Ina Garten’s Genius Tip for Decorating a Cake Ensures You’ll Never Get Crumbs in Your Frosting Again

Ina Garten has taught her fans everything from spatchcocking a chicken to mixing the perfect margarita. And now that the Barefoot Contessa is on social media, the kitchen questions continue to pour in, with Garten happy to help our aspiring cooks and hosts everywhere.

In an Instagram post, Garten tackled one of baking’s most challenging problems: how to ice a cake without getting crumbs into the frosting. To demonstrate, Garten used her fan-favorite Beatty’s Chocolate Cake.

To start, she offers this advice. “If you have a cake plate, you don’t wanna get the icing on the plate,” she says in her how-to video. “So, what I do is I take pieces of parchment or wax paper and just put it down on the plate and then…put the first layer of the cake right down on top, so when the cake is iced, you just have to take the pieces of wax paper out, and you have a beautiful cake and a clean plate.”

Next, she suggests this frosting technique. “Just put a little icing right on top, and I use an offset spatula to spread it out. And the key about not getting crumbs in the icing is you always go in one direction. You don’t go back and forth. I think we’re really tempted to do that. And you push the icing from the top, you’ll never get crumbs in it.”

To get that smooth, flat top, she turns the second layer of the cake over so the bottom faces up.

Once both layers are stacked and ready to frost, she says, “I’m going to start on the sides, and again, always go in one direction. We’re making a mess here, but the good news is I have parchment paper on the plate, so if I make a mess, nobody will ever know,” she continues. “The nice thing about icing is that it’s very forgiving; you can always fill in holes. If the cake cracks, you can cover the cracks. And you know what? It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s gonna be just as delicious.”

When you’re ready to frost the top of the cake, Garten reiterates that you want to push the frosting out from the middle, not back and forth, to avoid getting crumbs in the icing. “Go all the way around and make sure the edge is sharp,” she explains.

To make the frosting even easier to spread, Garten suggests making the cake in advance and then refrigerating it before applying the frosting. Then, you can heat up the knife or spatula in hot water, (making sure to remove the water before using) to end up with a cake that has a smoother, shinier edge, as she explains in the video.

Easy right? As with all baking, practice makes perfect. And with the help of Garten, at least you know the cake will be delicious even if it’s not perfect.