Hi Everyone,
I'm very new here..I actually just did my first ever fondant cake last week and have made 5 more since. I find it very relaxing! My questions are these:
1. When I put my fondant on the cake, it appears somewhat bumpy..not smooth like some I see..see car picture for bumps..how do you get it so smooth?

2. I'm not sure how to finish the bottoms of the fondant...on the car that I did, I just put a small buttercream star border along the bottom? Do you curl the fondant underneath the cake?

3. I use powdered sugar to keep MMF from sticking to counter or roller. My finished piece always has powdered sugar on it..how do some of these cakes look so shing, with no specks of powdered sugar anywhere?

Thanks for any advice, I'm learning by trial and error with a huge amount of help from these boards. Thanks everyone for sharing!

I used the fondant smoother from Wilton. I've also used a pin to prick any air bubbles that occur.

Hope that this helps.

okee doke, here are my thoughts...

first off, i think you are doing well for starting out! i noticed that your pirate face cake is very smooth, and you used the sports ball pan for the cake shape itself...the others, i am guessing that you carved them to shape, right? i would assume that the cake itself is what is giving you lumps, not the mmf. when you want to do a carved cake, start with a nice firm/ denser recipe (not just a plain ole' cake mix) . bake and cool, then wrap and let it settle for several hours to overnight in the fridge or pantry. the crumb structure will actually tighten up and if you use a sharp serrated knife to carve, the cuts will be smooth. then you can give it a layer of buttercream underneath the fondant and it will look great.

to cut the fondant at the bottom , you dont actually need to tuck it under. a trick i find helpful is to have a pizza cutter, set the cake (on a cardboard cut to fit the cake) already iced on top of something a little elevated (ie: a heavy full coffee can etc) and smaller than the cake base. (have it already iced and ready for fondant). drape the fondant over the cake, smooth the top and down the sides carefully. the weight of the extra fondant will gently pull it downward so you'll get less creases at the base. then take the pizza cutter or a sharp UNserrated knife and cut the fondant at the base,kind of below the cardboard. if you use the cardboard as a guide, and push the knife under and inward, you'll get a clean cut at the very edge of the board and it looks really nice. i like to wrap my cakes with a satin ribbon at the bottom, or do a snail border with a small round tip to seel the edges.

to avoid the sugar remnants, i use crisco on my surface, rolling pin and hands to roll out the fondant. there will be no dust, it doesnt stick the counter and the fondant absorbs the extra shine after a few hours so it will dry iwth a matte finish.

keep up the good work

First I put a crumb coat (thin layer of frosting to hold crumbs), let sit for a few minutes.

Now put on a layer of frosting. Smooth out good.

I roll fondant out on vinyl (NO need for powder sugar or shortening). I flip once not the bottom will be the top of cake (nice and smooth). I lift vinyl with fondant on it and place on cake. Peel vinyl off and use my hands to smooth.

Start on one side and work around the cake. Pull a little on the fondant and smooth.

I use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife to cut off extra fondant. Some people make borders out of fondant, some leave plain, some put ribbon around the cake, etc. so many things you can do.

here is a baby shower I just did, you can I just made a made a fondant wrap to go around the cake.

You can click on picture to see it bigger.

you def. need to use a fondant smoother. start at the top and work your way around the cake until you get to the bottom edge. i never put a buttercream border on my fondant cakes. smooth the edges down and use a knife or pizza cutter at 45 degree angle to cut the fondant. i always put a small gauge of fondant from a sugar gun (small rope of fondant) at the bottom edge.

after you put the fondant on the cake, wipe the powdered sugar off with a paper towel. when you've smoothed it down, use a clean dry paint brush to wipe off excess p sugar.
i use a very thin layer of crisco on the fondant surface to remove the rest of the p sugar.

I was told that if you are going to use a cake mix yellow cake is okay but white doesn't work. I use carrot cake, spice or pound cake mix and they all seem to work really well.

i only use cake mixes for my fondant cakes. i reduce the oil to about 2-3 tablespoons, which makes the cake more dense. never had a problem.

Thanks for all of the great tips. I'm going to tackle another cake this weekend and I'll give these a try, I'll let you know how it goes!

are you using a fondant smoother? it's a tool that helps you smooth the whole thing out.

I'm new with fondant too and get a huge pleat at the bottom. Am I not stretching my fondant out far enough before placing on the cake? I can get it smooth around the sides until the very end I have a huge pleat. What's that about?

i haven't done many fondant cakes either, but im pretty sure the pleat is because the fondant was stretched too far. i get them every time i do a fondant cake. i just usually try to space out the excess in a way where there are very faint pleats instead of one huge one. i've gotten a little better at getting rid of them, but they still show up.

it helps me when i elevate the cake on something more narrow so the fondant can hang down rather than rest on the work space and pleat. (heavy coffee can works nice)