Ok, so I always cover all my cakes with mmf and I always put them in the fridge (because they have mousse fillings). I usually don't do figures, since I'm not very good at it. This time, I made an exception. The customer wanted a moomin themed cake with moomin and his house. How hard can it be to make moomin, he is just a big white blob So, I made him in mmf last night, and left him out to dry over night. I made the house also from mmf a couple of days ago, and it has been drying since.

Ok, so a couple of hours ago, I put moomin and the house on the cake and put it back in the fridge. Took it out a little while ago to put on the last decorations, and moomin is sweating like crazy!!! Almost dripping!!! My cakes always sweat a little when I take them out of the fridge, but not like this! The house is not sweating at all, and the mmf that is covering the cake sweats a little like it usually does.

Why is moomin so wet (and the grey top of the house also)???? Is it because he wasn't dry egough when put in the fridge??? Why is the house not sweating???

I put the cake back in the fridge for now, hopfully it will dry again in there, it usually does. But, at some point I will have to take it out again
I called DH who is at the store and asked him to pick up a fan. I will try to dry moomin with the fan. I hope it helps, but if it doesn't... could I try to carefully dab him with a paper towel??? Or will that make it worse??

Any ideas??? Anyone??? Remember, only 2 hours until delivery!!!

this happened to me last week when i did my very 1st girl figure, i always put my fondant pieces in the fridge and they have been fine, this time when i took out my girl figure she was sweating like she'd done an aerobics workout!!!! after i put together everything else on the cake and was just about ready to put her o she was more or less dry. I would advice to just keep her out the fridge and im sure she will dry off. let us know how you get on. good luck. xxx

I really dont know the answer to this but I figured I would give you a bum since you are running out of time. Try the fan. I never put my MMF in the fridge. Why didnt you wait until they came and got the cake to give the figures more time to dry? Good luck.

Is it boxed? You can control the temp inside a box better where the chill from the rest of the cake can help ease the moomin's disstress into a more gradual warm up and hopefully less pee on your work. I've never heard of moomin he is adorable you do great work.

Going forward consider modeling out of marzipan. Or if you continue with mmf experiment with extra cornstarch in there. I often use store bought fondant with extra cornstarch for some of my modeling. Also I have the advantage of a warming drawer to help expedite the drying process. some folks use food dehydrators.

Some moomin thoughts for you.

Awesome cake!

i tried using paper towel to dab the sweat away before when in a total panic and it made it WAY worse! i think like someone else said before, if you take it out of the fridge and let it continue to dry it should dry up.

Good luck!

Thanks all for your advice.
Karema, yes I know, I have been asking myself that question plenty in the last few hours, trust me!! I should absolutely have waited to put the figure on the cake... I like to have my cake all ready at least a couple of hours before they pick them up, and since they have to stay in the fridge, well... I would be stressed out if the cake was not finished when time of pick up was near.

K8memphis, you make me laugh. When I look at momin now, he really looks like he needs to pee. The way his feet are angled LOL LOL The cornstarch is probably a good idea. The mmf I used was really sticky, mabye thats part of the problem. It is not boxed. I usually keep my cakes boxed up in the fridge, but this one is too high. I don't have a box that will fit it...

SOULLA13, I'm sorry about your girl. Good to hear she dried up. I cannot take moomin off the cake now. He is probably stuck to the cake good. I will take the cake out of the fridge and put in front of the fan before they arrive. Hope it will help.

I don't want the filling to go bad, so I will keep it in the fridge for a while longer. It is now one hour left until pick up. Mabye I can take it out 30 min before they are arriving and putting it in front of the fan. I guess they might put it in the fridge at their home for a couple of hours when they get home before they eat it and it will sweat agan... Certainly not fun, but at least I won't have to look at the disaster

Make a box!!! Put two boxes together and tape it up and score some lines to fit the base and make something.

I'm assuming you have air conditioning and it is hades hot outside at your house only becouse it is hades hot at my house. When that chilled cake goes from the frige to the outside air it's gonna be Moominiagra Falls. You need to figure out how to ease it into room temp. Or just explain that the moisture is to be expected and it will be ok.

