Question About Bulging Cake Sides And Covering Bc W/fondant
Decorating By debo_04 Updated 5 May 2008 , 10:52pm by sugarshack
I always have a problem with bulging cake sides. It usually doesn't matter since I'm used to doing cakes for my daughters birthday and cakes for friends only, but this time I've been asked to do a wedding cake and I would really like to not see the bulges. I see everyone saying to let the cakes "rest" to help avoid bulging. Im just wondering............does that dry the cake out if you just let it sit for five or so hours after its done w/out a icing it??? Also, I saw that someone said that your layer of BC should be very thin under the fondant..........I've never heard that before, could that be another reason my cake bulges??
I always have a problem with bulging cake sides. It usually doesn't matter since I'm used to doing cakes for my daughters birthday and cakes for friends only, but this time I've been asked to do a wedding cake and I would really like to not see the bulges. I see everyone saying to let the cakes "rest" to help avoid bulging. Im just wondering............does that dry the cake out if you just let it sit for five or so hours after its done w/out a icing it??? Also, I saw that someone said that your layer of BC should be very thin under the fondant..........I've never heard that before, could that be another reason my cake bulges??
I used to have problems with buldging and here is what I do now and I no longer have any problems:
1) Be sure to crumb coat the cake. After I fill and crumb coat it, I couvr the coated cake in plastic wrap and let rest or refrigerate for a couple of hours.
2) Then go back and apply normal layer of buttercream. Should work out perfectly now w/ no buldging.
3) Fo fondant, I still use a generous amount of buttercream underneath and I've never had any problems.
Hope this helps!
The cake can be wrapped in plastic for settling, doesn't have to be exposed to air. Make sure you use a stiff enough dam or stiffer filling. I put a full coating of buttercream under my fondant and chill it before putting the fondant on so I have a hard surface to work with (all butter icing)
In addition, I use a dam of cake crumbs and a small amount of BC. Then I push down on the top of my cake to fix anything that squishes out!
I also crumb-coat, fridge, then apply a thicker layer of BC and fridge again so it is isn't too soft when I put the fondant on top.
Right when I take it out of the fridge, I use a butter knife to smooth out any noticeable bumps in my BC. Then I use the fondant smoother once it's covered.
Oh, and it helps a bunch if you don't roll your fondant too thin. Thin fondant shows every bump.
I have had that same problem. What I have found that works for me is...
bake 2 cakes
torte (with my agbay, be jealous!)
replace the "lid"
then put a layer of frosting
then the 2nd cake
torte and fill that
Then I put a THIN layer of frosting to frost the sides of the cake. My frosting job is in the center of my cake now!!! Now everyone gets a good amount of frosting.
works great!
Exactly what I needed! Thanks so much!..........unfortunatly the fondant is going to have to be super thin because I'm texturing it with a "tooled leather" from a table cloth and it doesn't take the texture unless it is extremly thin 
so I will use all of your info to make sure the the butter cream is PERFECT before I put the textured fondant on there. Everybody say a little prayer for me........I'm scared! This is a potential disaster waiting to happen...........this is exactly why I don't like to do cakes for other people!!!
I always have a problem with bulging cake sides. It usually doesn't matter since I'm used to doing cakes for my daughters birthday and cakes for friends only, but this time I've been asked to do a wedding cake and I would really like to not see the bulges. I see everyone saying to let the cakes "rest" to help avoid bulging. Im just wondering............does that dry the cake out if you just let it sit for five or so hours after its done w/out a icing it??? Also, I saw that someone said that your layer of BC should be very thin under the fondant..........I've never heard that before, could that be another reason my cake bulges??
I personally don't do the let it rest thing. I'm too busy for that trick. First and foremost bulging usually a result of overfilling, improper support, or a combination of the two.
When filling my cakes I make my icing dam about 1/4 inch from the edge. Then I fill my cake making sure I am below the level of the dam. I place the top layer on then I gently press on top of the cake. This will push the icing and filling in one direction towards the edge. Now you can use your spatula or a gloved finger to smooth that icing out. Once finished crumb coat the rest of the sides and continue to ice as you normally would.
As for the thin layer of buttercream under fondant I put a fairly thick layer of butter cream under my fondant. And I don't roll my fondant out too thick either. My reason for this is fairly simple. A fair amount of people do not like the chewy texture of fondant. I find that by using a thick layer of butter cream and thinner fondant, the fondant seems to start to "melt" into the butter cream while the outer layer remains intact. The result is fondant that's not chewy and is more palatable. Another positive is, if a person truly does not want the fondant they still have buttercream icing to enjoy with their cake.
