I'm new to this and have 2 cakes coming up. I've made cakes before but just filled the cakes as necessary after carving and then spread a tiny bit of buttercream over the sponge and put the fondant straight on. I've not had any issues with that but these next 2 are special ones for other people so want to make sure they go exactly right.

Ideally, do you cove the carved and filled cake with buttercream/ganache (one cake needs buttercream, the other a white choc ganache) before putting on fondant? If this needs chilling, does it not dry out the cake? My cake recipe is nice and moist and would hate for it to go dry.

Any tips for this would be gratefully received!

Hey!

If i'm reading right - you need to put the buttercream on first before the fondant
Your cake must be iced so the fondant can stick. There are a ton of tutorials on youtube to walk you through step by step!

How to ice:

I had the same doubts with my first 'special" cake :
1. You carve the cake;
2. you put the filling in and buttercream (crumb coat) all around it;
3. Put it in the refrigerator to harden the buttercream for 20 minutes (it won't dry out);
4. Smooth the buttercream with a paper towel;
5. Fill out any holes or fix any discrepancies in the buttercream because however it is, that's how the final product is going to look - fondant adheres!
6. Put it in fridge again and repeat the process just to make sure it'll come out perfect;
7. Once you are convinced the buttercream is smooth and the cake looks as you want it to, put the fondant on!
8. Decorate! Enjoy!

Thanks guys! Just going to sound like a complete novice but what to people mean when they dam the cake for the filling etc? And will fondant be ok sat on the buttercream and ganache, ie as ganache melts, would the fondant slip or would the ( i know this sounds yuck but) fat from the choc and cream seep through the fondant? And crumb coat? Is that as simply like putting filling and covering the buttercream etc in crumbs?
Sorry I sound so stupid!

A "dam" is a piping of buttercream all around the outside edge of layer so that the "filling" doesn't squish or seep out. A "crumbcoat" is the base layer of buttercream that basically seals all the crumbs in so that the outer layer of buttercream is perfectly smooth. I've never had my fondant "slip" because of melted buttercream or ganache. But I go directly from fridge to venue. HTH

....and now I know what a dam is!! woo hoo!!

I was going to say the same for the crumb coat- just catches all those annoying crumbs that seem desperate to ruin your icing

I've not had a problem with slipping either, but would suggest if you're somewhere very hot to make sure the cake is kept as cool as possible (however I've heard people say not to refrigerate a fondant covered cake as the fondant sweats when you bring it out- eew).