The Pourable Frosting Hack That Saves You From Decorating A Cake

There is a lot that goes into making a cake: eggs, time and effort, love, and hopefully lots and lots of frosting. Getting a cake perfectly frosted, however, is sometimes just as time-consuming as baking the cake itself. Even Food Network's rather conservative frosting tutorial contains about seven steps. Frosting a cake can require even more steps if you plan to include ornate features like flowers or the trendy Victorian style called Lambeth piping.

Despite how luxurious it looks, Lambeth piping can't always be the go-to when decorating a cake. Whether you're new to cake baking or a pro without a ton of time on your hands, you may be looking for a hack that will ensure your cake is frosted and you still have time to eat it, too. Luckily, a simple cake frosting hack has been making rounds on social media and saving bakers in a time crunch.

Some bakers might be wary of the microwave, but when used properly, it can be your secret weapon. The microwaved frosting hack has been around for some time. However, a TikTok showcasing the hack lays things out very simply by showing that, after microwaving the frosting for about 30 seconds, you can pour an entire container's worth of frosting over your cake. The smooth, low-viscosity texture that results from microwaving frosting is perfect for smoothing over a cake. Plus, it won't destroy the top of your cake like colder frosting can when you try forcing it to spread. We've come this far to find out we've been using our microwaves all wrong.

Emptying the contents into a microwave-safe container allows you to safely heat and stir the frosting so it can warm up consistently. By doing this, you may be able to avoid consistency issues that come with overheating the frosting. Keep in mind that some TikTok commenters claim that this trick doesn't work with any type of frosting. "You can do this with regular icing but not whipped. I do this every time, but I recently did it with whipped and the ingredients separated," one user wrote.