Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Doing a Topsy Turvey three tier at the moment. Worried about the getting the buttericing to dry before putting sugarpaste on in this hot weather. What would you say is the best way. Could I freeze it before sugarpasting? Wits end!
Thank you.
Patsy.

Hi Patsy

Freezing the cake is a no, no. It will make a lot of condensation as it comes back to room temperature. This will make the icing become wet, sticky and unmanageable.

Have you already made the butter icing? If you haven’t use the royal Icing, powdered sugar as it contains meringue powder so it will crust over and hold for longer. If you’ve already made the butter icing add a of table spoon or a little more of meringue powder to it. I find the best way is to make thin crumb coat covers. Let it crust over in the fridge then apply another coat and do the same. Let it set really hard and then cover it with sugarpaste.

Another way is to do a thin crumbcoat, let it set hard then ice the cake with a first thin layer of sugarpaste. Let it dry and then ice with the final cover.

Would you consider using ganache? Ganache sets a lot harder. If you’d like to use it, make white ganache using 4 parts of chocolate to one part cream. Again let it set in the fridge before covering with icing.

Use the site’s ganache calculator to work out amounts:

Cake Calculators

Work in the evening if you can and have a fan running near your cakes to keep them as cool as possible.

Transporting can be tricky so keep your vehicle in a cool place. If you have airconditioning, start it up and get the inside of the car really cold. Keep all windows of the car closed while travelling to allow the aircon to operate at it’s maximum. Good luck Patsy, keeping everything crossed for you. X

Thank you so much for your useful advice.

You’re welcome Patsy. Have you done your cakes yet? How did all go? The weather has cooled down for a little while so if you’re making ganache now, reduce the ratio to 3 parts chocolate to 1 part cream. Crank it back up if conditions become warmer. I meant to say that in my initial reply to you. 🙂