I Need Help! I Can't Cover A Cake In Fondant, Can I Wrap It?

Decorating By Tracyj Updated 24 Sep 2010 , 5:45am by lizzycakes

Tracyj Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Tracyj Posted 22 Sep 2010 , 3:33pm
post #1 of 15

I only use buttercream because I cannot for the life of me cover a cake smoothly in fondant. I have to do a 4 tier damask patterned wedding cake this weekend. I am too afraid to try the stencil on buttercream since it will be an eggplant purple pattern.

I am considering wrapping the sides in fondant so that the stencil can be removed if I muck it up. Is this something that any of you have tried with success?

Thanks so much for any advice you can give!!

14 replies
imagenthatnj Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
imagenthatnj Posted 22 Sep 2010 , 3:55pm
post #2 of 15

Tracyj, your cakes are so smooth with buttercream! Are you sure you don't want to try again to see if you can successfully cover cakes with fondant instead of going the other crazy way? I hope someone else answers, but I don't think many people do this.

Did you ever consider covering the cake in ganache first? I know that's what a lot of people do to get crisp edges. This is the blog of one of our CC members that I've found helpful. (Her name here is ANGELFOOD4)




I'll look around to see if I can find a cake covered the way you want to try. I've seen that same thing done with marzipan (just to give cakes a smooth appearance before you put fondant on top, which is what ganache would accomplish).

Tracyj Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Tracyj Posted 22 Sep 2010 , 4:12pm
post #3 of 15

Thank you! Since I can't get fondant smooth I thought I better perfect the buttercream. So I am kind of obsessed with smoothing it.

I think at this point it's a mind game with me! LOL! I start out thinking this is never going to work......and it doesn't. I need to practice at it more but the whole pleating thing gets me every time and I end up tearing the fondant or taking too long and it dries out and gets "elephant skin". I do find that most of my customers prefer buttercream so that has been an advantage for me. However when they ask for other designs, I'm limited because of my fondant weakness! (;

Thank you for the links. I read about covering it with ganache and thought that may make it easier. I'll check these out now.

imagenthatnj Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
imagenthatnj Posted 22 Sep 2010 , 4:36pm
post #4 of 15

As I said, it's a common problem. There has been other threads about it. Giving you a link to another one. Do you elevate your cake? That way the fondant falls down, not fall on your wheel base. I have two DVDs about applying fondant, and they both advise that.

Here's a Cake Central thread about that.
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=6881315&sid=44320535d827bc0f33d662010770c145

And here's a demo about something called the Cake Wheel. I'm not advising that you buy that, lol, but I wanted you to see it. My DVDs show cakes elevated on a strong big can, or something like that.

http://www.cakewheel.com/demo.php

CWR41 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
CWR41 Posted 22 Sep 2010 , 5:59pm
post #5 of 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tracyj

I only use buttercream because I cannot for the life of me cover a cake smoothly in fondant. I have to do a 4 tier damask patterned wedding cake this weekend.




If you only use buttercream, don't you think this bride will be shocked if she gets fondant that wasn't requested?

If your stencil messes up the buttercream or fondant, wouldn't it be just as easy to re-ice it as to re-fondant it?

I don't know if your design calls for an upper border or not... your fondant-wrapped sides sounds like a great idea, but you may need to consider an upper border to hide where the fondant meets the BC top unless you're planning to try to blend it in with a fondant top surface.

If you think fondant is your weakness and are more comfortable with BC, I'd stick with what you are good at and what works for you. Best of luck!

FatCat_036 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
FatCat_036 Posted 22 Sep 2010 , 6:07pm
post #6 of 15

I am making friends with fondant. What is the problem you have with it?

DianeLM Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
DianeLM Posted 22 Sep 2010 , 6:11pm
post #7 of 15

The biggest problem I see with this idea is, if you muck it up and have to remove the fondant, you'll also remove the buttercream under it. So, you'll have to re-ice AND reapply the fondant.

I've never stenciled on buttercream, so I have no advice for that. Best of luck to you!

imagenthatnj Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
imagenthatnj Posted 22 Sep 2010 , 6:30pm
post #8 of 15

Forgot to say that at the end of Sharon Zambito's buttercream DVD there's stenciling on buttercream. That's how I know that it can be done. And I agree that if you're more comfortable working with buttercream, depending on the intricacy of the design, you might be able to do a better job. I also just realized that, as CWR41 remarked, the bride might be expecting buttercream?

imagenthatnj Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
imagenthatnj Posted 22 Sep 2010 , 7:07pm
post #9 of 15

Was looking for my link and finally found it. This is kind of what you want to make, but with fondant and no ruffle on top. This guy uses modeling chocolate on his DVD. You would have to cut a circle for the top, but you would also have another seam at some point on the cake, for every tier!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdhHB_9SWJY&feature=related

Tracyj Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Tracyj Posted 22 Sep 2010 , 7:24pm
post #10 of 15

Again thank yall for your help. This bride is happy with whatever I decide to do. She is, thank you God, very laid back. This is the third cake I've done for her.

I have Sharon's buttercream DVD, but it has been awhile since I looked at it. I'll have to check that out! It would make this so much easier.

I was going to try to get the fondant to blend in with the buttercream so no top border, but that is something I was wondering about.

imagenthatnj Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
imagenthatnj Posted 22 Sep 2010 , 7:37pm
post #11 of 15

Told you wrong! It was not the Buttercream DVD, but the Stacking DVD. I bought the 3 of them together, so I got confused.

See the video on the bottom from her preview at her website. You can see how she's doing the stenciling (at the end of the video).

http://www.sugaredproductions.com/_product_85116/Successful_Stacking_DVD

Good luck!

sullymel13 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
sullymel13 Posted 22 Sep 2010 , 8:01pm
post #12 of 15

You've already gotten some good advice. I've only done stenciling on fondant, but I think Global Sugar Art also has a stenciling on buttercream video. Why don't you try it on a practice cake to ease your fears?

sugarshack Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
sugarshack Posted 23 Sep 2010 , 1:09am
post #13 of 15

IMo stenciling on BC is no harder than doing it on fondant. And if u mess it up, the consequences are about the same on both BC and fondant for the most part, except.... sometimes if it is not a dark color u can clean the icing off of the fondant and start over. Does not really work with dark colors on white.

For stenciling on BC, I let my iced cakes crut overnight, and then you have a very firm surface on which to stencil, as long as u dont push on it too hard. And the stencil won't stick to it either.

HTH

Tracyj Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Tracyj Posted 23 Sep 2010 , 2:06pm
post #14 of 15

Yall have been so so helpful!! I love me some cakers on CC! I went home last night and watched my SS stacking DVD. I'm going to give the stenciling on BC a shot. Starting with the 6 in of course.

I'll let yall know how it goes!

lizzycakes Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
lizzycakes Posted 24 Sep 2010 , 5:45am
post #15 of 15

When you do go back and try to work with fondant, try making the MMF WITH gelatin recipe (from tesso)!

I made about 3 cakes with the original MMF recipe and , I too, had horrible problems with pleating!..

Then I saw a thread about using gelatin in fondant, and the past two cakes I made had no issues at all with pleating. Not sure if it really has anything to do with the gelatin.. it seems like the gelatin made the fondant a little more forgiving so I was able to quickly unpleat everything without it sticking/ripping

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-694283.html Here is the link, I used an unflavored store brand box of gelatin instead of a colored/flavored pack

Quote by @%username% on %date%

%body%