In this video I demonstrate how I ice my cakes and smooth my buttercream when I use Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
In my video I use an offset spatula and a bench scraper. This is NOT the “hot knife” method. I have used that method in the past (dip the spatula in a pan of hot water and dry it of), it works, but it also melts the butter in the buttercream and leaves unsightly streaking… and I’ve found is just an extra, unnecessary, step.
Nice job! Looks good.
Lovely Renee. It looks so easy hope it will be when I try it :-). I follow you blog and sooo happy I found it you are indeed talented. Now the question, how thick is the buttercream layered on the cake. Is this cake going to be covered with fondant or just decorated with piped buttercream? I Thot when the buttercream gets cold, it would be difficult to smooth until now. Thanks so much for sharing.
After totting what is the height of this cake? Thanks
Very nicely done, i have always used the hot water method but i think i'm going to try your way. You do make it look soooo easy lol thank you for sharing with us. Many blessings
Wow! Thanks everyone!! It was such an unexpected and nice surprise to see my videos up yesterday! To answer a few questions: -This cake was eventually covered with fondant. I would use the same technique for both a fondant covered cake or a buttercream finish. It is nearly impossible to get perfectly smooth fondant without first having perfectly smooth buttercream (or ganache, or whatever you put under the fondant) -Most of my cakes are 4" tall after torting, filling and icing. I use the SPS system by bakery crafts and prefer to use their pre-cut 4" pillars. This particular cake may have been closer to 5" tall. It was several years ago now, so I'm not exactly sure!
I love using SMBC but have noticed it tends to crack. Is there something i can do to stop this?
I'm sorry to hear that... not quite sure what you mean by cracking. In the years since I've started using SMBC, I've never experienced cracking. I'm sorry, I'm not sure I can offer good advice here, never having seen it myself... are the cracks just appearing on the surface of the cake? or does it crack at some point during the decorating process? I wish I had some kind of solution to offer!!
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing I'll try to use this method I hope it is as simple as you make it look. Lol. My problem is getting a nice and smooth finished in a square cake specially corners.
I think I love you for this...I swear by Italian Buttercream, and I pride myself with my buttercream skills, but sometimes the environment is not always right that it can be very time consuming to smooth buttercream. I suppose it was one trick I haven't learned yet, thank you!
Thank you! Great Tutorial!
I love this post also but my question is how do I keep Wilton buttercream icing from cracking and also what an I use to keep fondant from cracking?
You make it look so easy and hey; it's not. Am I the only decorator to have a very tiny sly moment of smugness when I spotted a teeny crumb in the finished icing..? Just made me realize we are all equally fallible and I shouldn't get so disheartened when I watch you brave guys who put these tutorials up for us; no-one's perfect but it doesn't matter! Thank you. It's always good to see how other people do stuff and often better methods! You are appreciated.