I made my first carved cake and everything seemed fine...until I looked at the back! Im not sure if this is from the weight of the fondant but it only effected the back of the cake.
Back
Front
Luckily, This was just a small practice cake, but I would love to solve this problem so it doesn't happen again in the future!
Thank you 
That's strange because I only crumb-coated the cake (not very thick) to try and prevent that. The cake looks like it's leaning back slightly. Maybe that could be the issue?
1.That cake can be done with one piece of fondant, so no seams to worry with. 2. Your fondant stretched. That can be fixed by taking a pizza wheel and removing the extra, then resmoothing. If there is a bunch of the crumb coat in that stretched area, you need to use less of it or get a recipe that is a bit firmer. (BC, not fondant, lol)
1.That cake can be done with one piece of fondant, so no seams to worry with.
I realized that after I had already done two sides, and I didn't want to go back and have to peel the fondant off.
I used store bought vanilla icing...it crusts but now I'm thinking it may not be strong enough for fondant. Is there a store-bought icing I can use instead?
Tiggy2, I'm thinking of using a weight to help the cakes settle next time.
Thanks to everyone for your responses
I agree that it looks like it settled and leaned back while doing so. I use a cardboard circle to press down on my cakes before I cover them (or even ice them in bc). Once you've done that you should be able to cover them without issue. But if you do get that, like minniecuppie said, you can use a pizza wheel. I swear those things were really invented for fondant!
Once the cake if filled and stacked it needs to "settle" for several hours before applying fondant. Looks like it settled after the fondant was put on.
What she said 
I'll keep that in mind next time
One more question, is store-bought icing strong enough to be used as a crumb-coat under fondant?
I'll keep that in mind next time
One more question, is store-bought icing strong enough to be used as a crumb-coat under fondant?
no, way too slick and slippery. I bet it was part of your problem and your cake might have compressed too. was it a firm cake?
I thought it would be fine since the icing crusts, but that probably was a part of the problem. Hopefully I can find a simple recipe to use for crumb-coating. Also, I used spice cake mix (undoctored).
I'm surprised the cake is even standing if you used a straight up spice cake mix and canned frosting!! Consider yourself lucky!
Next time, try adding a pudding mix to your cake mix (that'll firm it up) and add extra powdered sugar to the canned icing (will make it sweeter, but will firm it up!)
then you should have better results!
Blessings
I too agree with the "settling" comments. Just looks like you didn't give it enough time to settle. And a thin crumb coat would hurt either. Keep doing it, dont give up.
Wow, I agree with Khalsead about the spice cake. I won't make spice cakes to cover in fondant because I find them way too soft.
I'm surprised the cake is even standing if you used a straight up spice cake mix and canned frosting!! Consider yourself lucky!
Next time, try adding a pudding mix to your cake mix (that'll firm it up) and add extra powdered sugar to the canned icing (will make it sweeter, but will firm it up!)
then you should have better results!
Wow...I had no idea! 
I'm definitely looking for better recipes to use with fondant. Thank you for the tip on firming up the icing. I already make my own fondant, royal icing, and gumpaste, so I still want to be able to use store-bought icing for now.
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