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Hi, I’m new to cake decorating and I’m looking for some advice.
I use a Victoria sponge recipe filled with jam and buttercream and use buttercream as a crumb coat under sugarpaste.
I crumb coat and then leave to chill for short time until its ‘crusted’ and set then ice.
However, when I have made my buttercream using soft baking margarine (stork) I find that once I’ve iced the cake there is a bulge obvious in the middle of the cake the next day. I have made the buttercream with full butter in which the bulging didn’t happen (did everything else the same including how it was applied).
One of the people I make the cakes for much prefers the stork buttercream as they are not as keen on the taste and texture of the full butter.
How can I use the buttercream they like without getting the bulging?

Many Thanks

Hi j3nh

Stork margarine doesn’t set hard like butter does and that’s the one of the reasons. Because the filling is so very soft the weight of the icing squishes it out of the sides making a bulge. What you could do is make a stiffer buttercream using less margarine and more icing sugar or you could add some melted white chocolate to buttercream. Meringue powder also helps to give structure to buttercream so you could try that too, Add a tablespoon of merigue powder to the buttercream while beating. For the white chocolate buttercream look online for recipes which use margarine. You’ll need to use a little more chocolate with margarine buttercream.
Another good thing to do is to make a stiff butter cream dam all the way round your cake layer deep enough to hold the filling in without spilling out.
Paul has a whole section on buttercream, you’ll find it here:
http://www.cakeflix.com/free-cake-decorating-courses/using-buttercream-overview

Hope this helps. If you need any more help or informations just post again.