Fun with Cakes (part 3)

(Photos coming soon for this post)

Who wants crumbs in the frosting? Surely not me... which is why when I make cakes to decorate them nice, I freeze them first before frosting. That way I can take a pastry brush and brush off excess crumbs and then frost.

After a cake is all the way cooled and it is inverted onto wire racks to cool, put it on a cookie sheet and freeze it. Don't bother to brush the crumbs off of a thawed cake, because that doesn't work. It actually creates more crumbs. Freeze it for about 2 hours before frosting and make sure to brush off the entire cake while frozen. After the first brush off, freeze again for about 30-45 minutes. That way you can frost it frozen and still will have no crumbs to deal with.

How I learned this, you may ask; I was making a cake a long time ago that had fondant over the top and you had to freeze it and brush it off before rolling out the fondant to put on top. Well, I thought I wonder if it works for regular frosting... so I experimented and tried it and it was wonderful the way it worked.

If you have a filled cake; cool the cakes off as directed, put the filling in (it could be a fruit filling, a creme filling, frosting, or even a cheesecake type filling)and then freeze it. This time for about 3-4 hours to allow the filling to freeze as well. Oozing filling can create messes for frosting a cake, and can ruin a whole look, especially when using raspberry or any colored filling.

Then frost as usual after brushing off crumbs and refreezing. The frosting goes on smooth and you can get it as smooth as you can for decorating. Or, if you want, after the crumbs are brushed off,it is a good time to put fondant on (if that is what you are using to give the cake a very smooth finish).

This can work with sheet cakes or layer cakes. Yeah, it takes extra work, but for a special occasion like a loved one's birthday or anniversary or something, it is worth it to make it look as good as you can.