Please visit the Cake Decorating Page for all things Cake and recipes as well as step by step cake links. You can also find other types of buttercream ideas for filling Madeira Cakes on the Buttercream Icing page.

Icing and Filling Cakes with Buttercream is a very straightforward process. You can buy these cake cutters these days that allow you to slice cakes in half, evenly, although I never bother. If you use a long serrated knife and keep turning the cake a quarter turn as you slice, you should be pretty much spot on. Failing that, get a ruler, 4 or 5 toothpicks and insert the toothpicks the same height from the bottom, all around the cake, i.e. midway. Then, it’s just a matter of slicing the cake with the knife lightly resting on the toothpicks, all the way through, still turning the cake as you go along.

Madeira cakes always have a dome shape, see Madeira Cake page for more tips. We need to level the top of the cake, using the same principle as above or place a small saucer in the cake pan you used. Place the cake on it, and just slice off the top to level. Some people like to trim off the brown edges/crust all around the cake but I prefer not to, actually liking the crust.

: Slicing the cake in half

: buttercream and jam

: Crumb Coat

Icing and Filling Cakes with Buttercream

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Icing and Filling Cakes with Buttercream

A step by step tutorial on how to ice and fill a cake with buttercream.

Author: Azlin Bloor

Ingredients

Things you'll need:
1 x 20cm (8") Madeira Cake
1 portion Buttercream Icing
half a cup smooth raspberry or strawberry jam
food colouring as you see fit to colour your icing

Tools

offset spatula
cake stand
5cm (2") strips of paper x 5, any kind of plain paper

Instructions

Level the top of the cake as discussed above.
Half the cake, again, as discussed above.
Place the top half aside and the bottom half on the cake stand.
Slide the strips of paper all around the cake to completely cover the cake stand.
Spread the icing all over the bottom cake. If you find that the icing is too thick to spread easily, just add half - one teaspoon of milk/water and stir to mix.
Follow the icing with the jam and place the top half back on the bottom half.
Using the offset spatula, apply a layer of icing all over the cake. This is called a crumb coat or first coat, it smoothes out all the crumbs for the second coat.
Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Apply a second layer of icing, smoothing it with a spotless spatula with single strokes. By spotless, I mean wipe the icing off the edge of the container to get rid of it before you start again, otherwise you'll just be displacing and dragging what's already on the cake.
Pipe decorations as per whatever cake you are making, roses are always a hit with the ladies, young and old. I have a YouTube video as well as a recipe: Lemon and Raspberry and Rose Cake.