These desserts also won't require you to master a lot of difficult skills—simply follow the recipes and refer to the descriptions of basic techniques in this chapter if you're not familiar with how to cream butter and sugar, for example, or what it means to whip egg whites until stiff peaks form. Your desserts will be lovely, delicious, and, most important, homemade.
PANTRY STAPLES
The basic building blocks of most of my cakes are fat (butter or oil), sugar, eggs, flour, milk, and salt. While some deviation from my preferred ingredients is probably inevitable—and in fact I encourage you to experiment!—to ensure the best results, it makes sense to use ingredients that are as close to the ones I use as possible. If a recipe calls for all-purpose flour and you use whole-wheat, the outcome might not be as you'd expect. Likewise if your butter is salted instead of unsalted, or at a different starting temperature.
BUTTER & OILS
I use unsalted butter. It doesn't keep as well as salted (if you have large quantities, freeze it), but it's easier to control the amount of salt in baked goods when you're starting from a clean slate. If a recipe says that the butter should be "chilled," it means straight from the fridge. If a recipe says the butter should be "at room temperature" or "softened," let it sit out on the counter for at least two hours beforehand (if you're able to plan ahead, pull the butter out the night before you bake). You might be tempted to speed up softening by popping the stick in a microwave, but be careful: Use short bursts of ten seconds at a time, or you're likely to end up with partially to fully melted butter, which won't behave in the same way as solid butter. If it accidentally melts, start over with new butter. (And pop some popcorn for the melted stuff.)
I also occasionally use vegetable oil—any light-colored flavorless vegetable oil, like canola, safflower, or grapeseed, will work. Cakes made with oil tend to be finer-textured than cakes made with butter; of course then they lack butter flavor, but sometimes that isn't as important as texture. Olive oil can be wonderful in cakes. It adds a fruity, slightly savory flavor and aroma and results in a cake of exceptional tenderness and fine texture because it contains emulsifiers that regular vegetable oil lacks. You can use good-quality extra-virgin if you'd like the flavor to shine through, or a milder virgin or "light" olive oil (or even a combination of olive and neutral vegetable oils) for more subtlety.
SUGAR & OTHER SWEETENERS
I prefer sugar that's specifically labeled "cane sugar"; otherwise, it's likely to be beet sugar. If you don't have a preference, either will work fine here.
Dark and light brown sugars are simply refined white granulated sugar to which more or less molasses has been added; I use them when I want that dark butterscotch flavor in a cake, or when I want a moister crumb. If you only have dark or light, in a pinch you can use them interchangeably.
Molasses is a dark syrup that's a by-product of sugar production. Use an all-purpose dark molasses rather than a mild-flavored light molasses or blackstrap molasses, which is darker, spicier, and less sweet.
Honey, as you might expect, plays a huge role in my baking. Aside from the lovely floral notes honey adds to baked goods, honey has a positive effect on a cake's keeping qualities. Because honey is hygroscopic, which means it absorbs water, a honey-sweetened cake will draw moisture from the air and stay moist longer. Any wildflower or clover honey will work well, but try experimenting with local honeys—orange blossom, sage, and buckwheat all have interesting flavors. Your farmers' market should have a decent selection to choose from.
EGGS
Use fresh local eggs from hens who are allowed to roam with relative freedom, eating whatever seeds or unfortunate insects cross their path, and your baked goods will benefit greatly. At the very least, use good eggs when making a cake in which the eggs—or the color of the yolks—will be most noticeable. My recipes are based on standard large eggs; use your judgment if your farm-fresh eggs are a little smaller or larger. In most cases, eggs should be at room temperature before you start mixing. You can leave the whole eggs on the counter for a couple hours, or speed up the process by submerging them in warm water for fifteen to twenty minutes before cracking them.
FLOUR
Here in the South, bakers like soft white winter wheat (White Lily brand is the most famous example), which yields tender cakes and the fluffiest biscuits you've ever seen. If you can find White Lily, use that when the recipe calls for all-purpose flour. If White Lily isn't available, your next best bet is to look for a specialty all-purpose flour that is labeled "soft white winter wheat"; otherwise, any all-purpose flour will do.
