Kids' Cake Frosting Tips
Top Frosting Tips For Beginners
Frosting
Frosting
- It's often useful to place your cake upside down on the cake board because the bottom of your cake gives
a nice flat surface for decorating.
- Make sure your cake is completely cool before frosting it.
- When frosting a cake, put a thin "crumb" layer on first to hold in the crumbs. Let that sit for a bit and then
frost over it.
- If your frosting gets too thick you can thin it with a little bit of corn syrup. If it's too thin just add a little
powdered sugar to thicken it.
- Gel or paste food coloring gives much richer colors than liquid food coloring. Use a toothpick to apply a
tiny amount to your frosting and then add more as needed. It doesn't take much with these food colors.
- Adding a pinch of baking soda when mixing the frosting can help prevent it from flaking or cracking.
- To get a completely smooth cake, use a frosting or buttercream that crusts over as it dries. Put the
frosting on with a spatula and smooth it out as much as you can. After about 10-15 minutes when the
frosting has crusted, place a Viva paper towel over the cake and smooth out the imperfections using your
hand or fondant smoother. You can see the Viva technique demonstrated here.
- As an alternative to the Viva technique, try using a hair dryer to slightly melt the frosting. This will give
your frosting a smooth and glossy look.
- If you want to create a picture of something on your cake then the best and easiest way to do this is with a
frozen buttercream transfer (FBCT). There are some really easy-to-follow and detailed FBCT instructions
here that will help you in perfecting this technique.
- Only fill your decorating bags half full of frosting to avoid having it squeeze out the back end. You can
stand your bags up in a tall glass or measuring cup to make it easier to fill them.
- Hold your decorating tip close to the surface of your cake and squeeze with an even pressure to get the
best results. You can use one hand to squeeze the bag and your other to guide it.
- Frost the top of your cake first and then spread down to the sides. If you find it tough to frost the sides of
your cake, try using Wilton decorating tip #789 that is made just for this purpose.
- If you're using a creme, mousse or custard type filling, make a dam first by piping a ring of frosting on the
outside of the cake. It will hold your filling in place when you stack the cake layers together.
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Frosting Color Mixing
I generally start with Wilton's gel icing colors. I suggest buying the 12 pack to give you a good base to start with.
Colors included in the Wilton icing colors 12 pack are: Lemon Yellow, Golden Yellow, Pink, No-Taste Red,
Burgundy, Violet, Royal Blue, Teal, Kelly Green, Copper, Brown and Black. Try using the chart below to mix
these base colors and create other more unusual colors.
I generally start with Wilton's gel icing colors. I suggest buying the 12 pack to give you a good base to start with.
Colors included in the Wilton icing colors 12 pack are: Lemon Yellow, Golden Yellow, Pink, No-Taste Red,
Burgundy, Violet, Royal Blue, Teal, Kelly Green, Copper, Brown and Black. Try using the chart below to mix
these base colors and create other more unusual colors.
|