Butter Cream Frosting Bubbling

by Torea
(Michigan)

Help! Butter Cream Frosting is bubbling after frosting my cakes...

Hi Lorelie,

First I would like to say that it was a God send that I came across your website. Very informative.

My question is, I baked my cakes as usual, (I noticed that they were extra moist). I continued and let the cakes cool completely then put them in the fridge overnight. The next day I filled and dirty iced and returned them to the fridge to crust. I frosted five mini cake and a 8" round. After a while I noticed that the frosting on my mini cakes started to bubble, I mean really bubble. So, pricked the bubbles and took Viva towel and my fondant smoother and got rid of the bubbles. All of my cakes continued to bubble, one of which I had to completely remove all of the icing and re-ice it. I used Sharon's Sugarshack recipe which I've never had a problem with before. Do you know what could have caused my cakes to bubble?

I'm a little skeptical now every time I use buttercream frosting. Could it have been due to the moistness and settling of the cakes? Nevertheless the cakes turned out beautiful.
Thanks for sharing.


Answer

Hi Torea,

Thank you for your visiting my website and I am glad that I can be of help. Your cakes look great!

Your question is a tricky one. I have never had this happen and I have been looking around at some forums and it seems that no one knows for sure what the cause is.

If someone out there reading this does have the answer please feel free to jump in and help us out.

But from what I can gather it may be gas building up under the butter cream as the cake comes to room temperature. Is this the first time this has happened to you? You mentioned your cakes were extra moist. That sounds a little suspect.

I was reading that it could be caused by clumps of baking soda or baking powder in the cakes that was not mixed in well enough? This has happened to me with pancakes. I will bite into a clump of baking soda that wasnt mixed in enough. (Ewhh) Very salty and bitter.

There was one solution from someone on these forums who claims that you can prevent this from happening by sticking each cake layer (in an inconspicuous spot) with a hat pin to act as a release valve.

I wish I knew the answer, but I am hoping that someone comes along, sees this post and helps us out more on this problem.

Thanks again Torea for the lovely comment on my site and I hope to be able to help you out more with this. If I find something I will add it to this thread.

Happy Cake Decorating :)