Shital's-Kitchen: Frosting and Decorating A Cake

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Frosting and Decorating A Cake

For class 2 of decorating basics we had to frost and decorate a cake of our choice. Since my first cake was vanilla, I thought of making a chocolate one this time. I wanted to make a layered cake with Chocolate butter cream filling and frost it with the same icing.

This class is fun! I would suggest you attend one if you are interested in baking and decorating a cake. Even if you do not attend the class do not hesitate to try and get messy. :)

Here is a yummy butter cream frosting recipe.

I made double the amount of this recipe for filling and icing the cake.

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening (crisco)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract.

4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)

6 tablespoons milk

3/4 cup cocoa powder

Whip the shortening in a large bowl till it is light and fluffy. Add vanilla, sugar, and milk. Mix well. Do not excess beat it. You do not need air bubbles in the frosting.

Using the skills of baking a leveled cake, I baked two 9 inch chocolate cakes.
Read my post on How to Bake a perfect cake?

Batter in two 9 inch pans ready to be baked.

So here was my workplace with baked cakes, my tool box with decorating tools and butter cream frostings (chocolate and plain vanilla).

My tool box with spatulas, frosting smoother, couplers, decorating bags and tips, food color, and design for transfer.

Spread the butter cream frosting with a spatula.
See how soft and leveled these cakes are!

Smoothing out the frosting with smoother. Always start by applying a generous layer of frosting and then smoothing it out. Your spatula or smoother should not touch the cake and pick the cake crumbs.