I Never Knew It Was This Hard..
Decorating By sassycgirl Updated 17 Oct 2006 , 8:31am by Iloveweddings
I have posted several time over the last week as I am new to cake decorating and just taking Wilton I.... I have played around with cakes and icing for about the last week and ohhh something always goes wrong..
Last night I tired to bake and base coat my cake for class tomorrow night and wow.. Everything went wrong... I tired to do a devils food cake with pudding in the middle.. (So scared its going to run out still even thought I damn'd it) I tried to mix my colors for class and not one of the is dark enough.... Tried to base coat my cake and got crumbs everywhere, icing did not crust and I ran out of icing... Ohhh... I dont know if I can do this... Its alot harder than I thought.. I am so worried my cake is going to be the ugly duck tomorrow night in class..... 
take a deep breath and you will be fine.....once you get more used to it you will be able to know how much icing to make for what size cakes........also if you crumb coat by putting a thin coat of icing on your cake and then pop it in the fridge for 20 min. or so then the final layer of icing will go on nicely and won't pick up any crumbs. Also you need a medium to thin consistency to ice the cake........if you try to ice it with icing that's too stiff it will just pick up crumbs regardless of what you do.
Practice, practice, practice. Start with a piece of styrofoam 4" high and 8" around. Cover with self-sealing plastic wrap. And just keep doing it over and over. Break your practice down to little bits - one skill at a time. Start with base coating your cakes. You can practice color too - by tinting your basecoat buttercream. Then move on to the next thing.
Borders has an awesome book for $9.99 - Essential Guide to Cake Decorating. It breaks things down step by step - and has AWESOME photos! 
Oh, and one more piece of advice - keep your cakes basic (yellow, chocolate, etc) with no fancy fillings and oozing pudding - until you get the hang of it.
Are you trimming the domes off the top of your cakes? That helps too!
You'll do fine! PM me if you want more help, okay?
Thanks for the replys... I do have one question... Could I stick it in the freeze and then add another coat of icing and see if it goes on smoother???
Yes, but the fridge would work also. If the cake is too cold the second coat of icing may fall off. Just let it sit for awhile (30 min works) then do another coat of icing that is thin. Chocolate cake is one of the hardest cake for beginners to master. And can still be hard for oldies like me.... 
Borders has an awesome book for $9.99 - Essential Guide to Cake Decorating. It breaks things down step by step - and has AWESOME photos!
Hi--Do you know the author of that book? I found 3 or 4 on Amazon with the same title. Borders has one but it's $34.95 in hardback! Thanks!
Sandra
(a newbie)
LEt's be honest, Wilton class buttercream is not the easiest frosting to use when icing a cake. If you add a little extra shortening or use half butter/half shortening, your frosting will be a little more slippery and easier to us.
Of course, the ultimate icing tool which should have been demonstrated in your class is the cake icing tip #789. NO crumbs if you use this.
7yyrt,
Who is the publisher? I can track it down that way. Weird that there's no author listed.
i agree with the icing recipe.....i always use 50/50 butter/crisco and it crusts awesome! and i use corn syrup to thin for spreading.....keep practicing! i think we've all had moments where we wanted to give up 
If you are not doing roses then add more milk. I have arthritis and can't do stiff BC very well. I always double the recipe with one bag of good powder sugar, 3 teaspoons of flavoring, 2 tablespoons of meringue, 2 cups Crisco and 6 tablespoons of milk.
I use that icing tip and it works great.
Any chocolate cake and I get crumbs, I use a big pastry brush to brush the plate otherwise I lay a THICK LAYER of BC frosting and then semi-smooth it with a cake knife filling in the spots using hot water to heat up the cake knife then wiping with a paper towel. Then I start removing some layers with a paint edger from the hardware store. Some people are swearing by the sponge paint brush and I have not tried it but swear by VIVA paper towel after it has sat for a while.
I have had nothing but trouble with any cake with a pudding middle. Dont know what others do to stabilize it, so I always use fruit filling with a BC dam or just use straight BC.
One other thing, bake one day, crumb coat the next day and then on the third decorate. Things work better after they rest for some reason.
Good luck! And remember to breathe cuz you are doing this for fun right!
It'll get a lot easier - I remember when I did Wilton I - and I couldn't get my icing right and so many other things, but I stuck with it and 3 months later I was making my brothers graduation cake and my sister-in-laws were watching and they were amazed at how quickly I could apply the icing and how smooth it looked and as they said this I realized how easy it had become and I was very proud of myself. So keep at it - it'll get easier.
This is the book - http://www.kitchenkrafts.com/product.asp?pn=BK2369&bhcd2=1160624886
And I paid $9.95 for it at Borders. KitchenKrafts has it for double that price.
That Amazon one looks interesting...
I also have that book, and I love it. It's very helpful with tools, troubleshooting and ideas. There are some cute cakes in there.
Excuse me for butting in on this, but I did a chocolate cake last week (yes, I know choc. is the pits when it comes to crumbs), but someone mentioned baking it one day and letting it rest till the next..... question... I did this but put the unfrosted cake in my Wilton cake taker. The next day when I went to frost it, found that the cake was extremely soft, meaning, hard to frost. Somehow I think I should have done a crumb coat on it the first day and THEN left it out till the next day. Should I have not put it in the container? What is the best way to do this? Crumb coat? Covered carrier? Frosted, not frosted? Frig? Thanks in advance!
vickymacd,
Yeppers I am one of the ones that said let the cake rest overnight, but I also stated that I use - - - soft BC - - - because of my arthritis. Using it soft is one of the keys and will not tear apart your cake.
Did you also use the icing tip? And did you apply it thick and fill in the gaps? If so, when you use the kitchen bench knife or paint edger you should be removing the icing easily if you did. And you will get a pretty smooth finish ready for the final VIVA paper towel method. Appling thick also eliminates crumbs.
It's when I got the idea of removing the frosting that I finally figured out how to get smooth cakes. We can't be stingy applying the frosting. So go thick!
Hope that helps! PM me if you want more direction.
Excuse me for butting in on this, but I did a chocolate cake last week (yes, I know choc. is the pits when it comes to crumbs), but someone mentioned baking it one day and letting it rest till the next..... question... I did this but put the unfrosted cake in my Wilton cake taker. The next day when I went to frost it, found that the cake was extremely soft, meaning, hard to frost. Somehow I think I should have done a crumb coat on it the first day and THEN left it out till the next day. Should I have not put it in the container? What is the best way to do this? Crumb coat? Covered carrier? Frosted, not frosted? Frig? Thanks in advance!
I leave it on a cakeboard in a oven that is turned off. If you put in in a sealed container the moisture can condense and have a soggy cake.
Hi. I am new myself. I know little but have learned one thing, I found that the cake made with the extender recipe is much easier to frost. A lot less crumbs. It has saved me some serious frustration.
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