Thoughts on Cake Frosting

Hello, and welcome to post centered around one of my favorite topics in the world:

CAKE.

But I think we’ve all experienced a good cake that’s been ruined by bad frosting, namely bad fondant. That’s what today’s post is attempting to find a solution to.

Let me start off by telling you that the cake you see here is my first attempt at this particular cake-frosting technique and is, therefore, not perfect. It was my practice run, but I’m excited to share it with you despite the slight imperfections!

I found this technique at Oh Happy Day, and it’s meant to make your cake look perfectly smooth like fondant, but with buttercream.

So I’ve been getting more requests lately to make cakes for friends and co-workers, and I want my creations to look pretty and professional. While fondant can sure make a cake look beautiful, I have yet to discover good-tasting fondant. If you have a truly delicious and easy-to-work-with recipe, PLEASE share your wealth of knowledge with me! I beg of you.

In the meantime, however, buttercream it shall be. But honestly, who doesn’t love a good buttercream?

This technique really isn’t difficult; it just requires time and patience.

The cake needs to be chilled after baking, then it gets thinly frosted with a “crumb coat,” and it also needs to be chilled between additional each coat of frosting. So really, a lot of the time is inactive. You can have your whole kitchen cleaned before the cake is done! 😀

You also need patience because you’ll need to go over the cake again and again with your off-set spatula until it is completely smooth. Next time I frost a cake, I think leveling the top will make it look better. I usually do level it, but I just decided to go for more of a dome-top look this time. That was really difficult to make smooth due to the curve, so flat is probably better.

This was a birthday cake for my lovely friend, Amy, and I had fun decorating it. All I did was paint some wooden skewers and cut scrapbook paper into triangles. Then I just used a needle and thread to string a pennant banner and tied the ends to the skewers. That’s it! Super easy.

The M&M cake below is one I made back in high school. I used to make lots of cakes with marshmallow fondant– It’s easy to make, easy to work with, and it doesn’t require any weird ingredients (just marshmallows, powdered sugar, and a bit of water)– but the fondant was usually just peeled off when it came time to eat the cake. It doesn’t taste horrible like most store-bought fondants; it just isn’t a taste you’d desire to eat. You know?

So until I find a satisfactory fondant, I will be thoroughly enjoying the delightful taste and perfectly pleasant look of buttercream.

What do you think? I know it’s not perfect, but I’m pretty pleased with it!
And I can’t wait to do another. 🙂

For the complete tutorial on how to frost a perfectly smooth cake, I’m actually going to send you over to Oh Happy Day.
She’ll tell you everything you need to know, and there are lots of helpful photos, too!

For the frosting, I used this buttercream recipe from Cooking Classy. It’s wonderful.

I hope you all enjoy the tutorial, and happy baking!

Do you prefer fondant or buttercream?
Do you have any awesome frosting advice?

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