I love baking – and I love frosting ~ the art and the challenge of the sticky, delectable decor.

Kevin Richard, from Richard’s Pantry, shares with us today some of his best tips for icing the best cake of your life!

When the goal is to make your cake look better in every aspect, the first thing that may pop up in your mind would perhaps be the frosting. When you have a nice frosted layer, there are thousands of possibilities to work with your creativity. On the top, you just can traditionally leave it clean and traditional, perhaps with a few celebratory words, or spread rainbow sprinkles, fancy swirls, roses and even shell borders.

Here we will show you the list of DOs and DON’Ts for a perfectly frosted cake, along with a cake recipe.

DO
Have the Right Tools

The right tools are a big part of successful cake decorating, especially with using frosting which requires you do the whole process yourself. Depending on the size of your cake, you should have a big or small offset spatula. Choose the one with a thin blade, but nice angle. The handle is pretty important as well. Get one that feels firm and comfortable, designed to be compatible with the blade. Offset spatulas helps you to shape the frosted layers evenly and nicely.

“Icing Smoother” is also my favorite. This tool is easier to use than the offset spatula due to its large and wide surface. You can have a clean, smooth finish like a professional looking cake with a few simple steps. Again, depending on the size of your cake, pick the right size tool for your project.

Understand the Process

The process is not difficult to follow, but if you don’t follow the steps in order – your cake will not be the beauty you’re expecting.

• Bake the cake
• Chill it down
• Torte the cake (optional if you want to have ice between layers)
• De-crumble it
• Frost the top
• Frost the sides

Seek out Help

You can learn a lot from other bakers about how to nicely finish a cake. Don’t be afraid to ask!

There are a few tips that I have collected throughout my baking life:

• After baking, the top of the cake will be the bottom of the finished cake, and you should work on the surface of the bottom cake. It will give you a fine layer.
• Find a long knife to cut layers of the cake. The longer is, the better. It will leave you less crumble on the cake’s surface.
• Add some frosting on the cake plate as the glue to keep the cake stable.
• Parchment paper is your best friend and saves a lot of time and effort when cleaning up excess frosting later.
• When frosting, don’t lift your spatula. This is for sure a technique you have to practice. When frosting between layers it is fine to have some crumble; however, the last thing you want is to have crumbs on your cake surface. Try to make your hand even and smooth, even all the way to the edge. The tip here is to spin a cake, so you don’t need to move a lot.

DON’T

• Sacrifice on low quality tools. Save your money to buy a good offset spatula: a knife can do the same job, but an offset spatula can do so much better with shapes and angles.
• Be afraid to get your hands dirty. Use hands to layer up, fixing the right position of the layers.

For the frosting layer, I recommend the butter cream that is the most basic and takes you less than 30 minutes to make. Below is the recipe for one medium cake:

• 140g softened butter
• 280g icing sugar
• 1-2 Tbs. milk
• food coloring, a few drops

Beat your butter until it is soft. Add half of sugar continue to beat until the sugar and butter are beginning to meld.
Add remaining ingredients: the rest of the sugar and milk and beat until you are satisfied with the level of smoothness and creaminess.
The last step is to mix the color.

That’s it. There you go for a very nice frosting.

Final Thoughts

The key to beautifully frosting the cake is to be patient. You will mess up a lot of time; your frosting may be not even and smooth. But if you keep practicing, things will get better. Moreover, frosting a cake is a relaxing phrase, just take it easy and everything will fall into its place.

Last but not least, your cake doesn’t need to be perfect; the most important thing is the taste. Your beloved ones appreciate your effort.

Kevin Richard is the founder of Richard’s Pantry. He spends plenty of time in the kitchen every day because he loves cooking healthy and delicious foods for family and friends. Cooking gives him a chance to be creative and fun. It’s also one of the most meaningful ways to express love and to take care of his little family.