Cake making/icing advice please!

I've just made DDs test birthday cake. And it's good that I did because I've learnt a lot and would have been incredibly disappointed if I had to serve that on the day!

I'm doing the "1" from The Book. The cake itself was great, I did it in a large block so baked it slowly and it cooked perfectly, if a little 'flat'. So I'll be making two and layering it. I cut out the 1 and was so proud, it looked great! I'd tinted it pink and it was so pretty lol. I made it yesterday and cut it today as apparently that makes it easier to cut and ice?

Anyway, today I made the fluffy frosting from The Book. Tastes delish :) But actually putting it on the cake, I'm having some issues. Crumbs from the cut sides keep getting in the icing and it doesn't look pretty, white and fluffy :( Dad recommends freezing the cake. He made all mine when I was a kid so I figure he has a good idea lol.

Would freezing it work? Before or after cutting it? And will there be any 'yuckiness' with it defrosting under the icing? Any other ideas or tips very welcome!

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many recipes call for the cake to be frozen to carve them hun. we haven't carved a frozen cake yet, but i've read it in a few places - and i've defrosted and iced frozen cakes in the past with no drama

as long as you don't intend to freeze any of it later there is no drama. i would make sure it's wrapped really well so as not to get air in there/trap moisture - and make sure it's cold before you wrap so it's not holding any moisture/condensation.

good luck with it!

i find the crumb frustrating so make a heavy mud cake instead!

Freeze. Then do a crumb coating. Freeze again then do a final coating of frosting. Easy peasy!

Thanks BG and Rouge! Freezing again after a crumb coating sounds good, the pesky little crumbs will be stuck in the frozen icing hehe :)

Wrapping it is fine, DH is paranoid about food poisoning and always wants all his food well sealed lol, so I've become a pro at wrapping food! I think I'll freeze it before cutting it, it's only the one so it's all straight lines, nice and easy!

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I always do a crumb coating to seal in those pesky crumbs.

rather than starting a new thread i thought i'd just post a question in here...having a paranoid moment - im making a dinosaur cake for ds' birthday party on saturday. ive made the cake today & have wrapped & put them in the freezer. i was going to cut & ice it tmrw. i figured i can cut it while still frozen or at least cold. then i'll do the crumb coat, then ice it. right so far?! :redface: then do i store it in the fridge overnight? and is it ok just to cover it in plastic wrap? (im putting it on a cake board). it's for saturday morning.

ok, that's a whole lot of drivel :lol:

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Sounds good! You will need to let it thaw a bit to cut it. Make sure you use a long blade serrated knife and let the knife do the work. Take your time and remember you can always take more off, but you can't put it back on ;)
You should be fine leaving it out once it is crumbcoated, seeing as you are in Melbourne, so long as you leave it in a cold place, not near the heater say! lol
What are you 'icing' it with? Buttercream or fondant? If you are using fondant, don't put it in the fridge or Glad wrap it. Leave it under a dry teatowel in a cool dry place.

ETA - Should add, after you crumb coat, leave it and let it crust over a bit before you ice it.

thank you! & it's a buttercream icing.

hmmm...im also making cupcakes (for the adults) also with a buttercream icing that i'll pipe on - could i do that tmrw as well? i was going to wait until sat morning to do the icing but im thinking the more things i can do tmrw, the better. a party seemed like a good idea at the time but with 3 month old & an almost 3 year old prone to tantrums....i may be a little crazy!!

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If you are doing the top coat in buttercream, personally I would wait to make the cream and ice them the day of the party. It will be fresher and you won't get as crusty a finish (which is all to personal taste, but I don't like ;)).
Take the butter out the night before to soften it up and do it all in the early AM and get it out of the way. It should be fairly quick to do, esp the cupcakes, so I would do it the morning of the party and the crumb coat the night before.

Good luck for tomorrow Sloane, sounds like your cake will be great! I used a different icing (the fluffy frosting from The Book) and it says if you do it the night before to leave it out of the fridge cos it'll go a bit crusty. I left DD's cake in the office which was about fridge temp anyway lol. Only reason for doing it the night before was that I had a bucket-load to do on party morning and would never have had time for decorating a cake. The icing didn't seem affected, it still looked and tasted great :)

So many great tips. Hopefully the next cake should look more cake, and less road kill.

Unless its a road kill cake. In which case... WIN!

In seriousness though it gets easier with practice. My first cake, a ladybird I dropped on the floor when showing some friends. That then looked like road kill ;)