Buttercream Frosting

Decorating By veggieredhead Updated 19 Oct 2007 , 11:19pm by grannys3angels

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veggieredhead Posted 17 Oct 2007 , 9:54am
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Any tips for smoothing buttercream frosting? Now I spritz it down with water. This is very time consuming, not mentioning letting it dry. Any help Please.

11 replies
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indydebi Posted 17 Oct 2007 , 11:51am
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Never heard of spritzing BC with water before.

I absolutely swear by the melvira method (found in the articles on the home page....keep scrolling down).

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elizw Posted 17 Oct 2007 , 11:56am
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unless you have smoothed buttercream themselves, people just don't get how hard it can be. one of the hardest things for me is to make a perfectly smooth square cake.

but, i did learn a trick (accidentally). i use pretty much just butter and sugar and flavoring. well, one day i had finished mixing my buttercream. i always whip at the highest speed to get a nice and fluffy icing. the phone rang and for some reason, instead of turning the mixer off, i turned it down to the lowest setting. so my buttercream mixed for a good 20 minutes on the lowest setting. i noticed it looked smoother in the bowl. when i iced, the air bubbles were gone. it was much easier to smooth the icing.

of course, i had to chill the icing a little before i did any flowers. it was a little toooo smooth. this works really well with swiss meringue buttercream.


anyway, good luck!

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sugarshack Posted 17 Oct 2007 , 12:11pm
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katwomen1up Posted 17 Oct 2007 , 1:02pm
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I also spritz with water and it gets easier the more you do it. I never thought it would get easier but I am getting better. I tried putting the spatula in the hot water, works to a point still doesn't get smooth enough for me. Tried the paper, my paper sticks to the frosting. The paper towel works okay sometimes but all your frosting has to be crusted over. Make sure your paper towel has no paterns. I found the consitancy of the frosting is very important. The method that works for me is when I run the spatula over the frosting on the side of the bowl there should be very minimal air bubbles. If you have more than a few the frosting is too thick it needs to be thinner. When you can smooth the frosting in against the side of the bowl and get only a few air bubbles you should be ready to frost the cake. I then use the hot water and spatula method from Sugarshack and then spritz a little with water and I'm good to go.

HTH,
Kat

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veggieredhead Posted 19 Oct 2007 , 1:22am
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Thank you Thank you for all your tips. I am fairly new at this and learing has been self taught, trial and error. Thanks again.[/b]

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weddingcake1 Posted 19 Oct 2007 , 1:33am
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frost your cake then smooth the best you can with spatula let frosting dry for about 30 minutes then take a viva paper towel and lay it over the cake and smooth it with your hands i use this method alot and it looks almost like fondant check out some of my cakes.

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ANicole Posted 19 Oct 2007 , 2:34am
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What if you don't have Viva or computer paper?? icon_redface.gif

Will anything else work? Will parchment paper work with the fondant smoother to smooth it out???

TIA

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cwcopeland Posted 19 Oct 2007 , 2:52am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by indydebi

Never heard of spritzing BC with water before.

I absolutely swear by the melvira method (found in the articles on the home page....keep scrolling down).




I've heard of the water or alcohol method and tried it the other night when for some reason my buttercream wouldn't crust. It was a disaster!!!!

I used to use the Viva and fondant smoother. Since recently I've been using the Melvira method. Like debi said, it's great. The absolutely best way to get your buttercream smooth.

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indydebi Posted 19 Oct 2007 , 3:01am
post #10 of 12
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amber0717

What if you don't have Viva or computer paper?? icon_redface.gif

Will anything else work? Will parchment paper work with the fondant smoother to smooth it out???

TIA




I find the best way to use parchment is to fold a sheet in half. Lay it on the cake. use your hand to rub the top of the parchment. The top half of the parchment will move back and forth over the bottom half of the parchment, which usually remains stationary, and will smooth the cake. I find this works better than just rubbing parchment back and forth over the icing, although that will work ok, too. (discovered it accidentally when I used a folded piece of parchment!)

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ANicole Posted 19 Oct 2007 , 7:04pm
post #11 of 12

Thanks guys! I'll try the parchment, Indydebi. Thanks again.

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grannys3angels Posted 19 Oct 2007 , 11:19pm
post #12 of 12

I use sugarshacks tips for smoothing icing. I just got her new DVD yesterday "Perfecting The Art Of Buttercream" it is great DVD! I love it and hope soon to try out her tips on getting sharp corners on square cakes.
She also shows wonderful way to pipe your dam to prevent blow outs & bulges. Heres a link to a thread from those who has gotten the DVD also.
She does everything step by step, no doing alittle bit then jumping ahead to something else.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-561142.html

God Bless,
Sharon

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