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10 Cake FAILS and How to Fix Them
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Sep 6, 2024
These are the 10 most common mistakes people make when they’re making cakes, from condensation to exploding piping bags and accidentally poking a finger into your cake. I’ll show you tricks to fix each one so it doesn’t ruin your cake. These aren't the most beautiful things to watch but I hope they're helpful! If you have any cake fails you don't understand or don't want to repeat, tell me about them in the comments and I'll try to help! For my online cake decorating school click here: https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/online-courses To read a written version of this tutorial (with photos!) click here: https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/10-cake-fails-and-how-to-fix-them SUBSCRIBE to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week!
View Video Transcript
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These are the 10 most common mistakes people make when they're making cakes
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from condensation to exploding piping bags and accidentally poking a finger into your cake
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I'll show you tricks to fix each one so it doesn't ruin your cake
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If your cake layers crumble when they come out of the pan, this is probably the simplest thing to fix
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Chill the cake layers in the fridge for about an hour so that they firm up and then assemble your cake as normal
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But if you have any really damaged cake layers with large cracks, put them in the middle, because they'll threaten the
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stability of the cake if they're at the bottom or on top. Now frost the cake as normal and since
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the cake layers are cold they won't crumble and fall apart as you spread on the frosting. As you spread
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you'll push the frosting into any cracks or holes in the cake and after smoothing the frosting you'd
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never guess the cake layers weren't perfect underneath the frosting. If your buttercream is too stiff
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then when you try and frost your cake you'll find that your spatula sticks to the cake
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instead of gliding over it to spread the buttercream and if you use a frosting scraper you'll probably pull the
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the whole cake over with it. Easy to fix, add more milk to the buttercream until you can stir it
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like peanut butter, leaving soft peaks behind and a smooth trail in the butter cream. Now your cake
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will be much easier to frost. If you scrape off too much frosting, you'll expose the cake
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underneath, like here on the top of this cake, where I applied too much pressure with my offset
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spatula, or here on the side of this cake, where my frosting wasn't quite thick enough
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for the texture on my cake comb. Don't panic. for the top of the cake to spread more frosting over the entire top and smooth it again and then tidy up the sides again where the frosting spread over the edges and then tidy up the top again
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For the sides of the cake follow the same idea, spreading more frosting over the
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area where you can see the cake and also the surrounding areas
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otherwise you'll scrape this fresh frosting straight off again and expose the cake again
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When all of the frosting on the cake is a bit thicker, go around the cake again with your frosting smoother or textured cake comb
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and the frosting will be thick enough to cover up the cake. the cake. Condensation is a pain, especially in hot countries. It happens with a drastic change in
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temperature, for example, moving a cake from the freezer to a warm room. To avoid this, change the
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temperature gradually, moving the cake from the freezer to the fridge for a few hours, and then to
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room temperature. Ideally, crank up the air conditioning to cool the room down, to minimize the
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difference in temperature. You can dab any beads of condensation off a cake if the frosting has set
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by pressing a paper towel gently against the cake to absorb it. If you're enjoying this tutorial, please click the thumbs up button to like it
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and subscribe to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week
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And check out my cake school for lots of online classes and courses
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and you'll find the link in the top of the screen and in the description below this video
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If you don't like a border you've piped onto a cake, there are two ways to take it off. If the frosting on your cake has set
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immediately after piping the border you can scrape the border off with an offset spatchel
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or a frosting smoother, and you won't damage the frosting on the cake because it's firm
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Then you can pipe another border on top instead. If the frosting on the cake hasn set put the whole cake in the fridge for an hour or in the freezer for 15 minutes to set the frosting on the cake and the frosting of the border And then use a sharp knife to cut the border off the top of the cake
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You won't damage the frosting on the cake by doing it this way, but you would if you tried to scrape the border off while the frosting on the cake was still soft and sticky
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Until you get the hang of drip cakes, it's easy to make your drip too runy so that the drips run all the way down to the bottom of the cake, or too thick, where they don't drip down
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at all. Straight after you've applied the drip, scrape it off with an offset
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spatula or a frosting smoother. Making sure you get all of it off the sides of the
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cake but don't worry too much about the top because you'll cover that up in a second
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Now apply the drip again using your favourite method, pouring it and spreading it
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dripping it with a spoon or using a squeezy bottle. I cover how to create drips in
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lots of detail in my online course on 50 easy cake decorating techniques and the link is in the
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top of the screen and in the video description. Avoid the this problem with drips next time by doing a test drip first, checking the consistency of the drip
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and seeing how it behaves on your cake before applying the rest of the drip. Troubleshooting tips
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like this aren't always the most beautiful thing to watch but I hope these are helpful. This one
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has happened to me more times than I can count. Exploding piping bags, where the tip pops out
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of the end of the piping bag and frosting bursts out onto your cake. This happens when the hole you've
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cut at the end of the piping bag is too big for the piping tip you're using. Only about half of the piping tip should stick out of a piping bag so that when you apply pressure to the bag you won push the piping tip all the way through the hole To fix this either put the piping tip in a bag with a smaller hole or put a coupler into the piping bag which is bigger than the piping tip so it won squeeze out and then screw the piping tip onto the outside of the coupler
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After frosting your cake, you'll have smudges of buttercream on the cake board around your cake
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It's not a mistake, it's bound to happen, but it is easy to fix
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No complicated maneuver of transferring your cake to another cakeboard, just wrap your finger in a paper towel and wipe the smudges off the cake
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I like to do this after chilling the cake in the fridge to set the frosting so that if I brush against the cake with the paper towel I won't damage the frosting since it's set. Chilling it does make the frosting smudges firmer though so you'll have to apply a bit of pressure to wipe them off
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Poked your finger into a cake by mistake. It's infuriating when it happens after you finish decorating a cake but it is possible to fix it
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If the frosting has set, try wiping the indent gently with a paper towel to flatten it or use an offset spatula
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offset spatula. This works for shallow indents but if it's too deep or if the frosting on the cake
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hasn't set, spread some more frosting over that area and gently smooth it with an offset spatula
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or a frosting smoother. If your frosting isn't piping properly because there's a chunky
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ingredient like oreo crumbs or a fruit puree like strawberry, pry the prongs of the piping tip
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outwards to widen the gap that your frosting will come through. Then try again and the frosting
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will pipe beautifully. I hope this video has been helpful. Check out my online cake school for lots of cake decorating classes and join my club for access to them all
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