I am making a four tier (14,12,10, and 8 for this weekend, the bottom two layers are styrofoam and I have already covered them in fondant and adhered them to the cake board.
The thing is..i forgot to sand down the edges of the foam dummy cakes and they have really sharp edges
How do I ensure that my two real layers have as little roundness on the edges as possible so the dummies do not stand out? Is the key less buttercream under the fondant? Is there a trick to get cleaner edges with fondant?

Make sure you have as sharp and straight edges with your BC as you can get, and chill the cake before putting the fondant on. Helps to prevent sagging at the corners. Also, roll your fondant thinner for square. The less weight you have on the edges the better.

Oh I need some help on edges with fondant too!

When I have been doing rectangle or square cakes, I have a hard time getting my BC to stick to the corners - I try to get it to go on sharp, but I end up pulling off one side when trying to make an edge. And lately anytime I put my BC on (the whole cake) if I put anymore than the thinnest bit (i.e. JUST enought to not have the cake show through) it slides down the cake when I put the fondant on and my corners (that have more icing than the rest of the cake, but an amount that normally would be expected on a cake) end up mushy under the fondant.

I have had it happen on my last three cakes, and the corners are mushy under the fondant, so much so that if I try to smooth the corners to make them even sort of 'sharp' the fondant tears or the icing starts 'eating' through the fondant.

How do I get a decent amount of icing on without having problems putting fondant over it?!

I've been reading a lot of posts saying using a simple ganache instead of buttercream will give you far superior results as far as smoothness and corners when applying the fondant. I don't have experience in either but when I start taking that class I'm going to try the ganache way. Just an idea

Yes, try ganache. It is awesome!

But won't you see chocolate ganache through white fondant? or are there other types of ganache?

White chocolate ganache? IDK

With a white fondant you'd want to use white chocolate ganache. Nothing I've done myself but I've read about it in plenty of forum posts here.

good luck!

I just don't think chocolate ganache would go the carrot cake tier.. every time it seems like I have a solution I think of something else to worry about. Thanks goodness this cake is for a friend, not sure yet if i ever want to make a wedding cake for a paying customer!

You can use dark chocolate under white fondant, it won't show through (see the 2 tier cake with the purple orchids in my picks for proof!)

I know some people use white chocolate with carrot cake but I think it depends on your cake recipe as to how well this works.

Also meant to add, you could cover the dummy layers with another layer of fondant so the edges look softer.

I would suggest a good swiss meringue buttercream, when it cools in the fridge it becomes almost solid like butter and can be covered perfectly with very sharp edges. Once it comes to room temp, it's like silk and tastes DIVINE!!

Let me know if you're interested and I can pm you a recipe.

I finally tried white chocolate ganache under fondant a couple weeks ago and it worked like a charm!

I can't use ganache - the bride is allergic to chocolate.

Claribel - could you PM me the recipe?

I used white chocolate ganache recently and it did not set up like the dark chocolate, I really am not sure if I will ever go that route again, and I did use the 3:1 ratio when making it.

I wonder if you could use candy melts or something with a more neutral flavor? I have been thinking about this alot lately too. And what about using marzipan? Has anyone done that?

Thank you to everyone who answered all my questions on this cake!
I can't believe I stressed about it since she asked me to do it last March and it is FINALLY done!! I have so much more confidence in myself now, this was the first time I wasn't shaking when covering a cake with fondant!

I didn't end up recovering the dummy tiers with more fondant because I didn't have much extra, but I don't think the edges came out too bad on the real layers (top 2), next time I will remember to sand down my dummy edges.

I do wish I had made the second layer from the top thicker. Oh well, at least it made the almost 2 hr drive in 1 piece!

Beautiful! Great job!

I really like that! How do you make your roses? They look more.. whimsical.. than the ones I make.

ETA: which I really like.. I'd prefer mine to look like that. Mine remind me of an old lady's hat or something.

Thanks ladies!

Clovers, the roses are the Duff (Goldman) ones, here are the directions, so simple!

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1149096

It looks fantastic, a beautiful cake to be proud of. I actually had to read back to the start of the thread to see which tiers were dummies as I couldn't pick it - even knowing that they were there!