Calling All Smbc/imbc Experts! Need Help!
Decorating By tsal Updated 30 Mar 2010 , 5:55am by ceshell
Hi,
I made a 3-tier wedding cake yesterday. It was a chiffon cake covered in SMBC. I had an issue with smoothing (and this would apply to IMBC as well):
I noticed that when I applied a hot spatula to smooth, the butter melted slightly (this is what is supposed to happen according to all of the posts I read about smoothing SMBC). However, when the butter melted, it altered the color slightly. It streaked yellow (this makes sense if you think about when you melt butter in a pan, it becomes a slightly more concentrated yellow than when you take it out of the package). It was imperceptible to cake muggles, but I think that this was the basis of the problem for my chocolate SMBC smoothing problem. I have a feeling that if I tinted the SMBC any color, this would have happened.
Has this happened to anyone else? Have you been able to tint your SMBC/IMBC successfully? Should I be using another smoothing technique?
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-661033-plastering.html
I think all the info you're looking for can be found in the above thread. 
I don't recommend using the hot spatula/palette knife technique, for the very reason you found out yesterday. 
I find the meringue based buttercreams extremely easy to smooth. I don't use the hot spatula method, however. I have a large plastic bowl scraper that I use to put that finishing touch by just gliding it over the icing.
HTH!
Ditto
I don't recommend the hot spatula method either, for the reasons that you found out. The bench scraper method smoothes meringue based buttercreams beautifully. I, however, found that a 6" putty knife from the hardware store has a very thin metal edge that doesn't scrape off too much icing. They cost about $2.00 each, and have made my buttercream cakes very, very smooth.
I use a bench scraper right after icing... you cant put it in the fridge first because it will cause streaking.... usually just the bench scraper around the cake will smooth it, but sometimes i run it under hot water with every pass on the cake... i dont scrap it but rather graze the surface, i have little icing on it
The first time I tried antonia74's method which she linked to above, I could NOT believe my eyes. It REALLY works. I have quite a few streaky-colored IMBC cakes in my gallery to prove your point about the hot spatula method . It used to drive me batty. And now I have several glassy-smooth IMBC cakes, thanks to antonia74's amazing instructions. WORKS LIKE A CHARM!
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