I'm still a newbie at this, so every cake I make is a challenge. I enjoy it, but get frustrated when things look "wrong" to me, and I can't figure out how to make them better.

I made a cake for my FIL's 70th b-day this weekend. I wanted a 3D coffee mug, so I stacked 4 layers of 4"round chocolate cake with BC in between the layers. Dirty iced it, then covered it in fondant. EEEEEEEK!!!! No matter what I did, it wouldn't stop "sagging". And the fondant rumpled something fierce along the bottom edge. I could NOT get the stuff to lie flat to save my life.

While I don't plan on doing this exact thing again, I figure at some point I'll want to try another home-carved 3D item, and would like to avoid another near-disaster. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!

(I tried to attach a pic, but I don't see it actually attached.... any ideas?)

Question did you use dowels in the cake and if the cake were 4" high each use a cake board and dowel the bottom 2 cakes I leave the cake over night to settle before covering to keep it from sagging. I'm also new at this but lindy smith books are my savior. I don't have the hat box cake posted cause my computer is broken but I wish you luck and hope you get better.

i went and looked in your photos and I thought the cake looked real nice! for someone that is just starting you did very NEAT work!

I think the trouble you may have been having was that the fondant was too thin and you had a very small cake to cover :p I have trouble with even 6" round cakes. I can see the ripples of your layers (don't know how you prepared your cake or your frosting) but they look very thin to me as well...don't know if this helps.

when covering a round cake you have to get this "skirt" thing going at the bottom. then you smooth from the top down in order to get the skirt to flatten out for the bottoms. with just a little practice I think you'll be great! look up some youtube videos

Ohhh! I see. Lol your cake looks great!

I agree with everyone else, you did a great job for a newbie but I can tell your fondant was too thin and I know that all the undulations at the bottom would have disappeared if you had placed the cake on a stand or coffee cup smaller than the bottom of your cake cup before putting the fondant on. Easier to get the wrinkles out that way because the fondant at the base of the cake cup would pull down (gravity) getting rid of the wrinkles naturally. Then you just use scissors to cut the excess off.

Thank you all so much!!! I am so grateful for the responses.

OK, just to make sure I understand, if I were to do it again, I need to change the following things:

~ not roll the fondant so thin (I did this in an attempt to keep it from doing that ruffle thing. HA!)

~ set it up on a pedestal of some sort so that the "ruffles" end up lower than the bottom of the item I am covering


I almost want to do another one just for the sake of practicing now!!

practice makes perfect! I think you did a really nice job.

watch this video!

was it the mug on the crossword puzzle cake? If it was, I would only board half way up the cake, because it is small. I agree with the putting it up on a pedestal (I put mine on the pan I baked it in) that way the fondant drops below, and you cut it with scissors, then clean it up with a blade.

If it's humid/warm, cut your fondant slightly up from the board- like 1/8 of an inch short. That way when it settles, it doesn't rumple. It almost looks like you tucked it under then cut it.

For something that small, I might add a tiny bit of tylose to the fondant- just for crispness. Then cut your fondant the right height, dust it with corn starch/pwd sugar, and roll it onto a empty paper towel tube. Line up the bottom side with the bottom of the tube. That way you can just roll it off around the cake and the bottom will be even and your sides straight.