What is crumb coat and how do I do it and what is piping gel?
I am so so very new to cake decorating but I want to make nice cakes for my girls so I am trying to learn to make the perfect cake for my daughters 16 birthday and well just for the girls. So, I am learning I have came across crumb coat a few times and I don't know what that is can some explain to me I read somewhere that you cover with piping gel? then I read awhile ago that piping gel is used for designs etc. I found piping gel at Wal mart but don't know what its for. I read that its clear and can add color. Can someone help me? Thank you guys,
Shana
Shana
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Judith Dias on
-
Crumb coating is the first layer of icing on the cake. It is a thin layer of icing, makes the cake neat, fills up any gaps left in the cake, u can also level the cake by applying icing at this time. You will need to allow this to crust a bit before you put on the actual layer of icing or fondant/mazipan. If u go to you tube you will find a tutorial there on how to crumb coat. Hope this helps
-
Permalink Reply by ebony bardell on
-
I just started too fir the same reasons. Welcome! I made my one year old his first cake for his birthday with cream cheese whipped cream frosting. what a pita! But a good learning experience. I think piping gel are those disposable tubes of colored icing for writing
-
Permalink Reply by Gretchen Belsome on
-
Piping gel is this clear geltin type stuff you can put in your icing to make piping a little more stiff, I would say. I have some, used it in a Wilton class and never used it again, I think we used it to make those little hard round faces and something else, but I don't remember. It is good for tracing pictures also for transfers. It can also be used as an adhesive. I know when I covered a cake drum in my last wilton class we used that to glue the fondant to the board.
I don't do a lot of fondant covered cakes and so I have only crumb coated a few cakes, and I still get crumbs in my butter cream when I do it. So I don't do it everytime. There are plenty of helpful videos on youtube for cake decorating. I have learned more since I joined this site then I ever did in a Wilton class. I love Love Love a women who has her own site www.designmeacake.com, her name is Edna, she has tutorials on her web page. She is so fun to watch. She is a member here and on facebook too. Some of her videos are posted on this site too.
-
Permalink Reply by Shanna on
-
I found her and she is the best I have watched. I have been watching her videos just about all day lol. thanks for everything.
Gretchen Belsome said:Piping gel is this clear geltin type stuff you can put in your icing to make piping a little more stiff, I would say. I have some, used it in a Wilton class and never used it again, I think we used it to make those little hard round faces and something else, but I don't remember. It is good for tracing pictures also for transfers. It can also be used as an adhesive. I know when I covered a cake drum in my last wilton class we used that to glue the fondant to the board.
I don't do a lot of fondant covered cakes and so I have only crumb coated a few cakes, and I still get crumbs in my butter cream when I do it. So I don't do it everytime. There are plenty of helpful videos on youtube for cake decorating. I have learned more since I joined this site then I ever did in a Wilton class. I love Love Love a women who has her own site www.designmeacake.com, her name is Edna, she has tutorials on her web page. She is so fun to watch. She is a member here and on facebook too. Some of her videos are posted on this site too.
-
Permalink Reply by Karen Marie on
-
I think that is a great idea to watch Edna's videos on YouTube...this way you can get alot of good foundational material...sometimes it is hard to explain everything and takes alot of time to do that plus for me a picture is worth a thousand words..show me and then I get it...then it is practice practice practice....there are some other good tutorials here on this site and on www.cakecentral.com Utilize the search features and you can find just about anything you want. Also try www.cakemixdoctor.com for recipes and www.sugarteachersblogspot.com
-
Permalink Reply by Lynne Salmon on
-
......Piping gel is this clear geltin type stuff you can put in your icing to make piping a little more stiff.....
NO:) Piping gel will NOT make icing stiffer - but just the opposite. It thins icing and gives it an ever-so-tiny bit of stretch and smoothness.
Crumbcoating is a technique used to seal the cake so no crumbs get into the final/finish coat of icing.
Thanks to the many cake shows on FoodNetwork TV it is sometimes refered to as 'dirty icing' also. That's because one does not care if crumbs get into this very *thin* layer of icing. It will dry and seal those crumbs. It also will make the cake smoother by filling in any tiny gaps or cracks in the cake. It should not take but a few seconds/minutes to dry. Touch the crumb coated cake; if any icing come off on your finger it is NOT dry yet:)
Get in the habit of putting a small amount of icing in a seperate bowl to use as your crumbocat. Never work right out of the bowl of icing you will use to finish your cake. If crumbs get into the seperate bowl that's o.k. but you don't want any in the finish icing.