Or get him room temp now and have them put him back on later?

Duh! Make a box, of course! I feel so stupid
Thanks for the advice. I ran out and cut up two boxes and made one. It looked kind of funny and not very proffesional, but it worked. They just picked it up, and they loved it. Moomin still looked like he just had been for a swim, the fan didn't help at all. I guess it needed more time. They are going to put it in the fridge when they get home anyway. They had no other cool place to keep it, so I guess with a little luck it will dry up in the fridge and might look ok when they take it out to eat.

The dad laughed and said that they might not be able to eat the cake since it was so beutiful and the 3 year old might not let them eat it he thought. Cool I put a stick in moomin to avoid him falling over, so I told him that if they pick him up and put the stick in some styrofoam or something the son could keep him, and he would eventually dry up

Sweden's been having a terrible heat wave right now, so when you take the cake from the fridge and put it in a very warm room temp (A/C in the home is very rare in Sweden) it is going to sweat like crazy!

ok, so now the crisis is over, what's a Moomin?

He's so cute please post the whole cake so we can see his house

I dont even know what a moomin is (yours is ADORABLE), but I want one as a pet...lol.

I have only made one figure out of fondant (wilton brand) and that one seemed to be ok UNTIL I put him in the fridge. Thats when he got all soft and pliable and looked to be hunched over in excruciating pain...he was a golfer, so technically if he was haing an off day on the par, he would be hunched pver, but thats a moot point...I had to kind of build him back up and dry him out on the bar with 3 toothpicks shoved up his (well, we wont go there... ). He was fully dry before being placed in the fridge. Who know, but I havent had to make another one for quite sometime.

I am glad that your moomin (so cute!) was a hit.

Thanks all for your support and advice. I discovered CC a couple of months ago and I'm so glad I did. I'm now an addict like everyone else but that's another story Yes, I know, don't just laugh at the warning in the corner, TAKE IT SERIOUSLY!!

Ok, back to Moomin. I guess he is not a very well known character internationally.. He (and his family) are from Finland, created by a finish author Tove Jansson. There is a whole Moomin town in Finland. Here, in Sweden, Moomin is known by most people, but not huge. He is cute and the other characters are also very cute. A google search for "moomin" gives a lot of hits. The stories are great, they usually have a 'scary' part, the threat that something terrible is going to happen, and in the end all is well of course.

I'll post the full cake here (it's also in my photos), and the pictures I googled to get inspiration for the cake.

Thanks again, and chutzpah, how in the world do you know about our Swedish heatwave??? Are you mabye from somewhere around here? Actually, today is the first 'normal' Swedish summer day in a while, rain and 18 degrees celsuis (64 F), so I was actually thinking it was a great cake-day Both of my first two wedding cakes I had to deliver in the heat wave, but I guess I won't have to worry anymore. Everything is back to normal over here Yes, feel sorry for us who have mabye three months of crappy summer (like today) and just cold, cold, rainy and windy the rest of the year... Don't complain about heat and humidity, just enjoy...

Oh, I forgot. thedessertdiva, I'm laughing so hard at your golfer story Sorry that happend to you, but just the thought of those toothpicks.. LOL LOL LOL...

OMG they are so cute, you could just hug them...

you did a wonderful job translating the ideas in to cake art. the house is wonderful.

no wonder they were so pleased with the result. I wouldn't want to eat it either.

I loved the Moomins when I was young. They were quite big here in the UK. My dad used to call me Moomin because of the way my face swelled up whenever I had an allergic reaction!

OMG, Moomin is SO cute!!! He looks like an adorable, white hippo! Your cake is SPOT ON! I wouldn't want to eat it either! Good job!

nannie, thanks for your compliments!

LOL, that's just too funny!

Thanks! Wow, glad you like it.

The funniest thing was that the dad who picked up the cake was mostly impressed with the trees... I can't get over "non-cake" people, they always seem to be most impressed with the simplest things That's one of the reasons I love CC, at least here people know which things were hard to do and that's always nice. At least making Moomin got me a little inspired to do more modeling so I'm going to try to make Winnie the Pooh for a cake next week, not sure it will work as good though. Pooh must be a lot harder to make...