I just made an alcohol based fruit cake and i aged it for 3weeks. I iced it in the first layer of fondant and surprisingly a day after the fondant is melting off. i really need some urgent help please. i live in a very hot area. please help me.

I guess that's why they put royal icing or marzipan before the fondant layer?

I agree. There is usually a layer of marzipan under the fondant.

Anyone from the UK around to concur?

Theresa

Did you store the cake in an airtight container or airtight saran wrap after you placed the first layer of fondant on it? Fondant cakes need to breathe

I am sorry this is happening. Can you take it off, then apply the marzipan, then the fondant again. hth

Never heard of ri being used under fondant on fruit cakes.
I would use a layer of marzipan then fondant.
xx

I'm from the UK. You need to put marzipan on to the cake before you ice it in anything. It seals the cake and also provides a smooth surface for your fondant. The cause of your fondant melting will be the alcohol seeping out of the cake and disintergrating the fondant. Covering in marzipan will prevent this.

Here's a good article about covering with marzipan:

http://cakefrills.co.uk/home/tutorials/covering-a-fruit-cake-with-marzipan

HTH

I have never worked with marzipan. Does anyone have a link to a good recipe?

Thank you all for the help, have just removed the fondant, will try using marzipan as suggested.

http://niyasworld.blogspot.com/2009/11/royal-icing-traditionally-used-to-cover.html

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/recipex/msg1211171329219.html

http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-make-royal-icing-for-christmas-cakes-a144783

The first link does not mention the marzipan layer.
The other two links mention the marzipan first then the royal.

So the royal goes on top of marzipan or fondant? Kinda confusing.
I mean I always thought royal as a cake covering at all was 'different'.
How's that gonna slice up.

If you are decorating with fondant forget RI you brush cake with apricot jam then put on marzipan. Let that dry our for a day then brush marzipan with sugar syrup or vodka then put fondant on.

so who has the best recipe for marzipan or do you have to buy it in tubes (that is the only way I have found it in the stores here)?

Marzipan recipe 225g ground almonds 225g caster sugar 225 powder sugar 4 egg yolks 6 drops almond essence
mix ground almonds and sugars in a bowl then add egg yolks and essence. Knead to form stifff paste. Do not over knead or it gets oily. Wrap in saran wrap refrigerate till needed.

Thank you, That'sLife.

Back 20 years ago--cake decorators used egg white to adhere marzipan to the fruit cake. Yikes --we'd all go nuts on that one huh.

Plus my book says during WWII when almonds were scarce they would use meal made from the ground inner kernels of peaches and nectarines--says it was less oily and did not bleed though in spots like the almond meal marzipan.

It's a pretty complicated affair--just like butter cake and fillings and dams and etc.

So how do you add the glycerin, as a gel or as powder?

I'm an Australian.... but I find here in Australia most people want heavy fruit cake or chocolate mud and not much in between. (I never use almond for a base on mud cakes, it does impart flavour into the cake.)

I always use almond fondant for the first layer ans sugar syrup to make it stick, then the sugar syrup is also used to make the fondant stick to the almond. It takes me 48hrs to cover a fruit cake because I leave the almond to set for about 24hrs or a bit more.

To me there are no short cuts when it comes to traditional fruit cake covered in fondant.

I hope that helps!

I live in a hot climate too, and I brush my fruit cakes with jam and cover with fondant then leave in the coolest place i can find. if you put in a container it will melt or go gooy, you need to let it breathe to set. I never use Marizpan.

Another hot-climate denizen here. One thing I do regularly is to add a little CMC and a touch of powdered sugar and shortening to my fondant before rolling it out to sort of "tropicalize" it. On regular cakes I usually put ganache under my fondant, because it's less humid than jam or buttercream and so won't melt the fondant, a problem in hot and humid places, even if you don't cover or refrigerate the cake. This is obviously not a good solution for fruitcake. I've just made fruitcake for the first time since I moved here, so I'm going to experiment with two methods: I'm putting marzipan under the fondant on one (or maybe I'll just decorate the marzipan instead of the fondant). I'm going to leave the other one out for 24 hours so it can dry out a little bit from the rum it's been soaking in and then I'm going to put fondant directly on the cake with no sticky stuff underneath (although the vodka idea sounds pretty good, too). I'll let you know what happens, although unfortunately that won't be till after Christmas!

I think you will find that you need to put something under fondant , to make it stick. If you dont fancy Jam, you can use a light brushing of sugar syrup