What is more difficult, baking or icing cakes?

[Natalie Howard]

What is more difficult, baking or icing cakes? Do you have any icing tips?

 

[Norcalbaker59]

What is more difficult, baking or icing cakes? Do you have any icing tips?

The most important aspect of decorating a cake has to do with how you bake the cake, and how you assemble it in preparation for decorating. If the cake is not prepared properly, a number of issues will develop after the cake is iced and/or covered in fondant.


Use cloth baking strips on cake pans to ensure cakes bake level.


Use simple syrup on each layer as you assemble the cake to ensure it is moist. A refrigerated cake will dry out.


Torte layers for a more balanced and uniform look.


Bake cakes at least two day before decorating. This allows one day to set before filling and crumb coating. And another day to settle after filling and crumb coating to allow air to escape.


Prevent air bubbles and bulges: air gets trapped between the layers during filling and stacking the layer. As the cake settles, the weight of the cake forces the trapped air out. As the air pockets are forced out, they cause bulging or visible air bubbles to form under the icing/fondant. How you assemble the cake will prevent those horrible bulges and bubbles.

• Assemble cakes in either a cake ring or cake pan. Gently press on each cake layer after placing it over filling to squeeze air out. I prefer to use cake rings for assembly as you can remove it without flipping the cake.

• Consider the weight of each layer and tier and the viscosity of the filling. A larger 10" cake and cakes with multiple tiers will exert pressure on lower layers/tiers. If filling is too soft the weight of the cake will force the filling towards the outside edges and cause bulging. So filling should be on the thicker side for larger and tiered cakes.

• Consider effect of temperature change on filling. A filling that is firm chilled, may become too soft to hold up layers/tiers when at room temperature.

• Dam the layers: pipe a 3/4" to 1" thick ring of buttercream on the outside edge of cake. Then pipe filling inside the dam of buttercream. If you do not dam the layers, the filling will migrate to the edges and cause the cake to bugle between each layer.

• Do not over fill. Use a piping with a small plain tip to pipe in filling. By using a piping bag, the filling thickness is uniform. Filling should not be more than 1/2" thick.

• De-gas your cakes: After filling and crumb coating, insert a lollipop stick down the center of the cake. Wiggle slightly to create a tiny hole. Remove the stick. Let the cake settle for several hours, preferably overnight.

• Dowels: uses the smallest and fewest number of dowels. For large tiered cakes that require larger dowels on bottom layers, first create a the hole with a straw, like a bubble ice tea straw. Then insert the dowel. Using too too many dowels and/or too large of dowels can cause a cake to crack and fall apart.

 

[ChesterV]

When I was in baking, I always used frozen cake to decorate. It holds up better while you are working with it, especially if you actually sculpt the cake for certain things like I did.

Once the cakes come out of the oven, I let them cool till I can touch them with my bare hands, and then flip them upside down onto a cookie sheet covered with plastic wrap. Then I cover the cake layers with plastic wrap before putting them in the freezer.

While the moisture is still escaping from the warm cake, it will freeze making a thin outside layer of ice on the cake.
When unwrapping the cake layers for assembly, the frozen bits act as its own simple syrup, as when the ice melts it absorbs back into the cake keeping it super moist.

I have used simple syrups before, but usually to add flavoring to a cake or if someone orders "extra moist" cake.
I did use it as a standard on wedding cakes though, because the batter I used for wedding cakes was dense and thick, almost like a pound cake. Which is what you want when making a cake that is large or that will be stacked in some way.

As for your question, which is more difficult, it depends on who you ask. For me, I would say baking is the easy part............decorating, sculpting, or frosting is more difficult because its the finish on the cake, which you want to look as good as possible.

 

[Margot Howe]

I'm no decorator of cakes. I make simple layer cakes or even sheet cakes. Whether the cake is the most difficult depends on your baking experience. If you are new to it, then the cloth strips Norcalbaker59 may not be familiar to you. They are available at places where you can find cake supplies and are not expensive. Adjustable, you wet the cloth strip and wrap it around (adjust it) to the cake pans. This prevents the edges from cooking more rapidly than the center and keeps the cake from forming that mound in the center. This is good because when you stack the cake, it lies flat on top of each tier that you made, which makes it easier to frost. The ease of making cake or frosting will depend on your equipment. I have a Kitchen Aid mixer but didn't always have one. I made cakes for several years with just a hand mixer. The frosting also depends on the equipment. I use a food processor to make mine. Quick, efficient, and makes a creamy texture. This works well for a butter type frosting. A hand mixer would work as well here. Cooked frostings are a different animal. Getting the frosting on the cake can be troublesome. Get an offset spatula to spread it. Most people I know say to do the sides first, then the tops. That offset spatula will help to flatten the surface. I do the top first and the sides get the remainder and hopefully there will be enough to do all the sides. There has always been enough so far.

 

[Apocalypso]

I think decorating tends to be vastly more time consuming and requires specific skills. Cake baking sort of translates from a lot of other types of cooking and baking. Measure ingredients, and especially with the power tools a lot of us own, the creaming / whipping part is pretty easy. Folding is something of a skill. But baking isn't nearly as difficult as doing all the steps NorCalBaker described to torte (level), fill, frost, and decorate a cake. And the decorating requires a lot of hand work. I'm really not very skilled with piping, so I hope to practice a bit here and there.

 

[ninamari]

As it was mentioned above, it depends on who you ask. For me, I think baking is the easy part. But give me a naked cake and buttercream and I'll turn into a stressed out mess within a couple of hours. I can't, for the life of me, spread buttercream smoothly on a cake. I'll fake it with simpler techniques like piping rosettes. Although, I recently acquired a cake decorating comb, so I might be able to fake it more easily

 

[RedShoe]

I don't decorate, so i guess baking by default! I am not a fan of frosting, verb or noun. (I'm the one at the party with a plate full of "painstakingly piped buttercream" plopped on it.) This is why i make bundts. I'm an energy conservationist and a minimalist (read: lazy), so this works in my favor. I personally got tired just reading the steps in NorCal's post (lol!), so i know i don't see me ever doing it. My Own Opinion: all of the work and sugar involved in decorating a cake takes away from the cake itself. I use toppings/icing to add a complementary (or balanced opposing) flavor or texture to the cake, but the cake itself is the star, so that's where my time and energy goes. If the cake is wrong, the topping means nothing.

 

[-Daniel-]

For me I think the baking is the easy part, if you're following a recipe, but for me it's also the most important.