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