For especially fine-crumbed cakes, I like to use cake flour, which is made from soft wheat, much lower in protein than all-purpose flour, and more finely milled, so it's fluffier. Most cake flour (King Arthur's being a prominent exception) has been bleached; this has the effect not only of making the flour super–bright white but also of making it slightly more acidic, so it reacts differently with chemical leaveners like baking powder. White Lily or a similar Southern-style flour is a good stand-in for cake flour; you can also replace 2 tablespoons out of each cup (130 g) of regular all-purpose flour called for with 2 tablespoons cornstarch.
I also use whole-wheat flour in some of my cakes, not only because it's relatively healthful but because it imparts a subtly sweet nutty flavor. If you don't go through your flour supply fairly quickly, consider storing whole-wheat flour in the freezer, as the oils in the wheat bran can go rancid after a time at room temperature.
I call for self-rising flour in one recipe (this page); this is simply all-purpose flour to which leavener and a bit of salt have been added. If you don't have self-rising flour, you can make your own: Put 1½ teaspoons baking powder and ¼ teaspoon salt in a measuring cup and spoon in enough all-purpose flour to make 1 cup (130 g).
Cornmeal is another staple in my pantry. For cakes, I use fine-ground yellow cornmeal. Stone-ground or a coarser grind (like cornmeal grits or polenta) tend to yield a grainy crumb and are best left for homey cornbread—or the polenta cake recipe on this page.
Almond and hazelnut flour or meal are available in good grocery stores and in natural foods stores. You can make your own in a pinch by grinding whole or blanched almonds or hazelnuts in a food processor or blender with a pinch or two of sugar to keep the meal from clumping. That said, if the nut flour is a major component of a cake, it's best to use store-bought, which is finer and more powdery than homemade. Nut flours will last longer if they're kept in sealed containers in the freezer to prevent the nut oils from going rancid.
MILK
For best results, use whole milk in these recipes. It contains 3.5 to 4 percent fat, and because fat is a tenderizer and moisturizer, the texture of your cake will benefit. If you don't generally keep whole milk on hand, you can use lower-fat or skim milk and replace a bit of it with half-and-half (10 to 15 percent fat) or heavy cream (36 to 40 percent fat).
I also use buttermilk in some of my cakes; its acid reacts with the leaveners to make fluffy cakes and also helps to inhibit gluten formation in flour. Any cultured buttermilk, with its distinctive tang and thickness, will work fine.
SALT
I use table salt (iodized salt) in the recipes here because it's finer and easier to measure accurately than coarse kosher salt and because it distributes throughout batters and doughs more evenly.
SUPPLIES
MEASURING CUPS & SPOONS
Whatever measuring cups and spoons you have already will work just fine, of course, but if you're just beginning to outfit your kitchen for baking, look for nesting stainless-steel dry measuring cups: a set that includes a 1-cup, ½-cup, ⅓-cup, and ¼-cup measure should do it; ¾-cup, ⅔-cup, and ⅛-cup (2-tablespoon) ones are great to have but not necessary. If you do a lot of baking, consider getting two sets so you don't have to wash and dry them midrecipe. Metal cups with sturdy handles (the better to scoop with and pack stiff brown sugar into, for example) will last longer than plastic and can be slightly more accurate as you scrape a straight edge across the top. You'll also need a glass liquid measuring cup (with markings on two sides for accuracy): a 2-cup (480-ml) or 4-cup (960-ml) one—or, better, both—will work.
I prefer stainless-steel measuring spoons over plastic or ceramic, and I like the ones with deeper rather than shallower bowls: They're more accurate because there's less surface area to scrape off evenly. You'll need a set with 1-tablespoon, 1-teaspoon, ½-teaspoon, ¼-teaspoon, and ⅛-teaspoon spoons; a ¾-teaspoon one is useful but not absolutely necessary.
ELECTRIC MIXER
I used a KitchenAid five-quart stand mixer with a paddle attachment, whisk attachment, and dough hook to test all of these recipes, so your results will be closer to mine if you have something similar. For most recipes, you can get away with using a handheld electric mixer with beaters, but there are a few that involve adding an ingredient to the bowl gradually while the mixer is running, and this is much easier if you have two hands free (or a friend in the kitchen). Making a boiled frosting, for example, or a buttercream that starts with a cooked meringue, requires you to whip egg whites and then slowly pour a hot syrup into the whites as they whip—I wouldn't recommend doing this without a stand mixer.
