Post by ninjabridemom on Mar 27, 2015 10:16:03 GMT -5
(even if you don't think of yourself as a baker)
I'm making the boys a Pete the Cat cake for their party tomorrow.Like this:
I have a few questions: 1) how do I NOT fuck up the crumb layer -- & should the crumb layer be white or that blue? (I think I remember cold knife, cold cake, any other frosting tips?) 2) Can I do this cake entirely tonight? Or should I do the basic blue and then do the details tomorrow? 3) I bought official icing coloring for the blue but they didn't have a dark blue, so I bought sky and purple to mix. Think that'll work? 4) This will make a lot of large-piece scraps, I think. Can I do anything presentable with that? Or just put a bowl of cake scraps out for the grown ups? lol
For the scraps, I would make some kind of trifle with them-- fancy bowl, layers of cake, fudge, whipped cream. Maybe pudding? I don't know. But I'm sure pinterest could get you trifle recipes.
depending on the flavour icing you're using, I'd do a darker crumb coat. If it's just a standard buttercream, I like to add cocoa powder to the crumb coat to make it chocolately, and to help cover the cake a bit with something dark before dark icing.
Cold cake, yes but I don't use a cold knife. I dip mine into warm water after each swipe to get it hot and a little bit damp. If you don't want to go through the PITA of cake balls, I'd make a trifle with the leftovers.
My crumb coats are always the same colour I intend to use on top. You can do it all in one night as long as your icing is a medium consistency (ie not wet enough to bleed). Pete's colour is black+Dark blue + purple.
Those don't look like cake balls to me (if you're talking about the buttons) they look like cupcakes.
The cake will make scraps but it looks like they used a rectangular cake pan and cut it like the attached. Dashed lines are the scraps. Use the top piece for Pete's neck.
The other scraps you could cut the buttons out of using a biscuit cutter.
Cold cake, yes but I don't use a cold knife. I dip mine into warm water after each swipe to get it hot and a little bit damp. If you don't want to go through the PITA of cake balls, I'd make a trifle with the leftovers.
Yes, frozen cake, warm knife. It makes smoothing the crumb coat so much easier.
Post by partiallysunny on Mar 27, 2015 12:28:29 GMT -5
The color of the crumb coat depends. I usually do white. Sometimes, say, if most of the cake is grass, I'll do green. Covers up any imperfect spots.
Always make cake pops from scraps.
I like to break my cake making up into at least two days. First day I bake cake and make frosting. Let cool and dirty ice (crumb coat). Second day I decorate. Depending on how detailed the cake is (fondant/gum paste takes more time) I may need a second day.
Sometimes I even pre make the cake batter and frosting so the first day I'm just baking and dirty icing. All depends on my schedule.
Cold cake, yes but I don't use a cold knife. I dip mine into warm water after each swipe to get it hot and a little bit damp. If you don't want to go through the PITA of cake balls, I'd make a trifle with the leftovers.
Can someone please tell me what a "crumb coat" is?
A preliminary thin layer of icing, so that any crumbs get stuck in that icing and then when you put on the main layer of icing you get a nice smooth finish.
LOL I've never done the crumb layer. I just go straight to town with a ton of icing.