How to Cover a Cake With Butter Icing
Covering a cake with icing adds extra flavor and visual appeal to dessert, but unless done properly, a frosted cake seems sloppy. With a little bit of practice, you can accomplish a smooth covering of icing on a cake. Adapt this technique based on what you have available, since homemade or store-bought cakes and icing both work just as well. Cooking and pastry supply stores should have all of the materials for this project. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- 2 cups butter frosting
- 2 8-inch round cake layers
- Cake board (or round piece of clean cardboard)
- Lazy Susan or turntable (optional)
- Large, serrated bread knife
- Pastry bag fitted with wide tip (optional)
- Large offset spatula
- Bowl of warm water
Instructions
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1
Allow the two cake layers to cool completely. Fill the pastry bag with icing. Use cans of store-bought icing or see resource one for several butter icing recipes to make from scratch. Place the cake board on top of the lazy Susan and pipe a two-inch circle in the middle of the cake board with the butter icing. Drop a spoonful of icing on the cake board if you're not using the pastry bag. Place one of the two cakes centered on the cake board to be the bottom cake layer.
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2
Flatten out the top of the bottom cake by trimming the top with the serrated bread knife. Pipe out or spoon icing on top of the bottom cake layer to create a one-fourth-inch-thick layer of icing on top of the bottom cake. Use the spatula to smooth this over the top of the bottom cake to completely cover the top only. Place the second cake on top of the icing, which is now the filling.
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3
Spoon or pipe another layer of butter icing on the top cake layer. Smooth this over the top portion of the cake with the spatula. Turning the lazy Susan with one hand, hold the pastry bag in one place on the side of the cake and squeeze the bag to apply icing to the sides of the cake. Smooth this icing on the sides with the spatula. Dip the spatula into warm water after every swipe across the cake to make smoothing the frosting neater. Without a pastry bag, spoon additional icing onto the top of the cake and push it down and onto the sides with the spatula.
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4
Place the cake in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to allow this first layer, known as the crumb layer, of icing to chill and set. Immediately repeat step three to cover the cake in a second, final layer of butter icing. Continue to rinse the spatula off in warm water as icing collects on it to keep the finished cake clean and the icing smooth.
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