FOOD PROCESSOR
A food processor may take up counter or storage space, but it's invaluable in my kitchen. I use it to grind almonds and hazelnuts, to puree fruits for easily spreadable jams and cake fillings, to quickly shred zucchini and carrots for cakes using the grating blade, and a host of other tasks that don't have anything to do with cake baking. If you can't justify the expense or the space, consider using a mini food processor and working in batches, when necessary, supplementing it with a good sturdy flat or box grater.
MIXING BOWLS
Have a good number of bowls of all sizes on hand. For my main mixing bowls, I like—again—stainless steel, because it's nonreactive (that is, it won't react with acidic ingredients like lemon juice or fruit), easy to clean thoroughly (unlike plastic, which can retain traces of oil and other fats even after vigorous scrubbing, hampering your egg-white-whipping efforts), and heatproof (which means they can be set atop a saucepan of simmering water to make a double boiler, and you can pour hot ingredients into them with no adverse effects). Have one or two large bowls, two or three medium bowls, and several smaller bowls big enough for, say, mixing cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling, or a crumb topping.
STOCKING SMALL BOWLS
I'd like to make a case for having a good number of very small bowls on hand. Small bowls are great for setting up a miseen-place, holding measured ingredients like spices or sugar or fresh-squeezed lemon juice so they're ready when you need them and you won't have to scramble to find measuring cups or spoons and scoop out quantities in a hurry.
They're also useful for cracking eggs into one at a time before transferring the egg to your main bowl. That way you can pick out any bits of shell before they disappear into the batter, and the whole batch won't be compromised if an egg happens to be rotten.
UTENSILS
You might not need all of these tools for every recipe here, but for the most part, these are all fairly basic items. They'll take you far, whether you're baking from this book or any other one.
Have at least a couple flexible rubber spatulas, not too large, for mixing and for scraping out bowls. A heatproof silicone spatula is useful for stirring mixtures on the stovetop—fruit jams and compotes, sugar syrups, melted butter or chocolate, and so on.
Not just for stirring and mixing, a wooden spoon is what you need for cooking a custard and determining when it's thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.
These are seasonal desserts, which means there's a lot of fruit and vegetables here, and much of that produce will need to be peeled, chopped, cored, diced, or sliced. Any cutting board will do; just make sure it's heavy and not warped, and put a damp kitchen towel underneath to stabilize it, if necessary. A good fruit and vegetable peeler will come in handy—I like the Y-shaped ones, but use whatever kind feels comfortable in your hand. For peeling soft fruits like mangoes, peaches, and tomatoes, a serrated vegetable peeler is a godsend, though of course you can also just blanch peaches and tomatoes in boiling water for a few seconds and slip off the peels.
A supersharp Microplane-type grater is a brilliant tool for finely grating zest and nutmeg (which should always be freshly grated). Try using it to grate a cinnamon stick for an intensely flavorful garnish.
An old-fashioned sifter, with a handle and bail that scrapes dry ingredients through a sieve is quick and easy to use, but a regular mediumsize fine-mesh wire sieve works just as well and isn't quite as single-use as a sifter. A small sieve is handy for sifting powdered sugar over cakes and for straining seeds and pulp from lemon juice.
For smoothing the tops of cake batter in the pan, dolloping and spreading icing, or adding decorative swoops to meringues and frostings, nothing beats an offset, or angled, stainless-steel spatula. A good size to start with is one that has a blade about 1¼ inches (30 mm) wide and about 7 inches (17 cm) long. A smaller spatula will be useful for frosting cupcakes and for detail work.
A bench scraper (also called a bench knife) is a handy tool—it's basically a wide rectangular spatula with a sharp edge made for scraping pastry and bread doughs from the work surface, but you'll find lots of uses for it. Use it to scrape a clean, smooth surface onto frosted layer cakes or to scoop chopped fruits and vegetables from a cutting board into a bowl or pan. Bench scrapers with wood handles can get a little grimy over time; all-stainless-steel ones are a better choice.
