Appreciate Help With A Few Questions...

Decorating By Donnabugg Updated 9 Feb 2010 , 2:04am by Donnabugg

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Donnabugg Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 1:40am
post #1 of 14

Can someone tell me how to avoid ending up with a pleat when covering round cakes? I always end up with too much fondant when I get to the last part on the side of cake resulting in a huge pleat.

Also, I took a wasc cake out of the freezer and let it sit overnight. When I went to dirty ice the cake it just crumbled and came apart in every place I touched. This happened last time I pulled the same kind of cake out of the freezer. I have had the cakes in the freezer for about 4 months so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. I finally gave up and used the cake for cake balls! yummy! Thanks!

13 replies
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madgeowens Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 1:59am
post #2 of 14

I would dirty ice it prior to freezing to prevent that....hth

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icer101 Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 2:21am
post #3 of 14

with covering the round cake with the fondant.. roll your fondant thin.. i work standing over my cake. taking each fold of fondant.. lift it.. pull it out... using palm of hand..fit it to sides of cake.. lift next fold.. pull it out gently.. again using palm of hand. fit it to sides of cake.. as your go around the cake.. it will work out .. doing this fold by fold.. until you get to the end.. hope i have made sense.. doing all this gently...

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dstbni Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 2:27am
post #4 of 14

As far as the pleat goes, try this:

Set the cake on a surface smaller than the cake (like the next size smaller cake pan turned upside-down), then smooth with one hand while holding the bottom edge of the fondant away from the cake with the other hand. Lastly, smooth all the way around, working you way down (when I first started I would work my way top-to-bottom and then around, which pushed all the fondant into one big pleat.) I hope that made sense.

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Donnabugg Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 2:47am
post #5 of 14

Great tip on dirty icing first.
I thought I was doing the things suggested for fondant but I guess it just takes practice, practice, practice. icon_rolleyes.gif

Thanks for everyone's help.

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Renaejrk Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 3:26am
post #6 of 14

Yep - practice is the thing!

I have never had a defrosted WASC crumble - I'm curious as to why it would do that? Maybe some others with more knowledge about these things will post!

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Donnabugg Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 3:52am
post #7 of 14

Yep, did it on two different occasions.....

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madgeowens Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 7:06am
post #8 of 14

Let me know if dirty icing it prior to freezing gets rid of that problem. Also I like to chill my cake in fridge several hours even over night before putting fondant onto cake....it makes it so much easier, if you have to pick it up off the cake and move it, it wont wreck the frosting....and as they said, pull fondant gently out at bottom and cup your hand to the cake and smooth it down also use a pizza cutter to remove excess and it will be easier also ....it just taked practice in the beginning. hth

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sugarandslice Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 7:32am
post #9 of 14

Have a look at these for more info/techniques:


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ayerim979 Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 8:09am
post #10 of 14

Dirty icing ?????? I have to look that one up .

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Sagebrush Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 8:34am
post #11 of 14
Quote:
Originally Posted by ayerim979

Dirty icing ?????? I have to look that one up .




Cake Boss talk for crumb coating, I believe.

Although whenever they say they're doing it on the show, it looks like they're full on icing it, so maybe he just means frosting it before putting the fondant on.

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Caths_Cakes Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 11:17am
post #12 of 14

Go on to youtube, Search Aine2 . shes got a video of how to cover cake and dummys and shows you excactly how to avoid pleats
http://www.youtube.com/user/aine2?blend=1&ob=4&rclk=cth

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SecretAgentCakeBaker Posted 8 Feb 2010 , 1:10pm
post #13 of 14

How are you wrapping your cakes prior to freezing? It sounds like they are getting dried out. If that is the case, then they aren't being protected enough. I use plastic wrap, then heavy duty aluminum foil.

Also, are you leaving the wrapping on them while they are defrosting?

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Donnabugg Posted 9 Feb 2010 , 2:04am
post #14 of 14

Next time I will dirty ice (crumb coat) first....although I don't put it on 2 inches thick like it seems they do on CakeBoss. lol
I usually double wrap in plastic wrap then double wrap in foil. In the past I unwrapped in layers first leaving all wrapping on then after few hours when foil is dry remove that and the same with the plastic wrap.
Thank you for the links...
Sugar&slice...I was cracking up watching the guy in the background in the first link!
cathscake-I've watched that video before..it's probably one of the most helpful videos I've seen! Most are helpful to me.
Hmmm..Something that occurred to me is maybe I'm not rolling out enough fondant to cover the cake so I don't have enough to "pull" down to remove pleats without risking tearing it?? Does that make any sense?

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