Cake Decorating for Beginners | How to Frost a Cake

Hey guys, it's Bettie from BakerBettie.com and welcome back to another video. Now today we have a special guest joining us today. This is Kelly, she is my friend and assistant. So I get requests all the time for doing a tutorial for how to build and decorate a layer cake. Now truthfully, this is something I'm not very experienced in and I'm not super confident with it. And Kelly is a pastry chef and she has a lot more experience with this. So I asked if she would come in today and give us all a tutorial on how to build a layer cake. Yeah, so today we're gonna make a layer cake that's super simple, you can use for any occasion. It's great for a birthday cake or a kid's smash cake or anything you wanna celebrate. So yeah, you can fill it with whatever you want. You can use jams and custards and fruits and then we're gonna do a really simple decoration that you can use for any occasion. So it's gonna be really great. Awesome. So the actual layers for this cake are the chiffon cake that we made in the last video. So I will leave the link in the description box for this video for how to make the actual layers. But Kelly's gonna show us how to build and to decorate it. So let's go ahead and dive in. So we're going to start by leveling our cakes. You wanna do this with room temperature cake. You don't want it hot or cold. Use a serrated knife and carefully hold the blade parallel to the counter and rest it on the edges of the cake and see-saw back and forth. You don't wanna pull the knife through or you'll create tears. Yeah, I always thought that you needed one of those leveling tools to do this but it looks like it's actually really easy to do it without. Yeah, I've never found those tools very necessary. I think the serrated knife is just as efficient. So next we're gonna fill our piping bag with the frosting that we already made. We're going to use quite a bit of frosting and for this we're using a big piping bag and a tip is not going to be necessary for this part. So our first step is going to be the crumb coat. So we'll get our cake stand and add a little bit of frosting on the bottom to hold our first layer in place and then we'll put the first layer on it and secure it to the stand. And then something I actually like to do in my limited cake experience is to take pieces of parchment paper and then place those around the cake, kind of tucking those underneath the first layer. This is going to help keep our cake stand clean. Make sure you don't go too far under the cake with the parchment paper or it's going to be difficult to pull out when the cake is finished. So now we wanna pipe a dam all the way around the cake. I like to do two layers and then this is the part where you can add in any filling you'd like. It can be a jam, a custard, or a cream but this dam is going to help keep the filling in place but for right now we're just gonna use our buttercream and I'll use an offset spatula to smooth it out. Now at this point I see that our cake stand is sliding around a little bit so we will add a wet paper towel to keep it in place on our turntable. Now we're ready for our second layer and we wanna flip it upside down so that the flat part is on top and then I'll gently press it down to make sure it's centered and then I'll repeat the same step of adding a two layer dam and filling it with more buttercream. Now we're ready for our third and last layer making sure to flip it upside down and then at this point I'll also look at it at eye level and make sure that it's even. And now I'll take our piping bag again and pipe around all of the crevices on the sides. Use quite a bit because I'll also take the scraper and remove the excess. So now with your scraper in your dominant hand hold it straight against the side of the cake at about a 45 degree angle and hold that hand as steady as possible. With your other hand slowly spin the turntable towards you and then scrape off the excess and put it into a separate bowl. We do this because most likely this frosting will now have crumbs in it. Don't be afraid to add quite a bit of pressure to scrape off the frosting. Essentially after we do this it'll look like a naked cake. Okay so tell me a little bit more about what we're doing. What is a crumb coat and why do you do it? So a crumb coat is just the first step in frosting a cake and we do this to hold in all the crumbs so that our final coat, the finishing coat, is smooth and silky. Yeah truthfully I actually skip this step a lot and I think that's why my cakes always look a little bit rough. Yeah so everyone has their own methods on how to do this part but I like to do the sides first and then finish the top. But whatever way works best for you is fine. So after I scrape off all of the excess you'll start to see little holes in the frosting so take your spatula and add a little bit more frosting and