If you plan to get fancy, invest in a box of disposable plastic or reusable canvas or heavy-duty plastic piping bags. You'll also need a two-part plastic adaptor (the adaptor base that goes inside the bag as well as the ring that screws onto it to secure the metal tip to the bag). These come in two sizes, so make sure you have the size that fits your tips. You can buy a set of decorator tips or purchase them individually. For the most basic piping purposes, try a medium or large plain round tip, plus one or two open or closed star tips. I've also been known to use a zip-tight plastic bag in a pinch—just snip off the corner, push your tip snugly in, and fill the bag with frosting.
OVEN & CANDY THERMOMETERS
Your oven almost certainly already has a built-in thermometer, but it's also almost certainly inaccurate. This is fine if you're roasting vegetables, but not if you're making cakes, which are much more susceptible to variations in baking conditions. You can get a decent-enough oven thermometer at just about any supermarket, and it'll be worth the investment. At the very least, it will indicate when your oven has fully preheated; yours may beep when it thinks it has come up to temperature, but check the actual thermometer and you might be surprised to see that it's not even close.
You'll also need a candy thermometer, which is essential for making meringue-style frostings. Any kind will do, but I prefer a probe thermometer with a digital readout for accuracy. Before you use it for the first time, you should calibrate it, or at least note how far off its readings are: Put the probe in fully boiling water, and it should read 212°F (100°C) if you're at sea level (or a bit less if you live at a higher altitude—water boils at lower temperatures as the elevation increases). If it's off by a few degrees from what you expect, jot down the difference and keep that in mind as you use the thermometer in the future.
COOLING RACKS
You should have two or three wire racks for cooling cake layers. If counter space is limited, looks for racks that unfold and can be stacked atop one another.
TECHNIQUES
MEASURING INGREDIENTS
Probably the most important aspect of baking is accurate measuring. If you do this part right, you're at least halfway down the road to a great cake. The first thing to know is that solids and liquids are usually measured differently. To measure solids, use graduated individual measuring cups; to measure liquids, use a large glass measuring cup with markings on the side. Measuring with a scale is helpful, but not essential for my recipes. For those folks who already own a scale, I've included the metric equivalents.
Flour: Put a sheet of waxed paper (or any kind of paper) on the counter and put your measuring cup in the center of it. Use a large spoon to stir the flour in the bag or storage container so it's evenly aerated, then spoon it into the cup until the level rises well above the rim. Use a straight edge (like a knife, spoon handle, or clean ruler) to scrape the excess off the top, leveling the flour with the rim of the measuring cup. Don't tap the flour down or pack it into the cup, or you might end up with too much flour in your recipe. Dump the cup of flour into your mixing bowl and repeat, using different cup measures as needed, until you have the quantity you need. When you're done measuring, lift the paper and dump the excess flour back into the bag.
When measuring cornmeal and nut flours, use the method above but be especially careful to stir out any lumps.
Sugar and other sweeteners: Granulated (white) sugar can be simply scooped from the bag or container with a measuring cup—be sure to break up any lumps. Brown sugar should be firmly packed into the cup and leveled off with a straight edge. Brown sugar has a tendency to form small, hard lumps in storage; if yours is very lumpy, push it through a sieve before measuring.
Molasses and honey can be measured in graduated cups or a glass measure. To make extraction of the sticky stuff a breeze, lightly spray the inside of the measuring cup with nonstick cooking spray or vegetable oil before you pour it in—it'll slide right out.
Leaveners and salt: Make sure there are no lumps in your baking powder and baking soda, then fill a measuring spoon and level the surface. Don't be tempted to just use one measuring spoon and eyeball half teaspoons and such: For 1½ teaspoons, use a 1-teaspoon and a ½-teaspoon measure for accuracy.
Butter: For butter, use the markings on the wrapping as a guide.
Liquids: Use a glass measuring cup with cup markings and a spout for dripless, mess-free pouring. Be sure it's on a level surface and that the liquid aligns with the markings on either side of the cup.
