Hello Bakers,

I see many bakers applying just enough buttercream so that the fondant sticks to their cakes but, on the other hand, I see bakers double-coating their cakes in butter cream (crumb-coating and then another coat of butter cream) without worrying about whether their fondant may get ruined. Can anybody tell me what's the real rule to this. I mean, is it supposed to be just enough butter cream to stick your fondant or should it be double-coating so that there's more butter cream and therefore more flavor on your cakes?? or is it supposed to be a matter of preference?

I have no idea....

AJust preference! No rules as to how much buttercream you coat cakes with. You might find that if you only crumb coat, you'll need thicker fondant so the lumps and bumps don't show :)

Personally, I can not stand fondant. Like another said, it is a matter of preference. I would not want any cakes that have fondant on them. I am purely a buttercream type of person!!!  I seen plenty of wedding cakes with fondant but most kids that I know would not want anything except for buttercream.  I would rather have ganache or buttercream any day!!!  To each his own!!

I apply a full coat of buttercream under all of my fondant--that's at least 1/4th inch on the sides, a bit more on top.  That way, the fondant is just a decoration, not the icing.

I always tell people to eat cake slices from from the bottom up, or to take off that teeny, tiny piece of fondant [unless they have an edge piece] and enjoy.  It's just not a big deal to rid the cake slice of a 1.5"x2"x1/8th inch scrap of sugar dough.

A

Like most generalizations, I assume that's not universally true. I like fondant on occasion, and I'm sure it has its share of fans. Anecdotally, I know quite a few people who enjoy it.

As for your concerns about too much buttercream "ruining" your fondant, I'm not sure how that would happen. Whether it's a thick coat of buttercream or thin, the same surface area is touching the fondant. I saw a Satin Ice demo once where the demonstrator commented that your buttercream layer should be just as thick when using fondant as it would be if you weren't using fondant. It's the "main event," as it were--people want the frosting.

Part of it might depend on whether you cover the cake when it's cold or not. If your buttercream is hard from the fridge you can cover thick buttercream a lot easier than you can is it's soft. Then, you'd probably use less buttercream. When we were taught how to cover cakes in fondant in culinary school back in the olden times, it was a thinner layer of buttercream that you'd use. Now people put thicker buttercream underit.

Or you could just do buttercream and forget the fondant, that's what most of my customers want. The only person I've ever had who really liked fondant was my sales rep from Staples, who waxed poetic about how good fondant was when he was supposed to be selling me paper. Most people come to me and start the meeting off by saying "I don't want fondant."

@cakelove2105  I don't make many fondant covered cakes, as no one here wants one.  However when I do, I torte a 2" layer of cake into two 1" layers of cake.  That lets me put more icing on the inside to make up for less icing on the outside.  Because it's not just the 1/4" of icing outside that's missing, it's the flourishes of icing decorations,  the shell borders etc, that are also missing on the outside.

AI use cake boards. when the cake is placed on the board it leave a 1/4 gap between the cake and the edge of the cake board. this is what I fill with buttercream or ganache. the videos from Inspired by Michele (google it) explains it well.