Hi fellow Cakers,

I have a dilema, hopefully someone can tell me what I am doing wrong. I am covering cakes in fondant, I use one of the MMF recipes from here, roll out to the correct thickness and then roll if over the cake, but it always bunches at the bottom of the cake, so much so that smoothing the side down makes it worse at the bottom....any advice as to what i am doing wrong??

Thanks!

You have to kind of pull the fondant away from the cake while smoothing it downward with your other hand. It takes some practice. You have to go slow. Make sure you don't have gobs and gobs of extra fondant sitting at the bottom of the cake when you lay it over the cake. I cut off extra so it doesn't bunch up and I have less fondant to deal with when I get to the bottom.

There are some good DVD's on how to apply fondant - Sugarshack has a good one. There are also some Youtube videos on how to apply fondant so do a search on Youtube.

Good luck and keep practicing!

I don't have any solutions, but I just wanted to say that I have the same problem. It looks so easy on the videos, but I keep finding myself with bunches every time I try it on a round cake.

Do you let your cake set-up in the fridge for a few hours with a crumbcoat before applying the MMF? It sounds like the cake may be settling under the weight of the MMF. It's much easier to apply MMF to a firm/cold cake.

Yes, I let them sit in the fridge and chill completely before I cover them. I'll definately look into the videos and keep a practicing!

Thanks!!

There's an easy way to get rid of the bunching at the bottom.

Put the cake on a board the same size as the cake. Not 1/2" bigger, the exact size of the cake. Then set that onto something smaller, like a coffee can or oatmeal can or even an upside-down cake pan that's a smaller size. Then drape the fondant over the cake. The folds will form below the cake. Use a scissors and cut off some of the excess so it's not dragging on the cake. Then smooth the fondant and trim off the excess, just below the cake board, leaving a tiny bit extra because sometimes it shrinks up. Then put the finished cake onto a decorated board and you're done. (to get hands out from underneath the cake, use a long offset spatula to hold up one side of the cake, set the other side down first, then use the spatula to lower the cake. Pull the spatula out, and if it pulls the fondant from that spot, at least you've only got 1" to tuck back under, which you can do with a bench scraper)