Hi everyone! I'm a huge fan and reader of Cake Central and today I'm ready to make my first post. I'm not very good at working with fondant, and I'll be making a quinceañeras cake next week. I wanted to practice since it involves a double barrel cake and tall "double tiers" to get extra pieces. I can't use chocolate ganache or meringue based buttercreams because I live in a very humid country, and right now we're in the middle of summer. Mi "practice" cake is not perfectly smooth

The problem is in the middle part, right were the cake board divides the layers! You can totally see that there is something over there, and it doesn't look perfectly smooth... Any suggestions? Thanks a lot in advance!

My suggestion would be to make a thicker coat of buttercream when you ice the cakes. It should help with the part of the cake that has a cake board and it should help cover the parts where you can see the cake through the fondant. Good luck!

Also, to help you with the "seam" in the back, you can try working with smoothing the fondant starting from the top down. Once you lay the fondant on top of the cake, just smooth down from the top, going gently, continuing to fan out the bottom part of the fondant until you get to the very bottom. It should help you remove the seam.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I think you're off to a great start!

Good luck with your special cake!

I use to have that problem until I decided to make 2 separate cakes. I placed my cakes on a 1/2" Cake drums.plug in dowels on bottom cake. Took second cake placed on top if dowels of first cake. Iced my cake as a whole with first icing. Refrigerate it for half hour. Let it crust an did second frosting a bit thicker than first.Making sure you cover that second cake drum to blend in. If you double frost the cake as a whole an it's thick enough you should not be able to see any lines...one tall smooth cake. Refrigerate again to form stiff crust. No lines seen in frosting, then no lines will be seen on fondant. Also When I do barrel cake styles I roll my fondant thicker to 1/4" thick. I have also at times from frustration made a top piece first then rolled out fondant in rectangular form an rolled it up on a pvc pipe piece the height of barrel an with pipe standing on it's end I unfilled the fondant wrapping it horizontally around the cake. Smooth back seam to blend as there didn't look like any an same with top of fondant wrap to blend seam with top piece. This works for me.

I use to have that problem until I decided to make 2 separate cakes. I placed my cakes on a 1/2" Cake drums.plug in dowels on bottom cake. Took second cake placed on top if dowels of first cake. Iced my cake as a whole with first icing. Refrigerate it for half hour. Let it crust an did second frosting a bit thicker than first.Making sure you cover that second cake drum to blend in. If you double frost the cake as a whole an it's thick enough you should not be able to see any lines...one tall smooth cake. Refrigerate again to form stiff crust. No lines seen in frosting, then no lines will be seen on fondant. Also When I do barrel cake styles I roll my fondant thicker to 1/4" thick. I have also at times from frustration made a top piece first then rolled out fondant in rectangular form an rolled it up on a pvc pipe piece the height of barrel an with pipe standing on it's end I unfilled the fondant wrapping it horizontally around the cake. Smooth back seam to blend as there didn't look like any an same with top of fondant wrap to blend seam with top piece. This works for me.

Thank you! When we ate this one we felt like the fondant was too thick. I'll make the buttercream layer thicker and thin my fondant next time!

Thanks a lot for the suggestion! My buttercream was not as sweet as my fondant, so I think I'll try with this method next time!

Thank you!!! This is a very interesting technique! I'll give it a go, but this cake is a "low budget" kind of cake, so I'm not sure they want to pay for the cake drums. I forgot to add dowels to the lower cake (silly me) so I'll certainly pay more attention next time! And the tip for the double barrel fondant cake is great! Thanks a lot! I work with buttercream most of the time, so this is like my 8th fondant cake hahaha. Lots to learn. 

I can't :( I've tried working with fondant that way but I absolutely LOVE sharp edges and can't seem to figure them out the "regular way". I tried to wrap the fondant around my last cake and loved the result! But thanks a lot for the tip. And thank you so much for your kind words!!!! I'm hoping for the best hahaha and to be able to work with both buttercream and fondant! <3 

Cake drums can be bought in packs of 6 for like $8

You add price into cake. Their like 45 cents a piece in a lot of 6. I'm sure if your client is buying a cake they can afford another few pennies.

YOU ARE SO RIGHT! I am so sorry. I was thinking about the 4" tall cake drums. You are absolutely right, and your idea makes so much sense!!!!! Turns out I have some at home so I can play with them, and the height almost matches my layers! Do you think it will work if my cake drum is slightly smaller? Or bigger? In my country our cake pans come in cm, not in inches, but everything else comes in inches!!!! I'm always cutting cake boards to the size of the cake pan (which sucks) haha.

Are we talking the same thing here??!!

Not 'cake dummies'- not Styrofoam dummy cake

I am talking cake drum. As in cake boards. Just nicer an thicker. I use 1/2" all the time when needed. Go online you can even but 'cake drums' in colors as your final base display stand. There's make boards (thin cardboard type) & cake drums.  Then there's 'the cake dummies' used to keep costs down when making large tier appearances so wed cake looks bigger than it is used in show displays.

I think this is all because we're from different countries so we call things different names.

Go online an check out Sweetwise.com

There in Nashville TN (USA.)

Look up cake drums

Then look at cake boards

Then look at cake dummies

Kathy sells them in packs of 6 or you can buy in bulk if you need alot

This may help showing you our different things if you ever want to buy them here in U.S.

I get alot of things from UK & AU & I have to remember what they call some things I may need. Can be tricky at times!

Yep, I would have never guessed! Thank you so so much for the time and patience! I live in Latin America and I'll end up making my own, because I've never seen them over here. But seriously, thanks a lot! <3 You've helped me so much!