Butter Cream Icing Technique

     Today I thought about a simple technique I could share with you all pertaining to cake making! Some people think that Fondant is the only type of icing that you can get smooth as a baby's bum- but I'll tell you what- Butter cream is close in line for that title! When making wedding cakes or any special occasion cake I like to make sure that it has a flawless foundation to start. Butter Cream is my favorite Icing to decorate with overall because of it's taste, stability, and color retention. While Fondant looks amazing- It's taste is usually lacking. Any whipped icing I have used tastes great- but it does not hold it's color or form as well. Whereas Butter Cream does all of these things.

     So in the cake world we call this the Hot Spatula and Viva Paper Towel Method. I do not have pictorial instructions but I do have some end result photos. Here's the deal:

• Stack each tier of your cake and fill the centers with your icing or filing
• Ice a crumb coat on your cake: It doesn't matter if you get crumbs in this, that's the whole point! (This is especially important with dark cakes like chocolate)
• Place Cakes in cooler/fridge to firm up for a few minutes
•  Grab a pitcher and fill with HOT tap water
• Take a flat edge spatula and place in pitcher. Also have your Viva roll nearby.
• Then you will bring your cakes our and ice them as normal. You will have the normal streaks. This is where the spatula comes in. I take my spatula out of the pitcher and shake it off. If there is a small excess of water this is okay. The spatula with glide over your cake as your smooth out your streaks as if to almost melt them. You will repeatedly do this, and when your water becomes cooler- simply replace it.
• One you have done this to all of your cake then let it sit to dry up a little bit. If the Butter Cream is too "tacky" this will not work. It has to get the slight Butter Cream "shell" on it. 
• Once your cake's icing is no longer tacky you can take a sheet of viva and gently rub it on the icing. This must be done very carefully. DO NOT DRAG THE PAPER TOWEL. Simply placed it on the cake and rub your fingers gently on the "streak" is will kind of flatten it down like play dough and your cake will be good to go! 

This technique can only be used on Butter Cream Icing. This Technique I have found to work best with Viva Paper Towels because of their material being un-designed and clothe-like. 

     Hope you ladies enjoyed this little tid-bit of information! Have an awesome weekend and stay sweet :)

~Alicia~

Here are just a few examples of cakes I have made using this method: