Adoree: Actually there are no strict rules for frosting or icing a cake. It all goes down to which method the baker is comfortable with and which one works well for him or her, giving beautiful results. My personal choice is frosting the top first and after I have evenly frosted the top, I’ll proceed to the sides. It will be very helpful for you to have a turntable or lazy susan. If you don’t have one, then just improvise. If you have one of those spice racks or medicine racks that turn around then you can use that. You can always go back to the top if the frosting becomes uneven again. It takes real patience to frost a cake, especially for beginners. Remember that practice makes perfect so don’t despair if your cake does not come out picture-perfect the first few times you frost.

Always remember to hold your spatula (an offset spatula is ideal so that you do not strain your wrist) with a relaxed grip and tilt it at around 30 degrees while spreading the frosting. Always use long strokes when spreading. Short, patching motions will only give you an uneven surface. Regarding your next question, you’re right. Some cakes are hard to frost compared to others because their crumbs stick to the frosting. To deal with this, you can first refrigerate the cake for about 30 minutes.

Remove the cake from the refrigerator and brush the crumbs off the sides and top using a soft, dry pastry brush. Spread a thin layer of frosting over the top and sides of the cake, filling cracks and locking down crumbs. Put the cake back in the refrigerator and keep it there until the initial frosting sets before coating generously with the remaining frosting. This will also give you a smoother finish.

Jun Jun: Yes, it is true; the hardest to ice are butter cakes with plenty of sugar or fruit in them. The crumbs really go everywhere. Try to frost the cake with a very thin layer of icing, and then let it set in the refrigerator for a few minutes. Then frost again with a bigger amount of frosting since this will make sure that no crumbs will be present in the final presentation. I always ice my cake starting with the sides first then the top. This will ensure that my cake’s sides are already perfect before I continue with the top. Use a small offset spatula for the sides and a larger one for the top.

Adoree: Here are a few tips and tricks to help you when frosting with whipped cream or crème chantilly. The heavy cream should be very cold before whipping. It will help to chill the bowl and the whisk attachment. Whip the cream until stiff peaks begin to form; the whipped cream will continue to stiffen as you frost. This is the reason why your cream curdled. Next, frost the sides at an angle so that the base is slightly wider than the top; this helps to support the weight of the cream so it does not slide down easily. If your recipe just calls for heavy cream and sugar, you may stabilize this with a little unflavored gelatin dissolved in a little water (1-2 tsp. unflavored gelatin for every 1 cup of heavy cream). Add this when the cream reaches soft peaks (do not add from the start) to maximize the whipping capacity of the cream. If you want an easier way, then use non-dairy whipping cream. Just beat the non-dairy cream until stiff peaks form; no need to add sugar since it is already sweetened. It is more stable than the regular whipping cream and is less likely to be overbeaten.

Jun Jun: The techniques that Chef Adoree suggested are all right and should be used when using heavy cream. You must realize though that heavy cream doesn’t really have the staying power or structural capacity to hold on to a cake. There must something like non-dairy whipping cream to help the icing stay on the cake, so use a half and half proportion and you get a nice and beautiful whipped cream icing on your cake.

Adoree: Maries, you should have included your chocolate fudge recipe to your question so that we can decipher it. Anyway, I’ll try my best. I think you need to thicken your icing some more for it not to flow or slide down. You can do this by either adding more flour or egg yolks (depending on your recipe) to your frosting. If you are adding flour, just remember to boil the mixture to ‘cook’ the starch. On the other hand, if you are thickening it with egg yolks, just cook it until the mixture thickens. Be careful not to allow it to boil because this will result in a grainy and lumpy icing. It is also a good idea to line the bottom of the cake with strips of parchment paper. These strips will catch all the drippings as you frost the cake. After frosting the cake, just slide the paper strips sideways and you will have a clean cake board or cake platter.

Jun Jun: You may need to cook your chocolate fudge icing a little longer than usual (it really takes time to thicken) but please don’t make it too thick that you will actually ruin your cake. It should stand and not flow in the cake. The usual chocolate fudge icing takes around 30 minutes to thicken.