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10 Hacks for Smooth Frosting on Cakes
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May 2, 2025
In this cake decorating tutorial I'll use five cakes to show you the 10 most common struggles with icing or frosting a cake, and how to prevent or fix them! 💫Start your FREE 7 day trial on my cake school https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/p/all-you-can-cake/ 🎂LEARN The Basics of Cake and The Basics of Buttercream in my most popular online courses! https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/ 👩🏼🍳My 4 Minute Buttercream recipe https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/recipes/buttercream-frosting/ 📄READ a written version of this tutorial (with photos!) https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/10-easy-hacks-for-smooth-buttercream-frosting/ 👍Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week! 💬 SAY HI! Website: https://www.britishgirlbakes.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/britishgirlbakes
View Video Transcript
0:00
i'm going to use five cakes to show you
0:02
the most common struggles with icing or
0:04
frosting a cake and how to prevent and
0:07
fix them The first and maybe most
0:10
important hack is to spread or pipe a
0:12
bit of buttercream onto the middle of
0:14
your cakeboard before you place your
0:16
first cake layer onto it This
0:18
buttercream acts as glue and it will
0:20
attach the cake to the cakeboard so it
0:22
doesn't slide around while you're
0:23
layering it and then frosting or icing
0:25
and decorating it Let's look at what
0:28
happens if you skip that buttercream
0:29
glue As soon as you apply any pressure
0:31
to the cake as you flatten any filling
0:33
bulges around the cake and then spread
0:35
frosting on even just pushing lightly
0:38
against the sides of the cake will push
0:39
the cake across the cakeboard Add a dot
0:41
of buttercream as glue and ta The cake
0:44
is anchored down onto the middle of the
0:46
cakeboard and it won't slip and slide
0:48
around as you decorate it Of course to
0:50
get smooth frosting on cakes you'll need
0:52
the cake to have straight sides And you
0:54
can do this even if your cake layers
0:56
fall apart as you turn them out of the
0:57
cake pan Here's the hack to fix broken
1:00
cake layers Use buttercream to attach
1:02
any pieces that fall off the cake so
1:04
that each layer is level and straight
1:06
And after layering and frosting the cake
1:08
it will have a neat shape ready to frost
1:11
The next step is to chill and crumb coat
1:13
the cake which is a thin layer of
1:15
buttercream or any other frosting spread
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to completely cover the cake to trap any
1:19
crumbs that come off It's best to do
1:21
this when the cake is cold after it's
1:23
been in the fridge for about 30 minutes
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for two reasons The first is that dot of
1:28
buttercream underneath the cake in the
1:30
middle of the cakeboard which is acting
1:31
as glue to hold the cake in place When
1:34
buttercream gets cold it gets very firm
1:36
So that dot of buttercream will keep the
1:38
cake the most securely in place when
1:40
it's cold even as you're spreading and
1:42
scraping the frosting around it The
1:44
second reason for chilling the cake
1:46
before frosting it is that when cakes
1:48
get cold they get much firmer and less
1:50
crumbly So as you're spreading frosting
1:52
onto the cake it will pull off fewer
1:54
crumbs than when it's at room
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temperature Don't worry about getting
1:57
the crumb coat very neat because it's
1:59
going to be covered up in a minute So
2:00
it's fine that you can see dark brown
2:02
cake through the buttercream down here
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at the bottom Scrape around the cake a
2:06
few times so that there aren't any big
2:08
bulges of frosting sticking out around
2:10
the sides and so that the top is flat
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and level Put the cake back into the
2:14
fridge for 30 minutes And now once the
2:17
frosting is cold and firm not sticky
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it's time for hack number four Spread
2:22
another layer of frosting over the cake
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And the hack here is to prepare the top
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edge of the cake After covering the top
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of the cake with a layer of frosting
2:30
spread that frosting around the sides up
2:32
so that it makes a wall or lip sticking
2:34
up above the top of the cake And this
2:37
will allow you to create neat sharp
2:39
edges around the top edge of the cake I
2:41
like to spread frosting all the way down
2:43
to the cakeboard and then scrape a few
2:45
times And if that wall at the top isn't
2:47
as thick as the rest of the frosting go
2:49
back up to the top to spread on some
2:51
more buttercream pushing diagonally
2:53
upwards again with an offset spatula to
2:55
make the wall or lip thicker And you'll
2:57
see why this is so important when we get
2:59
to hack number nine The next hack is
3:02
really patience but broken down into
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scrape spread and repeat Which means
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first scrape around the cake with your
3:08
cake comb and then spread more
3:10
buttercream over any areas that are
3:12
shallower or where you see indents or
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holes or gaps in the frosting Then
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repeat Scrape spread and again scrape
3:20
spread When you scrape push the cake
3:22
comb down onto the cakeboard to line it
3:24
up straight against the side of the cake
3:26
Spin the turntable with your other hand
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so that the cake spins around and your
3:30
hand holding the cake comb doesn't move
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It just holds the cake comb still
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Pressing very very gently against the
3:36
side of the cake to smooth the frosting
3:38
Swipe it away when you can't spin the
3:40
turntable anymore Be patient The
3:42
frosting won't be smooth straight away
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so scrape spread and repeat until you're
3:46
happy with it But it's important to
3:48
mention hack number six here which is to
3:51
make sure your buttercream is the right
3:52
consistency If it's too stiff you'll see
3:54
lots of texture as you stir it It will
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look almost chunky with lots of big air
3:59
pockets as you pull a spoon or spatula
4:01
through it Add more milk a spoonful at a
4:03
time to thin it out so it's easy to stir
4:05
And now it will be easier to spread too
4:08
gliding over the cake and looking much
4:11
smoother The opposite is when
4:12
buttercream is too runny like this And
4:15
as you spread it it will sink down
4:16
instead of holding its shape and
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position on the cake To thicken
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buttercream you can add more sugar but
4:22
it will make it really sweet So instead