patch them up. And then continue to scrape off with your scraper. You'll repeat this step as many times as you need. And then for the top I'll use the same frosting that I already scraped off from the sides and spoon it onto the top. So now I'll take an offset spatula and smooth it around. Now I'll take my scraper and my dominant hand holding it parallel to the top of the cake, holding it really steady while moving the turntable towards me. I'm noticing a theme that the hand with the scraper seems to always stay still and then you're moving the turntable not your scraper. Right, that's super important to achieve smooth, even lines. Now I'll hold the scraper on the sides again to remove the excess. And then I'm moving the scraper to the top of the cake and pushing the excess towards the middle. Keep in mind that this part doesn't need to be perfect since this is the inside coat and we're gonna be covering it at the end. So now that our crumb coat is done we need to let this set in the fridge to firm up for about 30 minutes or up to 24 hours. So now we're ready to work on our finishing coat. You may notice some air bubbles in the frosting. While it's cold you can take your scraper to the sides again and take off a small layer and it'll smooth it out. So we'll start this step by doing it the same way by piping around all of the edges, doing a heavy coat of the frosting. You'll want about a quarter inch of frosting on the sides. We'll use the same technique to smooth out with our scraper. Okay, so now this time around is the frosting that you are taking off okay to put back in the bowl to reuse? Yes, you can use this frosting again because it won't have crumbs in it. So now we'll do the same process of patching the holes and then removing the excess. Today for this cake we decided to use a simple American buttercream but it tends to be a little bit difficult as it tends to crust over more quickly. But if you really want a smooth, nice silky cake I would recommend using a meringue buttercream like Swiss or Italian. Yeah, I'm actually going to link my recipes for all of my buttercreams in the description box and Swiss meringue buttercream is actually my favorite style of buttercream and while it does take a little more effort to make, the taste and texture is definitely worth it. And it's going to give you that really silky appearance to your finished cake. So we'll continue this process until you're happy with the sides. Keep in mind that you can spend a lot of time on this part but you can stop at any time, it doesn't have to be perfect. Yeah, I actually really like it when cakes look a little bit rustic. I think that's how you know they are homemade and it just adds a more personal touch. So now for the top of the cake you want to add about a half inch thick of frosting and then again, we'll use our scraper to scrape the top towards the middle to smooth it out. I found these super colorful and festive sprinkles and I thought they would be perfect for a bright and springy cake. If you want to border around the bottom rim, you can take a handful of the sprinkles and with a good amount of pressure, press them into the sides of the cake. This is a really helpful tip if you have any spots you want to cover. So we've chosen to do some swirls around the top and a good way to get a nice even circle is to make a guide. You'll want to hold a butter knife or a toothpick in one hand and rotate the turntable. So then now we'll pipe the swirls around the circle. I'm using a small star tip and a piping bag and then I'll add a few more sprinkles to the top and that's it and now you have a beautiful cake. So Kelly, I really appreciate you coming today and showing us how to make this beautiful cake. Truthfully, I kind of avoid layer cakes at all costs because they always feel really intimidating but I think you showed us that it's actually not as hard as you think. Yeah, I think it came out really great. I know I'd be really excited if someone made me this cake. So I hope you try it. It's really fun and really versatile for anything that you could want. Absolutely. So I think we got to cut into it, right? Yeah, for sure. Oh my gosh, look at it. Oh my gosh. Look at this. That is perfect. That is so good. It is so good. I love this chiffon cake so much. I really hope you guys try it and I really hope you try all of Kelly's decorating tips because look at this. This is perfect cake for spring or any kind of celebration. Easter. Yeah, absolutely. Any birthday party. Absolutely. So Kelly, thank you so much for coming today and I'm going to leave her social media handles down in the description box so you can check out what else she's doing and you can follow me at BakerBettie on Instagram and on Facebook and make sure you hit that subscription button if you aren't already subscribed so you never miss a video and I'll see you guys next time with another recipe tutorial. Bye.