What is a crumb coat?
People ask me this in my classes all the time. What is a crumb coat and why do we do it?
Have you ever had a crummy cake?
What that means is you are putting the buttercream onto the sides and top of the cake and the cake is too fresh and the cake is coming off? Yes, get that feeling? You get frustrated and annoyed and don’t know what to do. A crumb coat is the first coat that you put on the cake to seal in the crumbs, hence the name. It looks like I suppose a naked cake. You know, the wedding cakes which are popular at the moment. Once you have done it pop it into the fridge for about 15 minutes to set the crumb coat.
HELP what do I do if the cake comes away??
A good tip is to boil the kettle and put some hot water into a jug. Using a palette knife dip it into the hot water and then onto the buttercream on the cake, spreading it out and this will stop the cake from coming away. Sometimes I dip into the hot water then put some buttercream onto the knife and then spread it around. It does work.
A true story of a crummy cake
A few years ago one of my learners came into my class, looked upset, and said to me “My cake is terrible”. I said to her “Let’s have a look at it”. I said it needs a crumb coat. We started crumb-coating it and I agreed it was not good, too crummy, meaning the sponge was coming away. So we tried the hot water trick, which is to dip the palette knife in the water after applying the buttercream to the cake. It is easier to spread that way. It took a while but we covered the cake with buttercream. She put it in the fridge and rolled out the fondant. She then covered the cake again with a thin layer of buttercream to allow the icing to stick and it was a lot better this time. At the end of the night, she was beaming and couldn’t believe that it was the same cake. It did look really good. All the other learners were saying how good it was and how we turned something awful into really good.
So remember, always crumb coat your cake and what to do if it is crummy
Cake decorators are always problem-solving something with something and have to think on their feet.
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Happy baking
Caroline x