CREAMING BUTTER & SUGAR
Many cake recipes ask you to whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, leavening, any spices, salt) in one bowl and beat or "cream" the butter and sugar in another bowl. What is creaming and why do we do it? Creaming simply means vigorously beating room-temperature or softened butter together with sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. The violent action forces the individual granules of sugar throughout the butter, which opens up air pockets that will expand when the batter is baked, resulting in a light and fluffy cake.
First cut the butter into pieces and beat it on its own until it's smooth and soft. (Use an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for best results; otherwise, you'll end up with either a very tired spatula-wielding arm or an underbeaten mixture.) Then add the sugar and continue to beat, stopping and scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally, until the mixture is lighter in color and very fluffy. This could take 3 minutes or longer. Don't skimp on this step, as it's essential to a light cake.
WHIPPING CREAM & EGG WHITES
To whip cream: Chill a metal mixing bowl in the refrigerator or freezer, along with a whisk or the whisk attachment of an electric mixer, until very cold. Start with well-chilled heavy cream (also labeled "whipping cream"; it should be at least 36 percent fat in order to thicken properly). Pour it into the chilled bowl and use the chilled whisk to beat it until it starts to thicken. Sprinkle in the sugar—either powdered or granulated—and continue to whisk until soft peaks form when you lift the whisk from the cream.
To whip egg whites: Beating egg whites is a technique used not only in sponge cake and angel food cake batters but also in frostings. Make sure your electric mixer's metal bowl and whisk attachment are perfectly clean and dry: No trace of oil or other fat should come into contact with the egg whites, or they won't inflate fully. Also make sure your hands and anything the egg whites will touch as they're being separated from the yolks are clean and dry. Bring the egg whites to room temperature, either by warming the whole eggs in their shells in a bowl of warm water for ten minutes before separating the whites and yolks or by putting the whites in a bowl and setting the bowl in a shallow pan of warm water.
Put the whites in the clean mixer bowl and whisk on low speed until they are foamy, then increase the speed to medium and whisk until they can hold their shape (at which point you can begin gradually adding sugar, if the recipe calls for it), then increase the speed to high and beat just until they hold stiff peaks that don't droop when the whisk is lifted. Don't overbeat (it's important not to walk away from the mixer while the motor is running) or the whites will dry out and take on a curdled appearance; if that happens, start over.
FOLDING INGREDIENTS TOGETHER
Often a recipe will ask you to fold an airy mixture (like whipped egg whites) into a denser mixture (like whole eggs or egg yolks and sugar); the idea is to combine the two without deflating the airy mixture. Using a rubber spatula, stir a scoopful of the light mixture into the dense mixture until it's just incorporated. Then gently scoop about a third of the remaining light mixture onto the dense; using the spatula, cut down through the center of the mixture to the bottom of the bowl, scrape the bottom of the bowl to the edge, and gently lift the denser mixture from the bottom up and over the top of the light mixture. Rotate the bowl. Repeat until the mixture—the cake batter or the cream—is evenly colored and both ingredients are incorporated, with no streaks remaining. Don't stir in a circular motion, but instead cut and lift, to keep the mixture from deflating.
Use the same folding technique—cutting, lifting, and turning—when folding dry ingredients (like sifted flour and leavener) into a light and airy substance (like whipped egg whites). Sift about a quarter of the dry ingredients at a time over the light mixture and fold gently to incorporate each addition.
When the two mixtures being folded together are a light, airy one (like whipped cream) and a liquid but not stiff mixture (like melted chocolate), usually the liquid mixture is drizzled onto the light mixture and folded in as above.
CAKE PANS
Here are the pans I use in these recipes:
• 6-, 8-, 9-, and 10-inch (15-, 20-, 23-, and 25-cm) round cake pans (you might need more than one of each; check the recipe before you start mixing)
• 9-inch (23-cm) springform pan
• 8-inch (20-cm) square pan
• 9-by-13-inch (23-by-33-cm) baking pan
• 10-inch (25-cm) tube pan, with removable bottom
• 10-inch (25-cm) Bundt pan
• 10-by-15-inch (25-by-38-cm) jelly-roll pan
• 9-inch (23-cm) cast-iron skillet
• 9-inch (23-cm) pie plate
• Standard 12-cup (3½-ounce/100 g) muffin pan
• Large 6-cup (7-ounce/200 g) muffin pan
• 9-by-5-inch (23-by-12-cm) loaf pan
I prefer light-colored, professional-style metal pans—not nonstick—with straight (rather than angled) sides. For the 9-by-13-inch (23-by-33-cm) pan, either metal or glass is fine.
