Typical Mistakes Bakers Do and How to Prevent Them
Every cake decorator wants their cake to be the best. And so even if small mistakes may happen anytime, still, its not an excuse to stop trying. We dream of creating the prettiest cake we can ever muster. We want to delight our children and please our in-laws. But to do so, we need a little help and support to see us through some of the more challenging cake baking and decorating strategies. These hints will hopefully provide you good advice in overcoming cake decorating challenges.
1. Whats the most ideal way to stop frozen cakes from drying?
A wise cake decorator uses advanced planning for all his cake projects. Sometimes preplanning is impossible, like when your grade-schooler informs you at bedtime that you were selected (because word gets around when youre good) to make the teachers birthday cake for tomorrows event. Yet most often, youll be given more than twelve hours notice and know well in advance when youll be producing a special cake.
One vital step in preplanning is knowing how to properly freeze your cakes. This way you can do the actual baking days, even weeks, before filling and icing them. Baking your cakes early will save you a lot of time and hassle in the days and hours before an important occasion.
Yet you have to remember that freezing cakes may render them blunt and dry. Thus, it is vital that you keep and wrap the cake without the icing.
The cake must be wrapped with plastic wrap up to two to three layers, and keep the air and moisture out by wrapping everything with aluminum foil. Properly wrapped and frozen, your cake will remain fresh for up to two months, even longer for heavier cakes such as pound or fruitcakes.
The cake must be removed from the freezer one day before you add icing so the cake can still have time to thaw.
The cake must be defrosted according to room temperature before adding the icing.
The problem in freezing cakes with icing is that the icing will begin sweating during the defrosting process.
In the end, the pattern and decoration will look messy and sloppy, which, of course, no one likes at all.
Thus, show the world that you are wise to the ways of cakes and make it a habit to bake your cakes in advance!
2. How do I prevent my filling from bulging out the sides of my cake into the icing?
In the cake decorating world, there is a great struggle being fought every single day in kitchens around the world. Its the Battle of the Bulge, and upset bakers are desperately calling out for help.
The question is always how to prevent filling from bulging at the sides of the cake and into the icing.
Baking your cakes one day in advance will also fight bulging filling. Firm and settled cakes will hold heavy, gooey fillings better than weak and unsettled cakes.You can also stop the flow by some tested processes.
a.) Make an icing dam at the outer edge of the layers so it can hold the filling. The dam will act as a barrier and will prevent the filling from escaping to the outer edge of the cake.
b.) Crumb coats, meanwhile, can be covered all over the cake.
c.) Refrigerate your cake for two to three hours to allow both the cake and crumb coat to settle.
Together, the icing dam and the crumb coat will provide a seal for your cake to hold the filling. Ice your cake with the final icing, and voila! No more bulge!
3. I have a hard time with crumbs in my icing. What can I do?
Do not ignore the crumbs. Even if they're so small, they can still annoy you by hurting the overall cake design.
Its enough to drive a baker crazy! Fortunately, there are solutions we can take.
You can merely apply what is called a crumb coat. A crumb coat is a fine layer of icing or glaze that you put on to your assembled cake to seal the cake and cement any crumbs to the cakes layer. Once the crumb coat has set and dried (a few minutes), you wont have to worry about any crumbs glueing to your final icing.
All you need to do is to combine the icing with any liquid in the recipe such as milk, cream, or water until they turn thick. Then you cover the entire cake with this mixture.
Once everything dries up, the crumb then becomes glued to the surface of the cake. To make everything quick, you can place the cake in a refrigerator. Though it will add extra time to the baking process, the benefit you get out of this is great.
Since youve been armed with these face-saving tricks and techniques, youll be prepared to take on any cake anytime, anywhere!
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