This was also the 1st time I covered a square cake in IMBC and I must have spent about 2 hours just smoothing it out to get the perfectly sharp corners and sides. Round cakes are so much easier! I love using the upside down technique to ice my cakes - Helps with getting nice, leveled tops and nice, crisp corners with. Here are other posts about using the upside down method which I use on basically anything that firms up in the fridge with...regular buttercream, IMBC, ganache:
- Covering a Cake in Ganache
- Music Themed 80th Birthday Cake (and IMBC Recipe)
There were so many challenges with this cake and it introduced me to things I never had to deal with before. First, I have to figure out how to keep the cake stable and well chilled for the hour drive to the church, the 2 hour church ceremony, then another drive to the reception in the midst of a California heat wave during winter (SoCal!). So to ensure the cake stayed intact throughout the day, I took extra precaution in adding a stiffened, American buttercream dam for extra support between each layer of cake and to contain the lemon mousse filling. To assemble to cake layers, add a stiff dam, fill with mousse, top with the next cake layer, tightly wrap the cake with saran wrap or use a springform pan to help hold the layers together and in place and allow the mousse to set overnight in the fridge.
The following day, add a layer of IMBC on the cake board, place the bottom of the cake on it, add a thick layer of IMBC along the top and smooth it out.
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| Right Side Up |
Add a layer of wax or parchment paper and use a straight-edged dough scraper
to smooth that out and get rid of any air bubbles caught under there. |
| Upside Down |
Place a larger, stable board over that and quickly, but carefully flip the entire cake over so it's upside down. Use a Leveler
to make sure it's leveled, if not, gently press down where needed to get it leveled. |
| Still Upside Down |
Add a thin coat of IMBC around the sides of the cake filling in any grooves and gaps - be sure to press and mash the IMBC into the gaps and fill it up really well.
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| Still Upside Down |
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| Still Upside Down - use the cake board as a guide to scrape off the excess IMBC |
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and put the entire cake back into the fridge to stay firm while you prep the decorations. It's much easier to decorate an IMBC cake while it's cold and hard. As soon as it starts to come back down to room temperature and the IMBC gets soft, just stick it back in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up again and continue decorating.
I did keep the bottom tier in the freezer overnight all smoothed and covered in IMBC and the top tier with the fondant ribbon and name plaque in the fridge. On the morning of the baptism, I stacked the cakes and added the flowers and butterflies, packed it all up inside a large box and headed out the door. We made sure to park the car under a tree for some shade and checked on the temperature of the car throughout the morning to make sure the interior temperature in the car didn't get too hot. A well chilled cake kept the inside a sealed box, helped keep cool and made it to the reception intact and not melted - yay! The cake tiers defrosted and came down to room temperature just in time to be served and enjoyed.
The butterflies were made using a PME Plunger Butterfly Cutter
then lightly painted in pink gel colors and dusted in pearl dust. The cross was molded by hand, an impression mat was used to add some texture to the front and back and then dusted with pearl dust. I used 2 different sized PME Plunger Flower Blossom Cutters
to make the flowers and dusted those with pearl dust as well.I completely lost track of time with everything else going on that day that I had to quickly covered the silver, foiled lined cake board with royal icing. I really wish I had covered it in fondant for a more cleaner look.
