Frosting the Sides of a Teddy Bear Cake

Video Transcript

"Okay, before we start frosting our bear, we want to get rid of any crumbs that are around on the serving tray and around the cake. So you can really just take a napkin and brush that off. You want to make sure you get these crumbs off, so that they don't get mixed into the frosting while you're decorating. So you can just brush it off like that and then make sure that your work surface is all clear of crumbs. We'll begin our frosting with the side of the cake, and the key here is to use a lot of frosting. You can always take off frosting after you're finished covering the cake. You want to use a lot of frosting to avoid getting crumbs in your frosting. So we'll start here at the ear and take a good dollop of frosting and just start by just spreading that on. Now don't worry about getting this big clump up here along the edge. We'll take care of that later. The important thing is that we cover the sides, and you don't get all the crumbs in there. Now take another large dollop of frosting, and remember always to frost on top of frosting. So instead of starting here where you ended, you want to start a little bit further up on top of frosting, and continue spreading along the side following the contour of our bear. Always starting a little bit back we've already frosted, using a lot of frosting and work your way around the cake's side, spreading that frosting down. And not worrying about it being globby up here. We're just concerned about covering the side and then after we'll go around and smooth it out. I've gone around the cake and I'm coming up here back around the ears and spreading on that frosting. See how I move the spatula following the contours of the cake and putting on plenty of icing, or frosting, coming around. Now when you move your spatula back and forth to smooth the icing on the side, you do sort of a edge-to-edge move. This edge and then back to that edge. And go and smooth around the cake. Now at this point you can just check any of the edges that aren't so smooth. You can check all the edges. See, I have a nice rib of frosting coming up on the side, plenty of frosting. And the cake is shaped nicely like a bear. Next we're going to frost the top of the cake."