PREPARING CAKE PANS
I almost always prepare my cake pans in some way before pouring or spreading in batter. Often I just give the bottom and sides—and any corners or Bundt-pan nooks and crannies—a light coating of soft butter (if you have a paper wrapper from a stick of butter, use that to spread it). Sometimes a heavier coating is needed.
If the cake is especially prone to sticking to the pan, I'll butter the pan, then line the bottom with parchment paper, then butter the paper as well. To cut a round of parchment the size you need, you have a couple of options: You can use the bottom of the pan as a template, trace a circle onto the paper, and cut it out. Or you can cut a square of paper larger than the pan, fold it in half, then quarters, then fold the quartered paper into a triangle and then another narrower triangle (always matching the folded edges). Hold the point of the triangle (the center of the square of paper) over the center of the pan and cut off the opposite side of the triangle where it meets the edge of the pan. Unfold and you should have a rough circle of paper the size of your pan bottom.
Occasionally, I'll ask you to butter and flour a cake pan. To do this, butter the pan, line it with parchment, if necessary, then sprinkle in a tablespoon or so of flour. Tap and tilt the pan so that the flour coats the bottom and sides of the pan, sticking to the butter. Dump out and discard any excess flour. For chocolate cakes that are to be served with the outer surfaces showing, dust with cocoa powder instead of flour, which can leave white spots if it adheres to the butter too enthusiastically or unevenly.
For cupcakes, simply put paper liners in the cups.
CHECKING CAKES FOR DONENESS
Every cake is different, and in each recipe, I give you details about how to tell when the cake is done. The most common way to test for doneness is to insert a special cake tester utensil or a toothpick or bamboo skewer into the center of the cake and pull it out; depending on the recipe, doneness might be indicated by the presence of a few wet crumbs, dry crumbs, or no crumbs clinging to the tester.
USING A PIPING BAG
I'm convinced that most people would not use piping bags at all if there weren't a trick to filling them without fuss. Luckily, there are two easy ways to get icing from bowl to bag. But before you get started with that, you need to attach the tip: Remove the ring from the plastic coupler base. Using a disposable plastic pastry bag or a zip-tight plastic freezer bag, insert the coupler base into the closed corner of the bag and push it down tightly. Make a mark with your thumbnail about ¼ inch (6 mm) below the lowest screw thread—the ridge you can see through the bag. Scoot the coupler base out of the way and cut the corner of the bag off at the line you marked, then push the coupler back into place. Put the tip on the coupler and then screw the ring on over the tip to hold it securely.
Now hold the bag loosely with your non-dominant hand and fold the open end back over your fist to form a wide cuff that covers your hand. With a spatula in the other hand, scoop frosting into the bag and squeeze the thumb and forefinger of the hand holding the bag to wipe the spatula clean. You can also put the bag, tip down, in a glass measuring cup or large jar and fold the top down over the rim of the jar to keep it free of icing while you fill it; this technique has the advantage of leaving both hands free, since the measuring cup or jar will hold the bag upright while you fill it.
Unfold the "cuff" of the bag and seal the open end by twisting it or rolling it tightly toward the tip. Grip the twisted or rolled part of the bag with one hand and put the other hand just below it, toward the tip. Squeeze the frosting down toward the tip, applying most of the pressure with the hand on the twisted or rolled-up part of the bag. Before aiming it at your cake, pipe a bit of icing back out into the bowl to push the air out of the tip.
A NOTE ON CRUMB COATING
For extra security against crumbs showing up in your frosting, make a preliminary crumb coat: Apply a very thin layer of frosting to the top and sides—so thin that the cake might even show through in spots. Put the whole cake in the refrigerator or freezer until the frosting is firm, then spread the rest of the frosting over the firm crumb coat. This works best with buttercream-style frostings, but isn't appropriate for boiled frostings.
