Hi - I have been reading and reading all the great information on this site. The tips and tricks and learn from your mistakes are great! I know these questions have been answered before but I can not find them now that I need to know what they are.

I have made a few batches of MMF and I love it! I use the basic recipe of 2tbs water, crisco, marshmallow and powdered sugar.

I am concerned because I have a horse themed cake to make and it will be for a swim party. The cake will be sitting outside and I have recommended that they have a fondant covered cake because it could be extremely hot and humid. Versus a less expensive buttercream cake.

Will the MMF melt in the heat and humidity? Are there any tricks I should use to keep it from melting? Should I freeze the cakes before covering with fondant will this help?

I just dont want it to be a melted sweating mess by cake time at the party.

What about air bubbles? How can I get those buggers out? I tried my bread machine to knead it last week and I think that helped. But how can I tell before I go to lay the fondant over the cake if there are air bubbles?

Thanks in advance for all your time and support!

The fondant will not melt...it will get very soft but not melt. The buttercream under it may melt if you don't use a recipe that's heat resistant such as IndyDebi's recipe here on CC. The only thing you'll need to keep in mind (if you don't use the heat resistant BC) is that cutting it will be a mess..it won't cut so much as smoosh. SO..if you can see that the BC is getting too soft then put it in the fridge till just before serving then pull it out for service.

As for freezing. I do freeze every single cake I do. I torte wrap freeze for at least over night. When I'm ready to frost I take it out of the freezer, fill, crumbcoat and the let settle for at least 3 hours to come to room temp. Any filling that bulges out can be smoothed down at this time and it helps avoid those gas bubbles that can crop up when you cover a cold cake with fondant. For the first two hours after your cake is finished just check on it every few minutes for developing bubbles...if you catch them in the very beginning it's just a quick press down/smooth down and they are back on the cake. I find that I rarely have these bubbles if I let the cake come to room temp before covering with fondant but when I do have them I can catch them in the first two hours. HTH Cat

Cat - Thanks so much! I will be taking your knowledge and applying it. Yes, my buttercream is heat resistant. So that is great. I am going to try and freeze my cakes this weekend. This is a stupid question, but what is torte wrap? I know I read about it here but I have seen different recommendations. Can you also tell me why you always freeze your cakes? Does this make them easier to put together?

Thanks so much for all your advice!
Chonda

Chonda,

Happy to help. Torting is when you take a layer and divide it making two layers. So let's say your layer is 3 inches high and you divide that one cake into two 1.5 inch layers. I wrap with press and seal. After torting I wrap each layer in the press and seal and then stack the two layers and wrap that again. Then freeze.

I freeze all my cakes for a couple of reasons. One, filling and crumbcoating is SO much easier with a frozen cake and two, I think it locks the ice crystals into the cake making it more moist in the end. Now this thinking comes from when I've tasted the cake top trimmings before freezing and then tasted the same cake after it's been frozen/filled etc. Moist before the freezer, even more moist after.

You just have to be careful to give the cake time to come up to room temp and settle after filling/crumbcoating it before putting on the final coat of BC or fondant. I wait about 3 hours.

I had an occassion to do this this past weekend...client was a friend of mine and it was over 100 outside the house, 85 inside the house and while the fondant was soft when it came time to cut, the BC inside held the cake together wonderfully!

Cat

Cat -
I forgot cutting the cake was called torting. Too much stuff in my brain this week.lol That is very good information and it makes complete sense. I know that having a moist cake makes it harder to fill and crumb coat sometimes so this I bet will save me tons of time. Plus the weather here today is about 110 heat index. The humidity is horrible so I bet this will help.

There is nothing worse than a cake that looks pretty but is DRY! This is great.

I am such a novice compared to you experts. Thanks again!

Chonda

110? UGH...ok, I'll shut up about my 99...LOL

Ok. Hopefully last question. When you go to freeze do you leave your cakes in the pan for the 10-15 mins take them out then tort and wrap then freeze or do you let them completely cool before freezing and torting?

Oh and one more...Do you torte your 2" pans too or do you only use 3"? Thanks a million

I have so many different type of pans...mainly I use the 3 inch springforms, 2 inch magic lines..those I use most often. Occassionally I'll bake the 3 inch and actually cut it into 3 layers but usually I trim it down to 2 inches and keep the "scraps" for my family..YUM! LOL! The two inch I actually level in the pan after it's sat for about 10 mins then run an offset spatula around the sides (bottom has parchment lining it) then turn it over onto a cooling rack.

After it's cooled completely I wrap each layer seperately and then wrap the together with press and seal and then freeze for at least overnight.

Please feel free to ask any question and should I not answer it's because I missed the question...just PM me.

happy to help

Cat