How to Apply Icing on Cake – as part of the expert series by GeoBeats.

I am going to take my second cardboard circle, two is always handy, and I am going to go directly underneath the top cake. I am going to move that to the side. I am going to clean off the crumbs with the damp cloth that I have on my board. The fewer crumbs I have while I am working, the better chances I have to not make a crumb cake, which some of us specialize in, but this time I am not trying to make a crumb cake. So now what I have are two layers, and this time I actually want to add a delicious filling to it so you can make your own filling from scratch. You can add fresh fruit. You can whip cream. I happen like to use ready-to-go pastry fillings. The same kind they would use in a professional bake shop.

When I am using the fruit fillings, I tend to pair them with actual fresh fruits. So no matter what the season is. If it is summer time, and I am getting beautiful farm fresh strawberries, then it is a nice complement to have the sweet, I call it strawberry goo, inside. But in the winter time if I still want strawberries and they are not very tasty and not very sweet, my strawberry goo comes in handy. There are a variety of flavors that you can choose from: Bavarian chocolate, pineapple, guava—it just kind of depends on what kinds like, but you can also make those flavors yourself.

So what I am going to do is I am actually going to take a pastry bag that I have prepared earlier, and it has a coupler on it, and I will talk more about a coupler later, but what I am going to do is I am going to use my turn table and the coupler to prepare this cake for a natural filling. So the dam of icing that I am going to put here, I am going to start just a little bit from the edge of my cake, and I am going to squeeze firmly until the icing comes out, using my turn table. Now this tip coupler did not have a tip on it. It only had just the coupler itself. This was the only time I only used just a coupler, but the reason I did that is because now it allows me to take my delicious filling and put it right inside. You never want the filling to be higher than the base that you have created or you are going to have a mess.

I like to use this tapered spatula. It has a slight coney edge to help me spread that filling all around. So right now if I did have some beautiful fresh strawberries, I would just slice them and lay them, right on the top. And now, I can take my top cake and gently add it too. So the other thing I am going to do is to take this dam of icing that I have and, remember that little junk missing from the cake, or this section here where it does not meet the board completely? I am going to use this to fill it in. I have only met a handful of people who absolutely do not like icing. So typically if you have to fortify your cake with a little more icing, it is going to be OK. I am one of those people who do not care for icing as much.

So I have gotten my dam of icing. I have filled my cake. Now, I am going to take my icing that- this one happens to be a purchased icing, but even if I made it the process would be the same. Now, you might notice that the icing is very airy and does not look very smooth. You always need to stir your icing if it was sitting. You need to stir it to make it nice and creamy. If you do not stir it, the icing that you put on top of the cake is going to look exactly like it did when it was in your bowl. I am going to take some icing and I am going to dump it on my cake. You are not putting butter on a toast where you are just putting a tiny bit. You actually are going to be adding a lot of icing because the secret to icing a cake is to take away the icing. I am going to take my spatula. I am going to press down firmly, and I am going to move the icing edge to edge. I do not want this icing to fall off the cake. I just want it to get the edges for me.

Now, I am going to take some additional icing. I am actually checking for crumbs. I do not want crumbs in my actual big patch of icing. So I am going to take a little more icing at the bottom of my spatula, I am going to find a spot where there is some icing hanging out, and I am going to marry the two. I am going to press it firmly and move that icing around. I have gotten icing all around the cake. Now what I want to do is I want to take my bench scraper. My bench scraper is typically used for making breads and things like that, but it is a beautiful tool. It has gotten a perfectly straight edge that I can get a 90 degree angle. I am going to place this right on the edge of the cake, using my turn table, the turn table is your friend, and get that nice and square. Now if I missed a spot, I can add additional icing, and then do it all again.