Here's a tip for crumbcoating: For an average size cake put about 1/4 cup of icing into a Microwave safe small bowl. "Zap" it for about 5 seconds. Watch it thru the door and you can see it start to melt. You don't want it to get HOT, just melt it. Take it out & stir until it is completely melted (a few seconds) and *working quickly* pour it over the cake and spread w/a spatula all over the cake. Make sure every tiny bit of the cake is covered. It will look much like a glazed donut:) By the time you finish coating the caKE it is already dry. No need to wait. I've seen people recommend waiting up to 2 hrs for crumbcoating to dry! No, if it is taking that long something is very, very wrong! Just think if you had a busy shop (like Buddy on Cake Boss) can you imagine waiting 2 hrs for each of those 35-40 cakes to dry a couple of hours??
Any left-over melted icing *must be discarded*. It is not good for anything. Cannot re-melt; cannot add to other icing. *Never* put a crumbcoated cake in the frig to 'dry' because it never will!
Piping gel and clear jams such as apricot jelly can be used as a crumbcoat but it is just another ingredient to have on hand when what you already have to work with is right there:)
Piping gel can be used in many ways and yes it can be colored BUT.........it takes color very, very well so just a tiny speck usually is more than enough :) It makes great water:) And kids *love* to see their name piped on a cake in gel - so sparkly and pretty:)
-
Permalink Reply by Bunny Flowers on
-
I'm going to try this microwave crumb coat technique. Sometimes my crumb coat pulls off as I'm spreading the icing over it and this is frustrating. This technique may be just what I need to get a better "seal" on those pesky crumbs. Thanks!
-
-
..............my crumb coat pulls off as I'm spreading the icing over it and this is frustrating........
This sounds like your icing is too stiff. Try thinning it down w/piping gel OR just water. It should be like ice cream that you stirred until it is very soft. Not me.ted but soft and smooth.
But then, the MW melting is an easy way too.
-
-
For the upper coat of icing it should be that thin, too? I would think that would make it runny. I still need lots of practice in frosting a cake smooth, both in the crumb coat stage and with the main icing. One that I made for a friend, she commented to me later, had a ton of icing on it!
So I've been working on not overdoing the icing thickness -- but that means I have to not have any problems spreading it over the crumb coat, or it's less forgiving.
My Wilton instructor made it look so easy...and so quick...sigh
-
-
............*Never* put a crumbcoated cake in the frig to 'dry' because it never will!
I always refrigerate my cakes after I crumbcoat and they firm up just fine...in fact they are much better to put the final layer of icing on than room temperature cake.
Bunny sounds like you need to refrigerate or freeze your cakes before you ice them...it will make the cake firmer. You can ever nake your cake the day before you need to ice them to give the cake chance to get very cold. Then you can thin some icing with a little milk or water...maybe a tbsp or so to just spreading consistency. Put a thin layer over the whole cake and dont worry if the cake shows through at this stage. Refrigerate till th icing is firm. Then spread another layer over the whole cake and then you can get the edges straight and the sides and top smooth without the cake ripping or crumbs all in your icing. Hope that helps.
-
-
............been working on not overdoing the icing thickness ...........
Are you using the 'quick icer' tip? It's that real wide (3"?) tip from Wilton. It applies just the right thickness and all you have to do once you apply it is smooth it out a bit.
Yes, your icing should be thin consistency for icing a cake. It should not be runny - just soft enough to spread easily. Your Wilton instructor should be showing you what that looks/feels like.
Yes a chilled, firm cake is easier to ice. chilling a cake does help when one is learning but you should eventually be able to handle icing a roon temp cake w/o problems. when one has some 10-20 cakes a day to ice one cannot take the time to chill, wait for crumb coating to dry - in frig or not - and get everything done on time.
10-20 cakes? Yah, think a couple of wedding cakes, b'day cakes and maybe a shower thrown in there and you have 20 tiers easy.
-
Permalink Reply by Anne M on
-
Thank you guys for all the advise on crumb coat and the over coat (if I may call it that). I too have the same problem as Bunny my icing comes off with some cake. I think now the problem is my consistency. No, I have not used the quick icer. I guess practise makes perfect.................hope so...........I am going to keep trying.
Popular Cake Searches
© 2024 Created by Theresa Happe.
Powered by
