Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I need to make lacto free buttercream to fill a two tier cake but as the spread makes it quite soft, is there a recommended way to thicken it up so it doesn’t ooze out? Many thanks x

Hi suzyq

Making a stiff buttercream dam will help the filling from spilling out. However you’ll first need to thicken up your lactofree buttercream.
Are you able to use eggs or has it also got to be eggfree? Using albumen powder or merriwhites will help thicken up the lactofree buttercream if you are able to use it. Add 1 tablespoon to your BC and allow it to thicken, that’s usually enough. Adding more could make the BC heavy, like set custard! More icing sugar will also help stiffen up the BC but it would also make it sweeter. If you don’t want a sweeter buttercream just make the dam with extra icing sugar.
Soft fillings should ideally be settled by placing a weight on the top of the cake for a couple of hours. This enables any airpockets to fill and any excess to spill out before decorating.
There are lots of Q & A s which may help here:
http://www.cakeflix.com/questions/?s=bulging+cake

I can use eggs and as I have some merriwhite I will try that. I’ve used 300g spread to 600g of icing sugar and don’t want to make it any sweeter. Would 1 tbsp be enough for this amount then? Thanks for your advice.

I think that would be enough. Wait for it to thicken first, if you need more only add a teaspoon at a time until you get the desired consistency. I’m worried that adding too much will spoil your ingredients. I’ve only ever used it with butter, not quite sure how it will be with a subsititute.
All this experimenting can get expensive but if it helps it’s worth it. Your feed back would be great and will help other members. Good luck with it.

OK thanks again. Will try this and let you know how it goes.

Hi again, just to let you know, I have added the tablespoon of merriwhite, chilled the BC in the fridge for an hour, it was still soft, so I added an extra teaspoon, chilled it again, but it remains quite soft. As it is it is too soft to fill the cakes. I’m now going to try and thicken up some of the BC with extra icing sugar to see if I can get some stiff enough to create a dam like you suggest. Will let you know how it goes. If this doesn’t work, can you suggest any other fillings I could use. The cakes are plain vanilla for young children. Thanks

Further update …. I stiffened up some of the BC and piped it around the top of each tier to create a dam, but even though it had seemed thick enough, once I started piping it out, it seemed to soften a little again. Before filling it, I chilled it in the fridge for a while and it seemed to stiffen up again, but I have to say by the time I had filled each tier with the rest of the BC and added the other tiers, it all still moved a little from softening somewhat again. So, it has been partly successful, but as I have now frozen the cakes for use next week, I will just have to hope I can cover them with sugarpaste without them moving and bulging. Another question …. is it possible to cover with sugarpaste before the cake has fully defrosted? Having defrosted cakes before, I always wait until the resulting layer of moisture has gone before covering, usually overnight. Would covering whilst still slightly frozen cause problems due to the moisture that needs to evaporate? I’m just thinking it would be easier to cover these cakes whilst it’s still firm but I don’t want to ruin it all by ‘trapping’ this moisture in. Thanks again.

Hi suzyq

Sorry for this late reply. I would definitely not recommend covering a semi frozen cake. The moisture would get into the icing and reduce it to a mess. I’ve searched a little more and found lactofree chocolate at Sainsbury supermarket:
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/choices-freefrom-white-chocolate-rondellos-25g
I’ve never used this but melted and mixed in with the buttercream it may have worked. or make lactose free ganche and crumb coat the cake with that. Now it’s too late to be telling you this. I feel dreadful for letting you down.

Hi Madewithlove, please don’t feel you have let me down at all. It was own impatience to carry on with this so it is my own decision! It may still be worth me crumb coating the cakes with something like the white chocolate you’ve mentioned. I could mix up some more buttercream to add to it. Fortunately the two cakes are quite small ones so we’re not talking huge amounts. I’ll let you know how it all works out next week! Thank you for all your help, please don’t worry about this, it’s all a learning process. x

I look forward to hearing back from you, I do hope all goes well. xx