When stacking just make sure you have proper support for the upper tiers and you should not have an issue.
So in short the battle of the bulge can be won by not overfilling and having proper support.
I have also found that some bulging can be from different sized layers, even though they were baked in the same pan. Seriously! As the cake gets close to done it starts pulling away from the sides of the pan, and it doesn't always end up the same size. Generally the difference in negligible and can be 'fixed' with icing, but sometimes it's noticable and you need to actually trim just a tad.
Exactly what I needed! Thanks so much!..........unfortunatly the fondant is going to have to be super thin because I'm texturing it with a "tooled leather" from a table cloth and it doesn't take the texture unless it is extremly thin
so I will use all of your info to make sure the the butter cream is PERFECT before I put the textured fondant on there. Everybody say a little prayer for me........I'm scared! This is a potential disaster waiting to happen...........this is exactly why I don't like to do cakes for other people!!!
It's fine to put two layers of fondant on your cake! It's a great technique for silhouettes: Apply one color as the base, then another color. You then cut out designs from the top layer so the base color shows. Duff has one in the background during some of the interview shots...
I always have to put my cake in the fridge before I do the final frosting/fondant otherwise it wobbles all over the place and then it bulges too...... someone, please tell me what an agbay is? 
Yeah, I'm totally jealous of Alice. You can only buy them from
http://www.agbayproducts.com/
In addition, I use a dam of cake crumbs and a small amount of BC. Then I push down on the top of my cake to fix anything that squishes out!
I also crumb-coat, fridge, then apply a thicker layer of BC and fridge again so it is isn't too soft when I put the fondant on top.
Right when I take it out of the fridge, I use a butter knife to smooth out any noticeable bumps in my BC. Then I use the fondant smoother once it's covered.
Oh, and it helps a bunch if you don't roll your fondant too thin. Thin fondant shows every bump.
That's such a good idea to add cake crumbs to BC for a dam!
I'm going to try that for my next cake.
super stiff BC icing for your dam is the key for me.
knead in powdered sugar till you can roll a ball with your hands and pipe that as your dam.
YEAH, it's over! No more cakes for a while.....well, except my daughters Birthday cake........!! Anyway, The wedding cake turned out great. I would certainly make a few modifications and upgrades if given the chance to do it over again, but all of your tips helped so much. Refrigerating the cake before applying the fondant overlay worked fantastic. The BC dam helped a bunch on the bulging sides and I don't know if this is the forum that someone told me about using the roller to smooth my BC, but that is SOOOO cool! I'll never go back to Viva!! LOL Thanks to you all for the valuable tips! You are all so helpful! - Deb
Another Melvira Method Convert!!!! YAY!!!! Yes, I put it in "my photos". The others you see in there are some of my cakes since I started. Of course I swore I would ONLY do cakes for my daughters birthday, but as you can see I have gotten suckered into several "freebies" for friends.. and friends of friends............I keep saying "no more cakes" but its like child birth for me. I hate how it feels while I'm doing it, but after a bit of time goes by I forget the pain and agony and start to miss seeing the final outcome so I get sucked back into it!!
I had same buldge problems too, solved by making super, super thick icing for my dam by adding a ton of extra powdered sugar. So thick
you could actually roll it in a ball. Then using piping bag with out tip, can
have coupler on it, and if you have one with slit, make sure the slit facing
into the cake and pipe around. It is stiff, but can still be piped out. Then after filling or putting buttercream in center, take a cookie sheet and set on top of both layers and push down generously. This helps push out
extra air, settles the cake and moves excess frosting to sides so you can crumb coat. Good luck.
Yes, the thick dam is what Sharon teaches in her DVDs. I had never seen anyone do it that way until she showed me.
It's not always that the cake has been prepared the wrong way.. I haven't had near the bulge that I had with my last cake... The dam was stiff, the filling just right and I let my cakes settle..trim the sides and I coat with bc... the problem with my last cake was a LARGE air bubble that wrapped one whole side of the cake GRRRR...I woke up the next morning and tackled it. I poked tiny pin holes in the bc (hot pin to be exact) and used the viva on the sides.. and no more buldge... so it's not always too much filling or not letting it settle enough.
debo_04, your work is lovely!! I think I see more requests in your future!! You're going to have to stop doing such nice work! 
I HATE air bubbles!! Just when the fondant is all smooth and perfect, and I think I've done my best covering job yet... here comes an air bubble. GROWL!!!!! 
oh yeah the blow outs the next day!
drive me to drink!!!
evil things
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