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Every cake design looks better with smooth frosting so in this tutorial I'll show you
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five hacks to get super smooth frosting on your cakes. Let's start with tools. You'll need a
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turntable, an offset spatula, a cake comb and whatever frosting you're using. This is my
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4 Minute Buttercream and the recipe is on britishgirlbakes.com. Start by spooning frosting
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onto the top of the cake and spread it to push it out over the edges of the cake. This will give you
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sharp angles later from the top to the sides of the cake. Now hold your offset spatula on top of
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the frosting at a 45 degree angle as you spin the cake and this will collect the excess frosting
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which you can then whisk away leaving a smooth surface on top of the cake. Now for the sides
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The most important hack I think is to build a wall or lip around the top edge of the cake
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If your frosting is already sticking out sideways this will naturally push upwards as you spread
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the frosting from side to side around the cake but if not you'll need to push diagonally upwards
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to spread the frosting so that it sticks up above the top of the cake all the way around
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Otherwise you'll get gaps or air pockets or indents around the top edge. The white frosting you can see
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already on the cake is the crumb coat and if you're not sure how to do that and get up to this point
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watch my tutorial on how to crumb coat a cake and the link for that is in the top of the screen
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and in the video description. When the frosting covers the cake from top to bottom so you can't
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see the crumb coat anywhere, switch to a cake comb to scrape around the cake to smooth the frosting
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and the hack here is to push down on the cake board with your cake comb to line it up straight
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against the sides of the cake and this will give you straight sides instead of sloping or slanting
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or leaning sides. After a few scrapes, fill in any gaps or indents by spreading more frosting over them
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and then scrape around the cake again with a cake comb to smooth those parts until the frosting is
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not perfect but fairly level and straight and smooth. Now for the fourth hack for smooth
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frosting. Use a warm metal cake comb. You can dip it into a pan of hot water or hold it under
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hot running water or run a blow torch along the edge. Rub the comb with a towel to dry it off
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and cool it down slightly so it's just warm, not hot, and then scrape around the cake with it. The
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warm metal will glide over the frosting, dragging it around the cake to fill in any tiny air bubbles
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in the frosting, leaving a perfectly smooth surface behind. You can do this a few times but make sure
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the metal is never hot because heat can change the colour of the frosting. Now for the top edge
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swipe sideways and wipe. What does that mean? Hold your offset spatula level with the top of the cake
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and push sideways to push that wall or lip of frosting over the edge and then lift it away on
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your offset spatula. Scrape the frosting into your bowl and then wipe the spatula clean on a towel or
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paper towel before using it again. Otherwise you'll drag dregs of buttercream back onto the top edge
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and leave little lines of texture along it. Even though the natural reaction is to push down to get
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rid of this buttercream that's sticking up, don't do it! Push sideways because if you push down you'll
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cause a bulge in the frosting on the sides of the cake so push sideways and then wipe so that the
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blade is clean. Spin the cake a bit and then push sideways again to level the next section and wipe
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the blade all the way around the cake to flatten and level the top edge and give you sharp angles
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from the side to the top of the cake. So five hacks for smooth frosting on cakes. Hold your offset
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spatula at a 45 degree angle to smooth the top of the cake. Spread upwards to make a wall or lip of
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frosting above the top edge of the cake. Push your cake comb down on the cake board to line it up for
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straight sides on your cakes. Use a warm metal cake comb to remove air bubbles and leave a super
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smooth surface on the sides and push sideways and then wipe your offset spatula as you work your way
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around the top edge of the cake. I hope this has been useful! Ask me any questions in the comments
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and if you want to dive deeper into how to make and frost and decorate cakes using buttercream
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visit my cake school on britishgirlbakes.com to start your seven day free trial of my All You
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Can Cake membership, which gives you access to everything on my cake school so you can start
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wherever you need to and learn the skills and techniques to take your cakes to the next level
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I hope to see you there! Thanks for watching
