I can't believe I just found this forum tonight. I'm a cake-a-holic. I only rea about cakes, I drone on and on about cakes to my poor husband, and I'll happily spend the day baking and decorating in the kitchen! I just made my very first 4-tiered cake as a practice cake for my friend's wedding below.

I'm rather frustrated. The cake itself looks lumpy and not as smooth and straight as the pros. I didn't level the tops of the cakes. I simply flipped them over and used the bottom as the tops. I only torted the cakes once, and I think that had a lot to do with the lumpy tops!

My fondant shape cut outs look sloppy. I guess I'm happy that the structure of the cake is good, but I wish the decor could look better.


I can't wait to get talking about cakes with all of you! Please offer advice on my cake... I really need it. [/img]

Hello hello and welcome. Wow what a dang good first tier cake!

Do you have a nice layer of buttercream under the fondant?
Do you have any of those fondant smoothers?
Those deals that look like the paddles they use on people whose hearts have stopped. They yell, 'CLEAR!" and zap the poor devil with those zappers. Got carried away there. It's late huh.
But anyway those fondant smoothers are great.

If the layer of buttercream underneath is generous enough and your fondant layer is a good thickness you can smoothy out the surface more. I mean I'm not saying go overboard either--but all the bumps under there can be hidden better if icing and fondant are the correct thicknesses.

Something else you need to know. Ribbon is mercilessly unforgiving. You have real ribbon on your cake. That is way gutsy. Look how proportioned your ribbon looks to your cake--how balanced it is --sure there's a random bauble but you have a great hand and eye for this. I avoid real ribbon like the plague. You've done really really well.

Put it in your car and drive around for while for the rest of the practice test.

How do you have it doweled?

It looks great for a first wedding cake. No one is perfect right out of the gate.

For advice I would highly recommend leveling your cakes. Flipping them over and leaving that dome created pockets of really thick frosting and can cause buldging. And when you do fondant cut outs I find it's best to cut them out and allow them to set up a little before trying to move them to the cake. This is especially true of strips of fondant. This allows them to firm up and they won't warp as much. How much buttercream do you have under the fondant? Did you put your cakes in the fridge before you tried to cover them with the fondant? I always frost my cakes as if they weren't going to have fondant on them at all. Then chill them so the buttercream gets nice and firm and then cover with the fondant. This way you can keep the edges crisp and the buttercream won't move around on you. HTH's a little. Welcome to Cake Central.. this place is great for advice and to just ramble about cakes.

I am not a pro, just a hobbiest, but here is my advice.For me, levelling is a must. I also let the cakes settle overnight if possible. Do you have fondant smoothers? They are wonderful for getting smooth straight fondant. It looks like you have a great start. Torting more would give you more height. A topper, I think, would pull it all together and really make it look finished. Deffinately don't give up. You are so close to getting it perfectly. I hope you will post a picture of your final cake.

koumi welcome to CC! Not bad for a first try. To make it straight you need to level each tier (cut of the dome) but other then that you did a really good job. If you want some really good tutorials before your firends wedding sugarshack has some great DVDs on her web site and they are very reasonable. www.sugaredproductions.com If you got Perfecting the Art of Butter Cream and Flawless Fondant I'm sure you could make a fabulous wedding cake. Keep on cakin and sharing your photos.

Great advice everyone! I like the idea of leveling the cake in the pan. I'm quite incapable of cutting a perfect line on my own!

I also like the suggestion of icing the cake perfectly smooth as if no fondant would cover it, then refrigerating it to stabilize the icing.

When I created my icing (Martha's Swiss Meringue Buttercream) I found that it wasn't as smooth as creamy as I would like. It was perfect in my mixing bowl, but once I put it one the cake, it was translucent and didn't have that nice satin finish. Maybe my butter was too soft?

I'll try this cake again this week and show pictures of my frosting as well as my leveling. Hopefully it will turn out better!

good job on your first attempt!!! i just did my first tiered this weekend too and man was i nervous! but it turned out well!! Keep practicing!! i've yet to cover a cake in fondant but stick around here, you'll pick up so many tips and tricks you'll have it down pat in no time!

Congrats on your first tiered FANTASTIC job!!!!