Use this cheap, simple trick to give your cake professional-looking results in minutes.
Frosting a cake can be a messy job, with uneven globs of frosting that never seem to turn out like the Pinterest-perfect picture next to the recipe. But this trick from sweetcsdesigns.com will give you clean results, and it even uses store-bought frosting to save you time.
Once your unfrosted cake has cooled, transfer a can of icing into a microwave-safe bowl and nuke it at 15-second intervals until it is melted but not hot. Let it cool down for a couple minutes so it’s not warm but still keeps its liquid consistency.
Place your cake on a cookie rack with a flexible cutting board underneath—this process gets a bit messy, but the board will make it easy to get any frosting drips back into your bowl so you can reuse it.
Now, pour about a quarter of the icing over the cake in a circular motion. The icing should pour nicely over the cake, giving it a smooth coating. If it seems too runny and drips right off, let it cool down for a little longer before pouring again.
After the icing has hardened for about 10 minutes, pop the unused frosting back in the microwave for another 15 seconds and pour more over the cake once it has cooled down. Repeat once more if you’d like a thicker coating. Any lumps can be smoothed out with a knife or spatula. You’ll end up with a lovely cake that looks even better with a generous smattering of sprinkles.
This method works on cupcakes, too. Just leave the wrappers off when you bake them, and you can create cupcakes coated on all sides without getting frosting all over your nose.