Covering A Board With Fondant...why The Cutout?
Decorating By stlcakelady Updated 21 Jan 2009 , 3:10pm by prterrell
OK...so I've never covered a board with fondant and will be doing one shortly. I've read conflicting instructions from different places. On CC, someone said to roll out the fondant on the board and put a circle in the middle to the exact size of the cake and cut out the center. WHY???? What's the advantage to cutting out the center? Couldn't I just roll out the fondant on the board and leave it like that?
Because the moisture from the cake will cause the fondant to become wet and sticky so when the cake is cut you have a sticky mess under the cake.
Well, actually, if you have the cake on a board the same size as the tier (I do this with all cakes), wet & sticky isn't the issue.
The 2 main reasons to cut out the circle are:
1. To have a seamless, borderless bottom tier--the tier sits down in the fondant on the board and some people pipe some matching royal icing in the "seam" to pull it all together. No gap means the opportunity for a smaller border, too.
2. To conserve on fondant. Some consider it a big waste to have the majority of the fondant sit under the cake.
Another option is to sit the cake in the middle of the board & cover the cake & board with the same piece of fondant--the ultimate borderless application.
HTH
Rae
I cover the whole thing and don't cut out the hole. The cake is sitting on a same size board so stickiness is not an issue. I think I would have a harder time getting my cake to be the EXACT same size as the hole...if it's smaller then there's a gap, larger and now it's lopsided or sitting on nothing or I have to trim the hole larger.... no thanks
I don't really get how it would help the border issue... I take my fondant all the way down so the hole would have to be perfectly large enough to accommodate it or it will actually smoosh and wrinkle my fondant up.
Just seems like a lot of extra potential problems for $.50 worth of fondant.
I don't cut the circle out either.. the potential waste of a little bit of fondant isn't enough for me to fuss with.
I cover all my wedding cake boards in fondant and always cut the center hole. I am not precise with it though.... I cut it a bit smaller than the cake. The cake is always on a foil covered cardboard on TOP of the fondant covered board. I just use a little royal to stick the cardboard on. You would be surprised how much fondant you save by cutting a hole. That just goes back into my "scrap" bucket for the next board.
Fondant is expensive, so my opinion, conserve it where you can
Jen
For a large cake, what I cut out to make that hole is enough to cover a 6" or even an 8" cake... 50 cents on every cake adds up. That's not even why I do it though: For the way I stack my cakes, I cannot have fondant underneath the bottom tier as I need my center post to go straight down to the masonite as it gets hot-glued in place and that's what gives my cake ome of its structural stability.
I don't cut out a whole either, too hard for me and would take me longer than the .50 worth of fondant. I don't use a center dowel either especially since I tried the SPS system.
usually put the fondant on after the cake is on the board. I use the technique shown in this pictorial by aine2.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/extra-icing/sets/72157594575839118
usually put the fondant on after the cake is on the board. I use the technique shown in this pictorial by aine2.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/extra-icing/sets/72157594575839118
I use that technique sometimes as well... usually for square or odd-shaped cakes (although with the square I usually do one strip per side and miter the corners).
Thanks for posting that tutorial, alanahodgson! It's fantastic!
A little off the topic, but does anyone know what that green mat is that aine2 is rolling her fondant out on? I need to find some type of surface to do my rolling and cutting on, and am not sure what to use. Thanks in advance!
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