The Contemporary Buttercream Bible Read Online Free

smooth
    buttercream covered cakes in the USA. However, if
    you don’t live in the States, you will need an
    alternative that you can source locally, so we have
    spent some time researching a product that can be
    found all over the world. We tried and tried
    different mediums until we came up with using a
    non-woven cloth, which has a smooth side and does
    not stick to the buttercream. Non-woven cloth may
    come in plain white or with minimal design. A good
    example of this is the interfacing fabric that is used in sewing. You can buy this by the metre or yard
    and it is very cheap. You can use any other similar
    non-woven fabric as long as it is really smooth and
    has no holes or ridges.
    1 Make sure that you use either a palette knife or a
    scraper to smooth and get rid of most of the lines or 60

    ridges in the buttercream before the surface crusts.
    This will be very helpful later during the actual
    smoothing process.
    2 Since our buttercream recipe is a ‘crusting’ type of frosting, it is important that you wait until the
    surface is dry to the touch, usually 10–20 minutes.
    Test this by gently touching the surface (A). If it still sticks on your finger, it means you have to let it
    stand for few more minutes at room temperature.
    Don’t chill it in the fridge as this is a moist
    environment and will obviously not help in drying.
    A
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    3 Using the smooth side of your non-woven cloth,
    place it onto the surface of the cake and rub the
    cloth using your fingers to flatten any ridges and
    unevenness (B).
    B
    4 Slowly peel the cloth away and check if there are
    still parts that need smoothing. Instead of rubbing
    again, use a plain edge cake scraper gently and with
    a little bit of pressure (C), running it over the cloth and all the away around the cake until perfectly
    smooth (D).
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    C
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    D
    Tip
    When smoothing the side of the cake we
    usually start from the bottom and work
    upwards. We then scrape horizontally all
    around the cake before smoothing from the
    bottom up again until we get a perfectly
    smooth finish.
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    Sharp Edges
    A couple of wise men and women of the cake
    decorating industry once told us that if you want to
    create sharp edges on your cake, they must be
    absolutely flawless. This can be a little tricky to
    achieve in the beginning, but as we always say,
    practice is the only secret.
    It is very important to remove any excess
    buttercream to achieve sharp edges, otherwise you
    will find yourself in an endless repetitive loop:
    smooth the side, excess goes to the top, smooth the
    top, excess goes to the side ad infinitum !
    1 Using a palette knife, scraper or a small kitchen
    knife, trim the bumpy excess buttercream around
    the edge of the cake. (A)
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    A
    2 Apply the non-woven cloth on the surface and
    smooth again with a help of a cake scraper (B).
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    B
    Tip
    Fresh buttercream gets exposed when you
    trim the edges, so wait for it to crust again
    before applying the non-woven cloth.
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    Before you decorate...
    Let’s make it clear that the steps for covering
    your cake with a smooth finish are as follows:
    1. Crumb coat
    2. Apply a layer of buttercream and level/
    smooth with a palette knife
    3. Smooth with a cake scraper
    4. Smooth further with non-woven cloth
    5. Create sharp edges
    Important! In the chapters that follow we have created at least one couture cake to
    demonstrate the technique we have shown in
    that chapter. It is assumed in the instruction for
    creating the cake that you have already crumb
    coated it. Note that you will need about
    200–300g (7–101⁄2oz) of plain buttercream to
    crumb coat each cake. This quantity is not
    included in the requirements list for the cake.
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    Textured Finish
    Rather than making the surface perfectly smooth,
    here is another way of covering your cake. The
    results can be achieved in a flash just by using some simple tools.
    Fork
    Simply run the fork over the surface of your cake in
    whichever direction you wish. You can even do