Cake & Icing FAQ

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“My cake is caving in the middle, what happened?”

There are a couple possible reasons for this: what most likely happened is that your oven wasn’t set to the right temperature. The wrong temperature can cause your cake to rise too much resulting in it collapsing on itself. Make sure you pay close attention to the temperature settings and keep in mind that every oven is different. Another reason why your cake may be caving in is that it's underbaked. To check if your cake is underbaked, insert a toothpick or a wooden skewer into the center of your cake - if it comes out clean, it’s cooked through, but if it has crumbs, it’s not done baking!

"Can I use carton egg whites for buttercream?"

I definitely recommend using fresh eggs! Carton egg whites are great for other recipes but they have a stabilizing agent added which makes them more difficult to whip up!

“My Italian meringue buttercream is soupy! Help!”

IMBC can be incredibly difficult to master - it’s one of the most basic yet trickiest recipes of all! So if your buttercream turns out soupy or a tad bit runny, don’t worry - you can save it. All you have to do is cool down! I’m talking to you AND your buttercream. Refrigerate the whole bowl for 20 minutes so that it hardens up around the edges then whip it again for a few minutes on high speed! If your buttercream is just soft (rather than runny), chill it for only 10 minutes before you begin to re-whip.

“My buttercream is lumpy, what do I do?”

It happens! There’s a few reasons why your buttercream might be lumpy: perhaps your butter came straight from the fridge or maybe your buttercream was frozen beforehand. It all boils down to it being too cold (pun not intended). If this is the case, place your mixing bowl with the buttercream in it over a steaming water bath - this will allow your frosting to thaw out a bit. Once the edges are softened, whip your buttercream again using a whisk attachment on low speed and slowly increase the speed for a few minutes. Voila! You’ve got smooth buttercream.

“Can I make buttercream without a candy thermometer??”

Yes you can! Using a candy thermometer would definitely be ideal because the temperature of the sugar syrup is a key step in the making of the buttercream. However, you can look into the “cold water method” which will help you gauge when the syrup is at soft-ball-stage without the use of a thermometer.

“I mostly make buttercream cakes. What can I do to make them even better?

Flavors and piping! These are two easy ways to step up your caking game! When it comes to buttercream flavors, the possibilities are endless! My team and I compiled our top 5 fave buttercream recipes right here if you want some inspiration! My second tip is using different piping techniques to decorate your cakes and truly take it from nice to WOW. You’d be amazed to see what a difference this makes for each cake. PS. our new How To Pipe It Kit makes piping so much easier with its 29 different tips! So be sure to check that out for a world of options!

“How long is buttercream good for?”

If you store your buttercream in an airtight container, you can keep it fresh for a week in the fridge and up to 3 months in the freezer! When you’re ready to use it, all you have to do is let it come to room temperature and whip it up again!

🎉💗 FREE CAKE & ICING BASICS PROGRAM 🎂🎉

Now that you’ve gotten all your FAQs answered, it’s time to get back to the basics! We just launched our FREE Cake & Icing Basics Program which is a baking program delivered across a 4 week period via email, that includes video tutorials of the core cake and icing recipes needed to create all things sweet. The sky's the limit for what you can create and this is just the beginning of being a GREAT baker! Click here for more info and to sign up!