If you love the look of fondant, but prefer the taste of a buttercream frosting, this is the video for you. I admit it — I thought about making a video to demostrate smoothing out buttercream using paper towels (seriously), but I looked on YouTube and found this perfectly wonderful tutorial video already made… and I do believe it’s much much better than any video I could do.

So for everyone wanting a smooth buttercream frosting, watch this video — it’s truly excellent and really worth the time it takes to watch.

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Tags: frosting tutorial, smooth buttercream, video

Crumbs and tears while frosting cake.

Everyone who has ever frosted a cake with buttercream icing has faced the dreaded Crumb Problem. Wicked evil crumbs stirring up in your beautifully white frosting, showing themselves as discolorations and unattractive lumps.

And nobody wants unattractive lumps on their cake.

So it’s Crumb Coat to the rescue. A “crumb coat” is made of thinned frosting that is then spread over the cake and allowed to “crust” (or dry). The crumb coat acts as a “sealant” and does a pretty good job keeping crumbs attached to the cake and not your pretty frosting.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup frosting
• 1 to 3 tsp of thinner (milk, water, or corn syrup)

Consistency of crumb coat mixture

Directions

• Place 1/2 cup of frosting in a small bowl.
• Add 1 tsp of your chosen thinner. Use a fork to mix well. For either the
  Butteriest Buttercream or the
  Bright White Buttercream, I use milk or water as a thinner.
• The perfect consistency for a crumb coat mixture is something between pudding and syrup (see picture to right). Add thinner, one teaspoon at a time, until you achieve the desired consistency.
• Spread the crumb coat mixture over the cake.
• Allow the crumb coat to crust (dry) and then frost cake with regular frosting.

Chocolate cake with applied crumb coat

The crumb coat may be applied when the cake is nearly cooled or completely cooled. It won’t be pretty. Just keep in mind that the crumb coat is functional, not decorative and while it won’t win a beauty pageant, it has work to do — keeping the crumbs out of your frosting.

Besides, you’re going to cover up every last bit of that crumb coat with your full-strength buttercream frosting.

Final buttercream frosting applied over crumb coat.

The Final Product

Once the crumb coat has crusted, frost the cake. A crumb coat doesn’t mean you can manhandle your cake without repercussion, but it does mean that frosting a cake (particularly one with cut edges) will be a lot less frustrating.

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Tags: cake, crumb coat, crumbs, frosting, icing

(Please note: all sizes/measurements are based on standards common to cakes in the USA.)

This diagram shows a 9" x 13" cake cut into 18 pieces. Each serving measures 1.8" x 3"

It’s Party Time and you’ve decided you’d like to serve a sheet cake, but there’s only one problem: What size sheet cake has the right number of servings for the people you wish to feed.

The answer to the question, “How Many People Does A Sheet Cake Feed?” actually lies in the answers to two other questions:

• How big is the sheet cake?
• What size servings will you offer?

In the U.S. there are four “standard” sizes of sheet cakes.

How big is the sheet cake?

Most bakeries in the U.S. have three standard sizes of sheet cakes available.

• 1/4 Sheet Cake, 9″ x 12″, serves 12-28
• 1/2 Sheet Cake, 11″ x 15″, serves 18-40
• Full Sheet Cake, 18″ x 24″, serves 48-108

If you’re planning to bake a sheet cake at home, the most common size cake pan is 9″ x 13″ (slightly larger than the one-quarter sheet cake offered by bakeries)

• Homemade Sheet Cake, 9″ x 13″, serves 13-28

This diagram shows a 9" x 13" cake cut into 21 pieces. Each serving measures 1.8" x 3"

While those are the standard sizes, there is only one way to be 100% how big the “half sheet cake” your baker is making is: ask.

What size servings will you offer?

Serving size is a matter of personal preference, type of event, and budget. For me, the perfect serving size is 2″ x 3″. If you’re doing a casual backyard barbecue, you might want to increase the serving dimensions to 3″ x 3″ or 2″ x 4″. Both of those are large servings of cake and no one will accuse you of skimping. For more formal affairs, you can drop the serving size down to 2″ x 2″ or 1″ x 3″.

This diagram shows a 9" x 13" cake cut into 28 servings. Each serving measures 1.8" x 2.25"

Keep in mind that all measurements (and number of people served per cake) are approximations — some people will insist on a “small piece” and others will beg for “just a smidgen more”. And don’t forget the people who want seconds!

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Tags: cake serving sizes, individual servings, sheet cake

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