Here goes this was a major learning curve for me. Had a 3 tier sweet sixteen cake. 12" 8" 6" square all fondant two of the layers black. Made the cake day before and froze it . Took it out next day it was a warm day and i don't have air cinditioning just an evaporative cooler(more humidity). Found out that you can't fondant a half frozen cake because it will sweat!!! Well it sweated and i blotted it off with a viva towel the cake came out looked awesome the client loved it. The only complaint was the cake was dry apparently when i was soaking up the sweat i was soaking up the moisture in the cake. I know this because i made the same cake for a 50th wedding and it was all buttercream and it was not dry at all. Has anybody else had this same problem? Next time the cake will be totally thawed out.

Sorry, but no, you weren't blotting off moisture that came from the cake. If the cake was deemed dry, it was for another reason.

The moisture on the surface of the fondant is condensation from the air. It's not water/moisture migrating somehow from under the fondant--impossible.

Condensation forms when a cold object enters warmer air. The humidity in the warmer air condenses on the colder surface, just like the sweat on a glass of ice tea.

Fondant seals in any moisture that is in a cake. It in no way draws moisture out.

Rae

Yup, I agree. However the lesson you learned is important for more than one reason. Covering a frozen cake with fondant doesn't give the cake time to come to room temp, settle or expell the natural gas. So not only will it have a condensation problem (which will evaporate on it's own, in case you ever have to refrigerate your fondant covered cake) but the cake will settle, causing the fondant to drag and pool and may end up with the dreaded air bubble that, unless caught early, can disfigure your cake. You really do want to let the cake settle after filling/crumbcoating for at least 3 hours if not overnight.

But, as was said, the dryness was from something else, not the sweating fondant.

Cat

Cat and Rae are 100% correct. your cake is dry for unrelated reasons. Maybe you over baked or something.

Science lesson: (I give this lesson once a week here, at least) As the others have said, cakes do not sweat. The moisture you see is not cake juice coming from the cake...or from the fridge. It is coming from the humidity in the warm air outside of your fridge, condensing on your cold cake when you take it out.

Water takes different forms depending on its temperature, from steam/humidity at the warm end, liquid in the middle range to solid/ice at the cold end.

When the humidity (warm/gas) in the air in your room hits the cool of your cake, the temperature changes the gas to a liquid which accumulates on the cool cake surface.

So, the cure for decorated cakes sweating when you take them out of the fridge is to prevent the humid air from getting to your cake. If the cake is in a box when you take it out, the humid/warm/gas cannot reach the cool surface of the cake. It will hit the outside of the cool box and condense there, leaving your cake surface perfectly dry. The cake will be safe as it comes to room temp.

The cure for your particular situation is to not put fondant on a frozen cake. Or if you must, just leave it alone and the condensation will evaporate on its own. The cure for a dry cake? Well, that's another thread.

thanks for all of your help. now i know what to do the next time. The white cake recipe i used was from the wilton book. Am now researching new recipes and plan to try them out this weekend. The recipes i have found use the egg yolk too not just the white does that make a difference?

..moving to Recipe Tips & Ideas forum.