I'm planning to make a cake covered in MMF. Is a crumb-coat of BC enough, or do I need to actually ice the cake in BC? I'm new to this, so it may seem like a silly question.

TIA!

I ice almost regular amount because even thought I know that my fondant is tasty, it has a bad rap and many people peel it off. Without a regularish amount of BC, they would hardly have any BC at all!! HTH

Hi, I use a bit thicker layer than a crumbcoat!

I just crumb coat, and get it really smooth. I used to do a second coat but had issues with having it be too thick and soft under the fondant . I let the BC dry then right before I apply the fondant I lightly paint the BC with some PS glue(a mixture of ps and water) to make it stick to the bc.

I just started using mmf too.I find that a thin coating is all you need.Like a crumb coating but don't thin the icicng.Hope this makes since.The first time I tried the mmf I put to much buttercream on my cake and it seemed like my mmf slid around some but I did a carved cake that had layers that stood up and I didn't have it doweled properly.

i want to learn how can we ice as we normally do with BC and not have problems.

i did that for my first fondant covered cake, and the icing slid, due to the weight from the fondant. i was using indydebi's icing.

I use a combination of Sharon Zambito's and Jennifer Dontz's techniques with buttercream and fondant. I highly suggest these ladies DVDs. Watching and learning what they do and how they do it has made all the difference for me in the decorating arena. I will also say that Sharon's buttercream is the only buttercream for me. For a paying customer, Jennifer's fondant is my only fondant; for family and friends, I use macsmom's MMF.

mclaren, your crumb coat may have dried too much before adding your fondant to it not allowing the fondant to stick to the buttercream. You should slightly moisten your crumb coat before putting the fondant layer on and make certain when you apply the fondant you are using a tool to press it against the crumb coat. This should keep the fondant from sliding. Good luck.

Bettina

When I took the Wilton classes, my instructor suggested a regular to thicker layer of buttercream due to alot of people don't like fondant.

bettinashoe, no, it wasn't the crumbcoat.

as usual i crumbcoated the cake, then slather on icing (thick) as i normally do for my BC cakes. then i put the fondant on. the cake was never refriged in the process.
i left it overnite, the next morning i saw one side of the cake was sliding. actually the icing was sliding and pulling the fondant together. but no oozing of icing or anything.
by the time the cake reached the venue, around few hours later, the other side of the cake slid as well. it was a free cake for old friends' gathering and since nobody there even remotely knows how to decorate a cake, they were oohhing and aaahing at the cake LOL and didn't notice the imperfections.

i've done a few more fondant cakes, and found out just crumbcoating without a lot of icing works better.
and now i'm into ganacheing instead of BC under fondant, and wow, what a difference!

I use a pretty thin layer of BC under my fondant. But I also recommend Sharon's Flawless Fondant DVD. It's wonderful!

I only use a crumbcoat under fondant.

I only use a crumbcoat as well - I get the sharpest edges and smoothest surface this way. It works the best for me, so until I can figure out how a regular coat of icing will work well under fondant without ending up smooshed out the bottom, I'm sticking with it

Crumbcoating works better for me. I make my "filling" between layers fairly thick so they get plenty of BC and flavor, so I don't feel like they have to get as much on the outside of the cake.

i'm going to be doing a light crumb coat from now on i did a thick on and i had lumps no matter how much i smoothed

LOL good point jmt1714!

i don't know i did and i couldn't get the bumps out. and it was on a smoothed cake

ninatat did you use a fondant smoother,that could be your problem,or you my not be rolling out your fondant thinn enough

I make a paste of leftover cake or cake torted from the top with buttercream; then cover cake. Light or heavy coat of buttercream (I mostly use SMBC), then apply fondant. This is after applying each application a placing in icebox or fridge.

I am planning to use the chocolate ganache method like Plant Cake.

Thanks everyone!

I think I will stick to a crumb coat, and maybe go just a *little* bit thicker. I don't think I will fully ice the cake since I want a nice smooth finish, and I don't want a lot of 'smooshing' around under the fondant.