Strain the warmed mixture into a small bowl and brush a thin layer onto the cake to seal the surface.

Melt 1/2 cup jelly, jam, or preserves with 1 Tbs. Applying a crumb coat is exactly what it sounds like It traps in all the cake crumbs to make the final application of ganache perfectly smooth. The sleek, translucent coating that this creates is especially useful if youвЂ™re planning to finish the cake with a warm chocolate glaze. IвЂ™ve found that I donвЂ™t need to make extra frosting, since I wind up needing less for the final layer.ДЄs an alternative to frosting, strained preserves also make a fine crumb coat. Depending on the size of your cake and the amount of patching up you need to do, a crumb coat should take about 1/2 cup of frosting. The simplest choice for a crumb coat is a bit of the actual frosting. Now youвЂ™re ready to spread a smooth, crumb-free frosting onto the cake. So once I get all the way around, you can see, it. Any crumbs will be caught in this first layer, and this is called a crumb coat. We really just want to barely coat the surface, so that when we put another layer on, itll be nice and smooth. Before finishing the cake, clean the spatula, the rim of the mixing bowl, and the entire work area of any crumbs, which have an almost magnetic way of getting into the frosting. But once you hit the edge, this is a crumb coat, so were not looking for a thick layer of frosting. Fill in any cracks or divots in the cake.ДЄfter smoothing the surface of the crumb coat (donвЂ™t worry if itвЂ™s speckled with crumbs), refrigerate the cake for 5 to 10 minutes to let the frosting set. DonвЂ™t worry: its role is simply to seal the surface. With lighter frostings, this layer may be transparent. (If youвЂ™re making a layer cake, the layers should already be filled and stacked.) Then spread a very thin layer of frosting over the entire surface of the cake. If you use a little bit of frosting to seal the cakeвЂ™s surface and secure loose crumbs, your final layer of frosting will go on much more smoothly.Д«egin by brushing off any loose crumbs on the cake with a dry pastry brush or your fingers. This layer is allowed to set for one to two hours before the cake is frosted and decorated. It is a thinned layer of frosting applied to the cake, as it is almost cool, or just cooled. A crumb coat is a bakerвЂ™s trick for sealing in the moisture of a cake, and for making frosting the cake easier. If youвЂ™ve ever marveled at the flawless frosting on a professionally made cake and wondered why your frosted cakes often end up specked with crumbs, hereвЂ™s a tip: Apply a вЂњcrumb coatвЂќ to your cake before you spread on the actual frosting. A crumb coat seals in the moisture of a cake.

Crumb coat