I am still fairly new to the decorating world and I have just recently ventured into covering cakes with fondant. I am making a turtle cake for the contest and I had a few questions.

First: I made a half a ball cake, iced it (with store bought icing ) and then covered it with green fondant. After that was done I put the cake in the fridge for a little while. When I pulled it out and started to work on it the fondant got real glossy and sticky. Should I not have put it in the fridge? I just notice that on the cake shows they chill their cakes even with fondant. Is this what is supposed to happen?

Second: As I was working on the cake I noticed that the fondant was starting to droop and buldge in the back. This didn't happen when I first covered the cake, it was only after working on it for a while. Did the icing melt or did I use too much frosting?

I'm not betting on winning the contest. I am just using it as an opportunity to practice so any advice would be very welcome!

Thanks!

I never put fondant cakes in the fridge. The fondant and cake than have to come to room temperature again, and it causes the fondant to sweat. I'm new to this too, and with doing searches, and asking questions, that seemed to be the response I got. Good luck. You'll probably get more seasoned cakers to help you out.

By store bought icing, do you mean the kind in a can in the baking aisle?

If so, this could have contributed to your drooping. The canned icing isn't made to hold up to fondant. Give indydebi's buttercream a try!
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/6992/indydebis-crisco-based-buttercream-icing

As to the refrigerator thing - yes, that was condensation from moving from fridge to room temperature. Imagine what happens when you take a bottle of soda out and set it on the counter; the outside gets all wet. That's what happened to your fondant.

If you have to refrigerate due to perishable ingredients, put the cake in a box and wrap the box in plastic wrap. Then take it out and let it come to room temperature while still wrapped for several hours; the condensation will form on the wrapper, not on the cake.

you should always let your cakes settle overnight with frosting on before you cover with fondant and you can avoid drooping etc and don't use canned frosting

Thank you so much! I did use the canned frosting. I had it left over from some quick cupcakes I made for VBS. Normally I make my own buttercream but I just didn't have time. I thought I was being thrifty, but now I know better.

I will wrap the cake in a cakebox next time and hopefully that will help!

Thanks again!! (even though the dropping fondant was in the back the turtle did turn out REALLY cute! I'll post pictures soon!)