So Leah, would you recommend a smaller tile or just leaving it to settle on it's own?

OMG, I am sooo excited to try this tip! I have a few large wedding cakes to do in the next month and I can't wait to try it. Unfortunately the hardware store is closed for the night so I have to wait until morning, but I plan to do a trial run tomorrow! Thanks so much for posting.

Wow. I ran across this post looking for something else. Nice tip. I never knew of or heard of waiting for your cakes to settle before decorating them. I only knew to wait for the cake to cool, then crumb coat, and decorate. What awesome things you learn by becoming a student of the trade! Thanks LeahS for the post!

I too have cake bulge issues, and have seemed to master it for buttercream covered cakes using this method... Is there a trick to not getting the bulge after you cover the cake with fondant? (and no, my fondant isn't an inch thick )

Should work the same.

WOW! what a great thread...thanks Leah_s.....I feel like I just cross my fingers and pray for NO "bulge" ...LOL Will be using this method from now on!

My trick is to put the cake on a rack in a shopping bag tent - this allows the cake to cool without loosing moisture but without squishing the edges when I wrap in glad wrap especially square ones. The bag is not touching the cake but allows the moisture to run down the sides to the bottom so I don't get a soggy cake but its in a moist environment.

Wow...this is a long feed of posts, so if this is a repeat...forgive me... I put my dammed, torted cakes in a food safe plastic beg...suck the air out with a 'dust buster' type vacuum and let them sit for a couple of hours to overnight, depending on the needs of the job...just sayin'

Thanks for sharing that tip!! I have a 13 inch ceramic tile set aside just for that purpose!!

It is so nice to have cake buddies. The bulging has been a problem in my wedding cakes especially when someone wants thick filling. Is it too late todo it today when I must finish the deco today?? Tomorrow morning is a 40 mile delivery. Hope to hear from someone today. It is 9:40AM Thurs. 3/31 Thanks, Grammy1963

The cake needs to settle at least a couple of hours. Longer is better. You can also crumb coat in the thicker bc you use for the dam. That will help Also using cake spackle for the dam work well.

We just built our house & have leftover tile! Thanks for the tip!

I saw this post last year and ever since I have been using the tiles! It really works great, if I have a smaller cake I use the same 12" tile but make sure I center it and it is level. Tried and true, love it! Thanks Leah!

This is regarding cake bulging. I wrote last week about a cake I had to do that day. I thickened the frosting for the middle of the cake and then I placed a cookie sheet over the large layers and placed 2- 2lb. bags of 10x sugar evenly spaced on the cookie sheet and let it sit for an hour before the finalfrosting and assembly. It worked beautifully. I do not know how heavy a tile is but with the 4 lbs of sugar and the cookie sheet I'm sure it was at least 5 lbs. I travelled 40 miles the following day. But took the precaution to assemble the 4 tiers at the reception to be on the safe side.
No cake mishaps

So finding this thread was a Godsend!!!! I made a three tiered butter creme covered cake with indydeb's butter creme (which is now my go to bc) .and filled with the bc and Fresh raspberry filling. I cut up the raspberries and drained them well torted dammed and fill all three layers.....I think I put too much filling in the top tier b/c it decided to come out...as I was putting the cake in the car I look at the back and the raspberry juice was dripping out the back of the cake. Ugghhhh......en the top tier just kept settling more and more....it was a friends anniversary party...they loved the cake, the dripping was at the back but I was a shaking nervous wreck..this is only my second bc covered cake and I am still trying to get it all right....thanks for the tips

I recently had a fondant blow out on a 14" cake (which was really devastating for me as it was the bottom tier of a wedding cake - I ended up having to do that tier as a fake). I always put a tile on top of my cakes to settle them. So I'm thinking that it may be because of condensation. I use a really thick dam and I trim my cakes as well (after they've settled). I realized after pulling my fondant off after the blow out that I had cut away too much of the dam and maybe that was part of the reason too. Plus the cake seemed 'wet' inside.
So Leah, I totally trust your advice.. can you help me with a few questions and then maybe I can figure out what I'm doing wrong?

1. Do you use refrigerate your cakes at all throughout the process? Or freeze them after baking them?
2. Do you use a really thick bc dam (can actually be formed into a ball)?
3. Do you trim your cakes after they've settled? If so, how do you avoid cutting away too much of the dam?

I'm so disappointed that I'm almost ready to give up caking. If I do make another wedding cake, I am DEFINATELY trying the SPS as the transport was sooo stressful, even with the bottom tier as fake. So Leah, if you can help me at all, I'd so appreciate it. Thanks so much!

Oh Leah .. one more question, I use Indydebby's buttercream that seems to crust really quickly, so I crumb coat then apply the fondant right away. Do you think that the crusting of the buttercream may be causing problems with the fondant not sticking well enough? What kind of buttercream do you use?