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add some stiffer buttercream And the
4:27
stiff and runny buttercream will mix
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together to make the perfect in between
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consistency Next up are two hacks for
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air bubbles You can have air bubbles in
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buttercream even if it's the right
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consistency You can see lots of them
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here as I'm coloring the buttercream
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They happen as air is incorporated into
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the buttercream as you mix the butter
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and sugar together and they get worse
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with changes in temperature You can
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knock the air out of the buttercream by
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pushing down on it squeezing the air out
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and by stirring quite aggressively like
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this Do you hear those slapping sounds
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you want to knock the buttercream
4:59
against the sides of the bowl to push
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the air out from it That's the first air
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bubble hack which is the simplest But
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there's another one that's even more
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effective and that's heat When you see
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lots of air bubbles in your buttercream
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scoop about a third of it out of your
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bowl and into a microwave safe bowl and
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microwave it for 10 seconds It will look
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shiny because some of the butter will
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melt and it will be much runnier too
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Pour this into your main bowl of
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buttercream and stir it in And at first
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it will seem really runny but as you mix
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it all together the consistency will
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correct itself and the combination of
5:31
the melted butter and the stirring will
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make the air bubbles disappear The other
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hack using heat to remove air bubbles is
5:38
to use it on the cake So as you're
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scraping the frosting smooth with a cake
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comb a metal comb is the most effective
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for this Heat the straight edge with a
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hair dryer or a blow torch or dip the
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comb into hot water and rub it with a
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towel to dry it and to cool it down so
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it's warm not hot Then scrape around the
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cake and the warm metal will glide over
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the buttercream warming and softening
6:00
the very outer layer which it will then
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drag around the cake to fill in any air
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bubbles and other shallow imperfections
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in the frosting leaving a super smooth
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surface behind on the cake Once the
6:10
sides are smooth move on to the top edge
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which you prepped with hack number four
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by spreading the frosting up around the
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top edge Push sideways with your offset
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spatula or pallet knife and then swipe
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away taking the excess buttercream with
6:22
you Scrape that into your bowl of
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frosting and then wipe the blade clean
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on a towel or paper towel and repeat all
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around the cake Wiping the spatula clean
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is essential because if you don't you'll
6:33
drag buttercream back onto the top edge
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and leave it as textured lines along the
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edge of the cake Make sure you push
6:39
sideways but not down Because if you
6:41
push down that pressure will push the
6:43
buttercream outwards and you'll have a
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bulge at the top of the sides of the
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cake After going all the way around the
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cake get down to eye level and spin the
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cake And wherever you see that part of
6:52
the top edge isn't flat swipe over that
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part again After everything you've done
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to get smooth frosting don't ruin it by
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skipping this final hack which is to use
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the fridge Putting a frosted cake in the
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fridge will set the buttercream frosting
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so that it's firm so that when you add
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decorations that piping or stenciling
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won't damage the frosting Having cold
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firm frosting before adding cake toppers
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is really important too so that the
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weight of the toppers doesn't push down
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on the frosting and cause bulges like
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this I hope these 10 hacks will help you
7:23
get your icing or frosting super smooth
7:25
Visit my cake school on
7:27
britishgirlbakes.com to learn hundreds
7:28
of cake decorating techniques and
7:30
designs with my online courses and
7:32
memberships See you there
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