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How to Frost a Square Cake
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Sep 6, 2024
Square cakes are notoriously tricky to frost so in this tutorial I'm going to show you how to get super smooth frosting and sharp edges with no special tools. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:12 How to make square cake layers 0:15 How to assemble a square cake 0:51 Crumb coating a square cake 1:32 Make your own version of square acrylic discs using cardboard 2:08 Frost the top of a square cake 2:30 Frosting a square cake with a homemade disc 3:38 Square cake hack for smooth frosting 4:29 How to remove a square disc from a frosted cake 4:40 Smooth the top of a square cake *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
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0:00
Square cakes are notoriously tricky to frost, so in this tutorial I'm going to show you how to get super smooth frosting and sharp edges with no special tools
0:12
Choose a cakeboard big enough so that there are at least two inches around the edges of the cake so that you have space for frosting and decorations
0:20
Use a dot of buttercream to attach your first layer of cake onto the cake board, then pipe or spread on your filling and place your next cake layer on top and repeat to assemble your cake
0:30
I really recommend chilling your cake layers before you assemble your cake because cold cake layers are much easier to work with than when they're at room temperature
0:38
I'm using the extra cake scraps from the end of the sheet cake to add an extra layer to make cake
0:43
After assembling your cake, use your offset spatula to spread any filling around the edges of the cake so that it doesn't bulge out
0:50
Now, if your cake layers are cold, you can frost this straight away. If not, put the cake into the fridge for an hour or the freezer for 30 minutes
0:57
Start with a crumb coat, which is a very thin layer of frosting. to trap in any crumbs so that they don't get through into your final layer of frosting
1:05
This crumb coat does not need to be neat. It's going to be completely covered up in a moment
1:09
but it does need to cover all of the cake so that there's none exposed, and you don want any of this frosting to be sticking out around the edges of the cake or above the top edge of the cake because you going to chill this before adding your final layer of frosting and if there are any bulges they get cold and hard and be difficult to frost over later
1:27
Put the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 minutes to set this
1:30
and meanwhile create a square template, which you can do with any piece of cardboard and a ruler
1:36
Measure and draw a square the same size as your cake plus 2 centimetres
1:41
This will allow for one centimetre of frosting on each side of the cake
1:44
If you prefer to work in inches, add one inch. Cut the square out and put it on a piece of parchment paper
1:50
and wrap the parchment paper around the cardboard. This makes it non-stick and also food safe
1:55
which is important because it's going to touch your cake. Be really generous with tape to attach the parchment paper
2:00
because parchment paper is non-stick, which means tape isn't as effective as it would be on normal paper
2:06
When the cromco test set, spoon a big dollop of frosting onto the top of the cake
2:10
and spread it so that it completely covers the top of the cake and sticks out over the edge
2:14
This is very important to get those nice sharp angles from the sides onto the top of the cake later
2:20
Lower your cardboard square onto the top of the cake and adjust it so that there is the same amount sticking out on every side of the cake, which means it's centred
2:29
Then push down to attach it to the frosting on top of the cake. Now spread frosting around the sides of the cake completely covering it up and you aiming for an even thickness of frosting all over the cake Spread the frosting all the way up so it sticks up above the top edge and all the way down to the cake board and also make sure the frosting sticks out over the edges of the sides of the cake
2:49
again for those sharp angles later. Now switch to a cake comb and scrape from one edge to the other
2:55
and you'll immediately see air pockets where the frosting isn't as thick as it is over the rest of the cake
3:01
Spread more buttercream over those areas or air pockets and then scrape again to fill in the gaps
3:05
and take off all of the excess frosting. You'll find what works best for you here
3:10
I like to do most of my scrapes towards myself, but you can also scrape away from yourself
3:15
which feels very awkward, but it will give you the sharpest angles on the sides of your cake
3:20
This is quite a tedious process. It takes a long time to get very smooth sides
3:24
and also very sharp edges all around the cake, much longer than frosting around cake
3:30
If you run out of time and need to take a break, or if you get frustrated because you can't get your sides any smoother
3:35
or your edges any sharper. Pause. Here's a quick hack. Put the whole cake into the fridge for at least an hour
3:42
Cover your frosting bowl with cling film or saran wrap so it stays soft. When you take the cake out of the fridge, the frosting will be firm
3:49
Which is helpful because now, with just another very thin layer of frosting, you can get very smooth sides and very sharp edges
3:56
This works because this final very thin layer of frosting sits on top of the cold frosting and so it will chill very quickly which helps it to set And as you scrape it it will fill in any gaps in the cold frosting underneath it
4:08
leaving a smooth surface on top. It does mean that this frosting sets very quickly
4:12
so if you find as you scrape that you're tearing the butter cream, dip your cake comb into hot water
4:17
or if it's a metal cake comb, you can run a blow torch up and down the edge
4:20
and then scrape again. You might find that scraping upwards from the cake board to the top of the cake
4:25
will help smooth out any final texture in your frosting. Final step
4:30
Use a very sharp knife to slice just underneath the cardboard wrapped in parchment
4:33
on top of the frosting on the cake. Then it will be easy to lift the square off
4:38
and leave nice sharp edges around the top of the cake. You might need to fill in any indents or air pockets on the top of the cake
4:45
where the cardboard didn't press all the way down onto the frosting you initially spread there
4:49
But since the top edges of the cake are so firm, they'll hold their shape even as you spread and smooth this edge
4:55
extra frosting. So without any special tools you can bake, assemble and frost a square cake with
5:02
super smooth frosting and sharp edges. I hope this tutorial has been useful. If you enjoyed it
5:08
visit my cake school on British Girlbakes.com to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and
5:12
designs. Thanks for watching
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