1. I NEVER REFRIGERATE CAKE. Settling will NOT occur in the refrigerator. I do freeze after baking.

2. Yes I use a thick dam.

3. No I don't trim the cakes after settling. Trim what exactly?

4. I use Charlotte's Whipped Cream Butrte3rcream. It's pretty not non-crusting. I get a good freeze on it after it's on the cake before I put on the fondant, so it's not the least bit sticky or even soft when the fondant goes on. As it comes to room temp it grabs and holds the fondant. That happens pretty quickly.

I'm amazed that a fondant blow put (a big bubble, I assuming) was devasting enough to ruin the entire tier. Even with a large bubble I've had to poke a pin (or two) hole in it and ease out the air.

HI,
I'm new to Cake Central. So far, everything I have seen or read is wonderful.

Leah, is the buttercream recipe (Charlotte's) you refer to on Cake Central?

Thank you,
ShimaOhana

Yes. Just look in the recipe section.

PS I cut the fat to 3/4 pound per pound of powdered sugar.

Leah, is Charlotte's recipe the same/similar to the Whipped Cream Buttercream that I posted. I cannot find hers in the recipe sections under her name. Will you tell me how her's is listed exactly. I would love to compare the two recipes. Thanks.

Leah, thank you SO much!

I was settling my filled cakes in the fridge for a day or so (with the tile for a couple hours, then without the tile for the remainder), then letting it come to room temperature before covering in fondant (then I kept the cakes out of the fridge after that). I will definitely stop doing that, it makes sense now that I think about it, that the cake won't settle in the fridge because the bc will be hard the whole time, then soften once removed, therefore probably ooze out after being covered in fondant. So, from now on, I'll just leave the cakes out on the counter with the tiles on top to settle.

In Sharon's DVDs, she told us to trim the sides of the cakes after it's settled so that the sides won't have the bulge that will form after settling. Do you get a bit of a buldge after settling that you cut away? She also suggested the flash freezing for 10 minutes after crumb coating and covering with fondant. So you do this part then right? This may cause a problem for me because my bc will crust, then I have to wet it again and I noticed too much water can also cause a problem.

Leah, please just let me know now if I'm on the right track and if I understand the process now and what I may have done wrong. Maybe I won't be giving up after all. Never refrigerating or freezing is probably the answer to my problem (except for the flash freeze) - room temperature the whole time when covering a cake in fondant. Condensation seems to have been my problem, it is the enemy!

I found the anwer I was looking for. This is the same recipe originally published by "Charlotte" and was posted on the wilton forums by someone else.

Sorry Leah, I just noticed.. you "do" freeze after baking. I was doing that too, so I will continue, but I'll just make sure then that the cakes are completely at room temperature and dry before starting.

Leah, I was hoping you could clarify a couple thing for me? I just did a wedding cake with fondant leaves layered over a fondant-covered cake. One side totally bulged out as I was applying the leaves (thankfully, the leaves hid the misshapen cake side). I had refrigerated it after fillling and icing, which is apparently a no-no--won't be doing that again! But I was wondering about the freezing stage. Is this done with a cake right out of the oven? For how long? Is it thawed completely before icing? It sounds like it's allowed to settle at room temp (again, for how long?) and then it's put back in the freezer after the BC is applied. How long does it stay in the freezer before the fondant is put on? Just want to make sure this doesn't happen with the next cake since I may not be lucky enough to have something with which to cover it up. Thanks so much!!!

1. bake cake
2. Cool as little or as long as you need to
3. torte if desired, wrap and freeze. You can freeze any amount of time from 1 night to several weeks.
4. take out of freezer, fill, re-wrap (you can use the wrap you just took off)
5. weight the top with a ceramic tile and let sit at least 2 hours and overnight if possible
6. crumb coat
7. put on layer of bc. I do not wait any time at all after crumb coating.
8. If it's a bc cake, you're done.
9. If it's to be fondanted, then put the cake in the freezer, until it's very firm. I generally allow 1/2 hour.
10. Roll out fondant. Pull cake from freezer. Put fondant on cake.

1. bake cake
2. Cool as little or as long as you need to
3. torte if desired, wrap and freeze. You can freeze any amount of time from 1 night to several weeks.
4. take out of freezer, fill, re-wrap (you can use the wrap you just took off)
5. weight the top with a ceramic tile and let sit at least 2 hours and overnight if possible
6. crumb coat
7. put on layer of bc. I do not wait any time at all after crumb coating.
8. If it's a bc cake, you're done.
9. If it's to be fondanted, then put the cake in the freezer, until it's very firm. I generally allow 1/2 hour.
10. Roll out fondant. Pull cake from freezer. Put fondant on cake.

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