I Use Too Much Filling - What's The Trick?
Decorating By jessieb578 Updated 4 Oct 2007 , 1:06pm by jessieb578
OK, so I finally figured out that I use too much filling. I always use a damn Oops, 
dam before putting my icing in, but then I always seem to get that infamous ring around my cake! 
How do I ensure that there is enough filling, but not too much??
Maybe I'm too close too the edge also. Is 1 inch from the edge a good rule to start putting my icing? I always feel like there isn't going to be enough filling in there. Like the ratio of cake to filling is not going to be good
Help!!
I used to have this problem since I hate making dams for my filling. What I do is when I crumb coat, I fill in the gap with my BC. Or if I'm lazy, I just use an open coupler to ice my cakes, spread it out with my spatula, scrape off excess icing with bench scraper, then viva it. Also, letting the cake settle after crumb coating helps. HTH.
If you put an icing dam in about 1/2 inch, you should be fine...just make sure it is a STIFF dam, or the filling will make it break anyway. If you put your filling in and then place the other cake on top and let it just sit and settle for an hour or so, you should be able to see if you are going to have any problems.
I'm sort of confused. A dam isn't what causes the ring. I'm also pretty sure that too much icing isn't what is causing the ring. If I'm correct, are you talking about being able to see a ring after frosting the entire cake? If so, after layering, squish the cakes down to squeeze the icing slightly and fill in the outer edges with more icing using a tip to fill in the gap. Then ice the sides.
Here's a guide for amount of filling for different sized layers:
http://tinyurl.com/2gay6n
HTH
What I have started to do is put my damn on, than I make another one within that first one. I havent had a damn break before I did this but I could see it pushing out of the cake. I also realized that I put alot of filling in mone too and when I think I need to add more I stop and take more out. It works great this way. Good Luck
JanH - thanks for posting! I'm always looking for pages that sum up specifics like this.
JanH saves the day!
thanks much fo that link.
I have always been guessing. LOL
I like to use a lot of filling, and I have't had any problems in a while. I, too, use a stiff dam, and as others have said, I make sure that the cake has had a chance to settle after I've crumb coated. I also go around the outer edge with a tip 10 or 12 to make sure that icing has filling the outer ring. If it has had time to settle, then there shouldn't be any problem If I'm at all worried about the top layer sliding (for 3 layers of filling especially), then I stick a dowel in the middle. No worries then!
S.
Sorry I posted and then haven't been back! With no computer, I get on when I can!!
Thanks so much for all the suggestions and Jan - you are an amazing search engine! You'd beat out google and yahoo!! Thanks so much for all of that...I've definitely been overfilling!
Glad I could be of help. 
Was helped when I found the chart because I like filling, but sometimes too much of a good thing CAN be bad.
If I want to use more filling, a stiff dam made with the large coupler 1/4 from cake edge (so that it's higher than the filling) works well.
Then I smoosh the top layer a tiny bit and fill in the cake edge with additional stiff frosting (if needed).
The extra filling is higher, but the icing dam is larger (both high and wide) than normal so it works fine.
Only use this method on large cakes... Otherwise the number of b/c filled end pieces to overfilled inner pieces is too high (for my liking). (If the cake is filled, I want filling - not b/c.)
HTH
I myself don't but a dam if it is just bc. And we LOVE filling also. When I put in preserves or something a little more runny, I thicken it...lay down a real thin layer of bc then spread on the runny filling (works also with ganache, but instead use a chocolate truffle filling instead of the bc going down on a thin layer I put it). It really helps to keep the filling from soaking into the cake and if you let it settle...you won't have a ring...I promise 
GREAT!!! I'll take all of these ideas and hopefully have smooth cakes!! I think one of my biggest problems honestly is that lately I'm getting a lot more orders and I'm not letting my cakes settle enough.
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