Anybody know if you truly do get bad effects from refrigerating fondant? I have been taught and told not to but obviously would be nice to do it with no bad side effects with cakes and fillings that need to be refrigerated. Anybody ever have any bad things happen?

I refrigerate all my fondant cakes, but it depends on your refrigerator. Test out a sample first to see if you get excessive condensation.

this week I had a huge bubble expand out of the side of my cake. (actually i posted on here asking about it since i've also refrigerated fondant covered cakes without a problem).

I've refrigerated fondant and I dont have any issues. R you sure that your cake isnt too moist? Or mabey you didnt make sure that the fondant wasnt smoothed all the way. Just a thought. Good luck!

I can't possibly freeze fondant cakes because of the hot, humid climate I live in. It's not the condensation in the fridge, but the condensation that forms on the cake when you take it out. There's so much of it, and the humidity is so high here that it never dries, and the cake covering and the decorations start melting down the side of the cake. What you CAN do is put the cake in a box and wrap the box airtight in plastic wrap. That way, any condensation forms on the outside of the box and not directly on the cake, either when it's in the fridge or when you're letting it come to room temp. I think this is pretty much a problem of the climate where you live and the refrigerator you use, though.

Great thanks! I will give it a try and see how my refrigerater is, given we are in Colorado I know that humidity won't be a problem \\

Sorry, I meant to say "refrigerate fondant" in my last post!

Every time I have decorated a cake with fondant I refrigerate it but my cake always wants to sag or start collapsing. What am I doing wrong. I'm self taught so not sure.

Auntiewann, does it start to sag while it's in the fridge or after you take it out? If it's after you take it out, it might be the condensation that forms on it while it's coming to room temp. If it's while it's in the fridge, you might need to thicken your fondant with a little powdered sugar and a smidgen of Crisco.

It happens after I have taken it out of the fridge. I just can't seem to stabilize my cakes when I use fondant. I was told by someone once never to refrigerate them. I live on the Atlantic ocean so the humidity is pretty high here. I have a cake to do for my daughter's wedding in Aug and want it to be perfect. I will take any and all suggestions. Type of cake, to use etc. One thing though that I thought might be the problem is that I don't ever use anything but a French or Italian butter cream icing to coat. Is that the problem. I want my cakes to taste good and look good.

Auntie

I've refrigerated a cake and it got little drops of condensation all over and was very damp and sticky. Afterward i just try to leave my fondant cakes somewhere dry with little humidity.

Auntiewann, I do a couple of things to stabilize my fondant - and, yes, the problem is the humidity in the atmosphere. It'll melt fondant quicker than anything, because in a humid climate the condensation won't evaporate fast and so it will start to work on the fondant, breaking it down. The first thing I do is to add about a teaspoon of CMC to every pound of fondant. I also work about 1-2 tablespoons of shortening into every pound and I add a little more powdered sugar than the recipe normally calls for (well, I buy ready-made, so no recipe involved, but you get my drift...). And the other thing I do is to crumbcoat my cakes with ganache. I find that any kind of buttercream - meringue or American - is too humid under fondant in a humid climate. And last, but not least, I never refrigerate my fondanted cake. If you absolutely have to refrigerate it, try the box trick I mentioned above. The first few fondant cakes I made here in Cancún were unmitigated disasters - the fondant just got gooier and gooier and started sliding down the sides of the cake. And the figures I made would all end up being squatty: the angels on my christening cake http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1356289
were supposed to be tall and lean!

Thanks so much for the info. You described exactly what is happening to my cakes. I use purchased fondant myself so do I need to add the shortening and CMC (don't know what that is) to it as well. I have made ganache before but didn't turn out the way I thought it would. Can you suggest the best recipe and how it should turn out?

I add the shortening and powdered sugar to both ready-made and home-made fondant. CMC is the abbreviation for a much longer term (carbomethylcellulose?). It's a whitish-yellowish powder that looks a lot like gelatin. You can get it at most cake supply shops. Other possibilities are gum arabic and gum tragacanth, which you would use the same way, but they're more expensive. The way I make ganache is to take 2 parts of dark or milk chocolate, by weight, and 1 of heavy cream (sour cream works, too) plus about 2 tablespoons of butter per pound of chocolate. So, say 1 lb. of chocolate plus 1/2 lb. of cream plus 2 T butter. Grate the chocolate or chop it finely and put it in a bowl. Heat the cream on the stove till it boils (till it rises up in the pan - takes a while), then pour it over the chocolate and let it all sit for a minute or so. If you want to add any flavorings (vanilla, orange extract, etc.), do it now. Then stir it together and leave it out for a few hours to set. It will have the consistency of peanut butter, although you'll find it hard to believe right then, because it will be kind of soupy. If you want to use white chocolate, use three parts of chocolate to 1 part cream.

Thanks so much for the great advice. I'm doing a test cake at the end of June so will post a picture and let you know how it turns out. This is such an awesome site.

Auntie javascript:emoticon('')