Hello all!

I seem to keep having the same problem over and over again and I still don't know what I am doing wrong.

I have become very comfortable covering a cake, may it be round or square, with fondant. However, after I smooth the fondant on the cake and let some time go by, eventually a bulge, right where the filling/dam line is, appears. I use my fondant smoothers to smooth the fondant in hopes to get rid of this bulge but that doesn't help.

I recently purchased Sugarshake's DVD's and I absolutely love them! They have been a wealth of help. I followed the flawless fondant dvd instructions to the T. I made sure to make my dam, fill my cake up the dam, seal my dam and do a semi-crumb coat and I let it set. I also trim the cake, crumb-coated it, smoothed out the bc with viva, popped it in the freezer for 8 - 10 min, dampened the sides and then applied the fondant and I still get this bulge right on the middle of the side of the cake, all the way around. It happens on both round and square cakes.

Please, can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong???

I'm not sure but could you possibably be using too much filling? What do yoiu use to make a dam? I have found using tip 12 line as a dam is much better than using on open coupler (w/o a tip). HTH

Hi! Thanks for your response!

Well, I don't think I use a lot of filling. I fill my cakes right up to the dam and not over. I do use an open coupler though. Could my dam be too thin??? How thick should a dam be? Thanks!

bump...

what are you using for your dam? are u thickening the BC with PS to make a SUPER stiff dam like I show in the thumbnail at the end of the DVD?

That is critical to no bulges, IMO


one more thing.... back off on the freezer time to 5-6 minutes....

Also make sure your dam is inside the cake, not right on the edge.

Also, are you prepping your cakes (filling and wrapping) and giving them time to settle? Like 12 hours or overnight? I've recently taken to weighting the top of the prepped cakes with a paperback book.

Thank you both for responding!!!

Yes Sharon, I took your bc recipe from your dvd and added ps like you mentioned to do so it is stiff enough to be able to almost roll a ball. I used a coupler to then apply the dam. I did place the dam close to the edge of the cake, should it be in more? Or should it then be on the edge? How thick should the dam be?

And yes Leahs, I am letting my cakes settle overnight in a wrapped food safe bag. I haven't placed anything on top of them but I may try that this weekend when I work on another cake. This may help settle my cakes a bit more.

I am going to try again this weekend and I am just hoping it could be my dam is not thick enough and maybe too close to the edge of the cake. I just keep having this problem and I get so disappointed when I get as far as covering my cakes with fondant to have it look ruined with this darn bulge. Thank you ladies for your help!

do not fret! we will fix it.

1) make the bc even stiffer. make it stiff so it's kind of hard to pipe thru the bag and it might even want to bust open!

2) for my technique, i put the dam close to the edge, then after the 2nd layer is on top, pipe some more of that super stiff stuff in the layers gap; then a light coat of bc as i show in the thumbnail.

then when you trim the cake the next day, you are trimming thru the super stiff dam, it is right on the edge of the cake, flush with the cake, so there is no soft BC going into that "gap" ( cuz there is no gap now), which might ooze out and bulge if it were there.

then u do a total CC over that.

did that make sense?

so stiffen it up more. get it right on the edge and trim, and back off on your freezer time. sometimes if the cake is too cold, condensation might help the fondant to bulge a little....

keep me posted!

Thank you Sharon!!!

This makes plenty of sense!!! I did add PS to your BC recipe to stiffen it up, but it wasn't as stiff as what you recommend. I am going to do another cake this weekend and will follow your instructions. I will certainly keep you posted Thank you again!!!

think SUPER stiff!

keep me posted!

Sharon!!! Look!!! No More Bulges!!! Thanks to you

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1261190

I still have a ways to go but I finally am feeling like I am getting the hang of this. Thanks again for all your help and advice

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO

SUCCESS!

bravo!