FROSTING CAKES
Most of my cakes are, shall we say, rustic-looking. I'm much more concerned with flavor, texture, and overall deliciousness than aesthetics. My frosting is rarely perfectly smooth and even, and my cake decorating usually takes the form of fresh seasonal fruit or a swoop of whipped cream—again, it's all about flavor for me. That said, there's something very special about a stunningly beautiful layer cake perched atop a vintage milk glass pedestal illuminated by an array of slender birthday candles or jeweled with candied rose petals or simply, artfully dolloped with a glossy meringue frosting. Particularly on special occasions, I do try to make my cakes look as luscious as they taste.
When frosting round layer cakes, a cake-decorating turntable or lazy Susan will make the cake-frosting periods of your life easier (if you're not using a turntable, just use a cake serving platter). Put a little dab of frosting in the center to hold the bottom cake layer steady, then set the first layer on it, with the most even, smooth side up. Scoop some frosting or filling onto the center of the layer and use an offset spatula to spread it to the edges, slowly spinning the turntable if it helps you spread more evenly. It doesn't have to be perfectly smooth by any means. Put the second layer on top with the most even side up, and repeat until you get to the last layer, which should have the cake layer's bottom, flat and smooth, on top.
At this point you can simply frost the top and call it a day, or continue on and frost the sides as well. Dollop lots of frosting in the center of the top layer and use the spatula to spread it out and just over the edge. Try not to touch the cake itself with the spatula at all; it should come in contact only with frosting so that it doesn't pick up crumbs and spread them throughout the frosting. Next, scoop frosting onto the sides and spread it to roughly cover the sides.
You can also use a piping bag to evenly fill and frost cakes. Fit it with a medium plain or wide flat tip, fill the bag (see this page), and pipe concentric circles, or rows if your cake is square or rectangular, over the surface. Pipe up and down the sides as well if you're frosting them, and smooth them according to your preferred method.
There are several ways to smooth the sides and top of a frosted cake. Use whichever one you feel most comfortable with, and recognize that it takes practice. Smooth the sides using either the offset spatula or a bench scraper held vertically and at a slight angle, removing excess frosting as you spin the turntable. This will create a small ridge of frosting at the top. Remove this with the spatula, then use the spatula to smooth the top.
You can also use the hot-spatula method: Dip the offset spatula in very hot water and dry it with a towel before each swipe as you level the frosting on top and sides with brief, quick motions. The heat will melt the frosting a bit and create a slightly glossy finish.
Buttercream frosting can be smoothed with a good-quality, heavy-duty paper towel: Gently press the paper towel over the top of the frosting, smoothing it so it's flat and even, then peel it off and do the same thing to the sides. Smooth any texture left by the towel with a spatula.
Boiled frostings—those that are made like a meringue, with hot sugar syrup poured into whipping egg whites—are easy: Just spread the frosting over the whole cake in a reasonably even layer, then use the tip of the offset spatula to create swirls, lifting the frosting into pretty peaks all over the cake.
FROSTING TECHNIQUES
A piping bag can make frosting cupcakes a breeze, and there are dozens of ways you can put frosting to cake. This is a good excuse to jump on the Internet to find tutorials and pictures for inspiration. Following are a few of the easiest techniques I've come across.
ROSETTE: Use a medium star tip and pipe frosting onto the top in a tight spiral starting in the center and circling to the outer edge. If you'd like, when you've covered the entire surface, keep going to make one more swoop back to the center, lifting the piping-bag tip to make a peak.
SWIRL: Use a large star or plain tip and pipe frosting in a tight spiral starting at the outer edge of the cupcake and ending in the center; release pressure on the piping bag and then lift it from the cupcake to make a peak.
PLAIN: You can also just use an offset spatula. Put a generous dollop of frosting on top, mounding it slightly in the center, and quickly spread it to the edges. Alternatively, use a cookie-dough or ice-cream scoop to plop evenly sized mounds of frosting onto the center of each cupcake.
Cupcakes are a great way to practice your piping skills: If you mess up, you can easily scrape off the offending frosting and start again. Try using a small star tip and covering the whole top with miniature rosettes. Or make fancy roses with a special wide rose-petal piping tip.
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