I live in Houston and am not sure if it is the humity or the fondant.
After a couple of hours of making a cake and it looking smooth and nice, it starts to look sweaty and it stretches. It'll bunch all around the bottom of the cake.

The recipe I use that got on line calls for:
gelatin
water
almond extract
light corn syrup
glycerin
confectioners sugar

If suggestions will be helpful. I have to make another cake this weekend for one of my daughter's birthday's

Thank you
Amber

Hi ajh16211... could i ask if you had a thick layer of icing below the fondant and whether you took the cake out of the fridge? The bunching of the fondant could be due to there being to thick a layer of frosting under the fondant and if you have removed it from the fridge, it could have softened and shifted causing the fondant to slide off the cake. Another possibility is also that you didn't let the cake settle after you frosted it before adding the fondant. As for the fondant sweating, it's probably due to condensation. If you had taken the cake out of the fridge and added the fondant to the cake while its still cold, due to the difference in temperatures between the fridge and outside, it would have caused condensation to form on the fondant.. however, if you leave the cake out, it should dry out after a couple of hours Hope that helps
Oh do remember not to roll the fondant too thin as well... it may also cause problems. From what i learned here.. most have advised not to roll it less than 1/4" thick
I had lots of problems when i first worked with fondant as well.. so hope these tips i picked up along the way helps you too

Thanks a bunch.

I will remember all that next time. I'm a newbie and have only made three cakes. I haven't taken any classes just yet. Just trying it out from reading books and watching cooking shows on the tv.



Amber

Hi Amber.. I actually am a newbie to cakes too!! Everything i said was actually from various threads i read on CC I've only made 1 cake so far and encountered all the problems above (you could imagine how ugly the cake turned out ;p) so you're actually way ahead of me in terms of experience.. But doing the cake and having all the mistakes was a great learning experience and I have to say the tips i learned all came from CC!! Isn't it great. I'm going to attempt my 2nd cake today.. and hopefully it turns out much better after the last disaster i had

The humidity could be an issue. I have humidity issues here too and when I lived in Houston it was even more humid.

I've tried making regular fondant and making marshmallow fondant, and the MMF seems to stand up to humidity better. Also, since your recipe doesn't have any fat in it, it could be absorbing the grease from your buttercream, and that's why it's saggy. I had that happen with the traditional fondant recipe I tried first. It could also be the buttercream starting to melt under the cake, if it's warm enough in your house (a lot of times humidity indoors and AC problems go together, at least they have for me). You might try a buttercream with no butter or margarine...look for Indydebi's Crisco-Based Buttercream recipe here on the website. I've had really good luck with it and it tastes great too.