Okay so i got one of these mats, which i tried out last night and this morning.On a mmf covered cake.
I found the plastic mat very inflexable to hold in position on the side of the cake while at the same time trying to press it to make an indent.

Anyone else had trouble with these?

Not me, I love them. But you don't try tp bend the mat to make it fit to the side of the cake, you keep is straight and rock it aorund the cake, if that makes sense.

so you would only be using the middle part of the mat at any one time?
is that what you mean?

pretty much yes. you rock it and use the middle-sih area. but you rock it left to right, or vice versa, avoiding the last inch or 2 of the sides, so you dont impress that staright edge line into your cake.

make sense?

Hi Sharon,

Just been looking at your website , and have ordered your fondant dvd which i think has the technique you are talking about.

Just a quick question as im a total newbie at this point.
My cakes are coming out great and level - and i use the dam and center fill method.
But i think my latest mistake was to over bc ice the outside of the cake before covering in fondant.
am i correct that the layer under the fondant should only be a very thin coat of icing just to hold the crumbs in and give the fondant something to stick too?

Hi Brian!

1) I show how to use the mat in the fondant DVD but on a square cake.(just so you won't be disappointed, as I show how to use it on a round cake in the BC DVD)

2) that is very much personal prefernce, but yes, I only use a crumbcoat under my fondant.

HTH!

the cake i made this week , went in the fridge after i covered it in buttercream - a medium layer (no cake to be seen)
once it had crusted 2-3 hours later i covered it in mmf.
Smoothed it out and it was fine - nice and sturdy etc.
Left it on the countertop for 2 days covered in foil.
Last night i baked in the kitchen , which although the area is usually cooled to around 74 must have raised the temperature.
When i uncoved the cake later to try some techniques out on it , i noticed it had become soft, and the medium thick buttercream layer on the top and sides had caused the whole cake to become "squishy".
I put it back in the fridge overnight and so it stiffened up again, however the cake had already lost its shape by then.
So im wondering wether a combination of the temp change and the medium coat of bc caused this.
I have my first real cake for my sons baptism on sunday and i really dont want this happening to that one !!