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How to Build a 3D Tux Cake
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Step 3: Ice the cakes
Yes, you can use regular old store-bought frosting for this. You could also use some crappy commercial shortening-based buttercream icing (which contains neither butter, nor cream) for this, like your local grocery store bakery probably uses. Or you could use real buttercream icing, like the high-end bakeries use. Go ahead and use Alton Brown's recipe for this. There is a bit of a learning curve on it, but it's well worth it. Keep in mind that you're going to need a lot of it. It's much easier in a stand mixer, but if you're like me and can't afford one at the moment, then you can use a hand mixer, but it will be much more difficult. I ended up using about 4 or 5 batches worth of what his recipe yields. And don't worry, the recipe on that page may have a raw egg warning, but it's nothing to worry about. When the sugar meets the whipped egg whites, it'll be plenty hot enough to cook them. Still, be careful and be safe. Okay? Okay.
Put your cake on your turntable, and put a big old blob of buttercream on top of that. More than you think you need. Go ahead and spread it around with your offset spatula. This is a lot easier if you use the turntable. Never lift the spatula straight up, or you'll take cake with it. If you need to pick up the spatula, slide it off, like you're spreading the buttercream. Don't go all the way to the edges; the weight of the top layer will press some of the buttercream out, plus you're going to be shaving part of the side off anyway. The nice thing about how we're doing this is that the cake is frozen; so there's less of a chance of the icing tearing up part of the cake. That doesn't mean that the buttercream will be easier to work with. The cold tempurature can make it stiff, and a little more difficult to work with. But it's still easier than an unfrozen cake.
