I recently read that using canned frosting is a no-no when making a fondant covered cake. The author said that homemade buttercream is the only thing you should use when using this method.

Why is that? I'm new to cake decorating, so I still have a lot to learn. I've made two different fondant covered cakes using canned frosting. They turned out fine, but maybe there is something I'm missing?

Maybe it's because they were simple cakes. They were stacked round tiers. I've attached a picture of one of them.

The main reason I've been using canned frosting is that it is less time consuming. I'm still really slow at this cake thing. Making buttercream just seems like one more thing to do. Any thoughts on canned frosting for this newbie?

laura4795 your cake looks very nice! as for the can frosting I am glad it worked so when I don't have time to make frosting I can use it in pinch. sammie192

Thanks! I'm curious to know what is supposed to go wrong when using canned? Is it harder to cover with the fondant?

Fondant still stresses me out. I make a lot of mistakes. Maybe that's because I'm using canned and not buttercream to crumb coat?

I don't use canned frosting because I like to cover my cake after the buttercream has crusted. Canned frosting will never crust. The nice thing about crusting buttercream is that you can get it really smooth, and you can pull the fondant off and start over if it has a problem, without the buttercream coming off or the cake coming apart.

Everyone makes mistakes...it's all about learning to cover them up. Even the pros will cover a mistake with a stray flower or an extra stripe or something.

I used canned frosting once, to fill and frost the cake. When I went to smooth the fondant after putting it on the cake...it just smooshed and oozed everywhere!!! out the sides, out the bottoms and my fondant was horribly lumpy looking...ugh!!! I had to start over, cuz when I attempted to take the layers apart to scrape off the frosting the cake just completely fell apart...on the other hand I have used canned german chocolate frosting for a filling but used a buttercream dam and that worked out just fine for me.

I think that canned frosting is usually too soft to use underneath fondant...but it looks like it worked for you!!!.

canned frosting is all i use...no problem