Do all of you cake decorating lovelies crumb coat your cakes when using BC? I haven't been doing it, which requires a LOT of BC to make sure no crumbs get through. What are the pros and cons of crumb coats and does anyone have tips on doing it? Thanks in advance!
I'm relatively new here and love this website!
With the character cake, are you doing all stars? I don't make those, never have, so not sure. Stars would cover fine, I'd think. Crumb coating is more for doing a smoothing with bc or to make fondant stick. If you're not smoothing it anyway, it may be easier not to. However, brushing with warmed jam would give the same benefits without covering the details.
I recommend crumb coating. This prevents the small bits of cake from being in the final icing. The big tip may well do the trick, but I don't know. I've always crumb coated, and have not seen any good reason to change. There certainly is no harm in trying the big tip, it would save a step, but we're talking about 5-7 minutes.
always. Like said before, it only takes like 5 minutes and is well worth not having to pick crumbs out of your final coat. I also like it because it fills in all of the crack and crevaces.
Same here, takes just a couple of minutes to guarantee a perfect finish on your cake. I also teach all my students to do the same.
I do not like the icing tip - never works right for me, and puts the icing on WAAYY too thick.
I squish or bang the cake icer tip to about 1/2 of the original opening and never have a blob of icing on my cakes...
HTH
Hi indydebi
I'm sorry to make you gag and I apologize to you but when I wrote "put it on thick" I meant to put the icing on thick enough to spread it out to a much thinner layer...usually 1/8"- 1/4" MAX thick. I even think 1/4" inch is too thick but I learned this method from a Wilton Instructor who is also a Pastry Chef with 10 yrs experience. She told us we could do the crumb coat if we really want to but when she showed us her way, everyone in the class including me just followed suit.
Thanks,
Ang
Hey I put it on thick! And I am not apologizing! 
Oh, ang_ty95, no apology needed! I should have explained that (ironically) I don't like a lot of icing ..... I can eat a 12x18 cake by myself, if I scrape most of the icing off! 
It works out at my house ..... hubby prefers icing over cake, so between the two of us, we can demolish a cake completely! 
I only like the cake as well. Quote by @%username% on %date%
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