite is an all-shortening buttercream. 2 lbs confec. sugar, 1/2 cup water, 2 tsps vanilla, 2 cups shortening. There is nothing perishable in this, so it lasts a long time.