Fondant First Timer

Decorating By kanwalaqdas Updated 29 May 2015 , 2:53pm by Pastrybaglady

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kanwalaqdas Posted 29 May 2015 , 5:17am
post #1 of 6

Hey Baking geniuses!... I have just started selling my cakes and i have been working with buttercream mostly... now i got an order for fondant covered cakes with figurines....i have a couple of questions.

  1. I have baked a simple chocolate cake u know the all in one kind with a cup of coffee now i am supposed to cover it with chocolate buttercream... is chocolate buttercream ok for under fondant as well?... the fondant is supposed to be green not white .
  2. a good recipe for chocolate buttercream?
  3. At what temperature should i cover the cake with fondant...temperature of buttercream?
  4. I am supposed to put figures on the cake and i am worried that they are heavy and might sink in ....... any tips for preventing that... i am supposed to put a golf player on it.
  5. The pickup for the cake is at 7 when should the cake be ready?
  6. Did I mention I live in karachi pakistan and the temperature here today is 96 degrees and humidity 55%?

OK ladies help me out please.

5 replies
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mccantsbakes Posted 29 May 2015 , 6:43am
post #2 of 6

Not a baking *genius* by any stretch, but am functional most of the time ;)


ok, so I am gonna try to perhaps chat this out with you on the things I can offer some words about.   

1) I would guess that chocolate icing should be ok under fondant.   I say this with the thought that some bakers use ganache as their medium to cover a cake before applying fondant.    I googled this topic and I saw several opinions that said yes, chocolate buttercream should be just fine under fondant.     Me personally, I would make sure not to roll the fondant SO thin that you can see through it.    (Perhaps another baker here could add to this? I have never done this personally)

2) There are TONS of chocolate buttercream recipes out there.   I am obsessed right now with Sweetapolita.     Her chocolate cloud icing is A-MAAAYYY-ZING.   Like eat off the spoon and forget about the cake entirely amazing.   The link is for the Nutella version, just omit that for a pure chocolate.  And I double it for a cake.   The doubled version yields about 5 cups.  http://sweetapolita.com/2012/03/chocolate-birthday-cupcakes-with-nutella-cloud-frosting/

3) For easiest fondant covering, cover the cake cold.   The cloud frosting cools down similar to butter....so quite firm.  This way you can move the fondant if you error and it won't pull off all the icing.  This would be especially important since you would be covering over chocolate icing....you don't want brown smears on your pretty green fondant if you have to move the fondant and it gets all crazy and sticky.  

4) Are your figures premade? Or are you making them?  How much do they weigh?   If they are SUPER heavy, maybe you could use a smaller cake board covered in fondant and decorated to your design as a foundation for them and then pop some dowels in the cake to support the weight of them?  (Personally, I have never had a figure fall through a cake....so maybe someone else could assist with this?) I just stick them on with some icing to anchor them or if they are homemade, I have them supported with toothpicks or skewers.

5) I would have the cake ready as soon as I could have it done and then relax before pick up.   

For a 7 pick up gosh, I would maybe even have the cake done the day before and stored in the fridge, adding the figures well before pick up so that I can keep an eye on them to see how they behave on the cake and make any adjustments if things get crazy and unruly.  

6) Well, I can relate to the 96 degree days....so I would keep the cake as cool as possible for as long as possible until it headed out the door.    BUT I live in a VERY dry climate so I have never experienced the nightmares of humidity on buttercream or fondant.   I will have to defer to someone more experienced with this.   


I hope some of this is helpful and I apologize for not having all of the answers. 

xoxo happy baking!

heather 


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mccantsbakes Posted 29 May 2015 , 6:46am
post #3 of 6

Oh man....I just thought of something.    The icing I recommended to you may become a muddy mess in heat.    

Perhaps search out a chocolate buttercream that uses shortening to be a bit more stable in such high heat.  


But DO try that icing sometime....it's realllllly good. 

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810whitechoc Posted 29 May 2015 , 10:53am
post #4 of 6

Have you worked with fondant at all?  If you haven't, learning with a customer's money is maybe not a good idea.  My first few fondant cakes weren't worth selling.  I would use Ganache rather than buttercream.

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kanwalaqdas Posted 29 May 2015 , 11:28am
post #5 of 6

i have made fondant covered cakes and made flowers and small figures these are sorta huge.... and this is unbeatable heat wave ... i took the order a month ago.... the weather shifted regretably... and i am freaking out... i havent been in this business for a whole year yet so the weathers bring unexpected shifts in the frosting and icing behaviour... i am learning though.

mccantsbakes thanx a ton... this was really helpfull.. i think i will go with ganache.

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Pastrybaglady Posted 29 May 2015 , 2:53pm
post #6 of 6

I made a relatively big fondant figure recently.  I anchored it to a wide and flatfish piece of fondant to disperse the weight.  It was very stable.  You could do the same for a golfer on a grassy knoll.

http://www.cakecentral.com/gallery/i/3340437/a-hikers-celebration

 

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