Hello!

All of the larger cake recipes in TCB call for brushing the layers with syrup for added moistness or if keeping for a few days.  I know that the Grand Marnier Cake has you pierce the cake and add the syrup when it is warm.  When should I add the syrup to the layers in a wedding-type butter cake?  Should I do it when the layers are warm, or wait until they have cooled?  To pierce or not to pierce?  That is the question.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I baste the syrup on a butter cake right at the end of the cooling process, and it seems to absorb the wash/syrup very well.  I have tried it at other times when the layers are chilled, and I would not recommend it.

I have also found that when the layers are torted into thinner layers, the syrup soaks the thinner layers completely and therefore not only moistens evenly and completely, but looks much nicer.  With my thicker layers, it looks unevenly distributed.

I never brush, takes longer and picks crumbs.  I use a squeeze bottle, like those used in hair salons, but I get mine’s from restaurant supply stores, very common for plating all kind of sauces and dots.  It is a very good and similar concept to using the large syringe Rose lists on her books.

If you have the time to let your moistened butter cake sit airtight in the refrigerator for 1 or 2 days, the syrup will spread and moisten evenly, the flavor improves and ripens too!

Oh, I never add syrup on a warm cake, most cakes need to cool off completely to finish developing structure.  If you do while still hot or warm, you risk turning it into paste!

Thanks, everyone.

I have the squeeze bottle.  That was going to be my approach.  I like the idea of letting it settle in for a day or two.  I have that time.