Help! Icing Ring Bulge Under Fondant
Decorating By jessicakes63 Updated 4 Sep 2011 , 10:19pm by leah_s
Below is a link to a cake i recenty made. I was pleased with how the design turned out (not mine) but why do I still have that icing bulge in the top tier? After I filled the cake, I pressed down to remove the excess before I did the outside. Then before I covered it in fondant, I pressed down again and smoothed the sides. Appreciate any help!
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2080479/
After filling your cake - place a piece of glad wrap or baking paper on top of it - and then place a heavy object on top of that.
A large cookbook - heavy bread board - tile - ...etc
Allow your cakes to settle under the weight for at least 4 hours - or longer if possible.
By doing this, your cake and filling will have time to *settle/set up* and after you have crumbcoated and put your fonadnt on - there won't be any excess from the filling to ooze out...or make the cake move.
Also - another important tip - always make sure your layers are even and as straight as you can get them.
This prevents sliding of layers....which can also cause buldgers/lumps and bumps under fondant.
Hope this helps you for in the future.
Bluehue.
Couple reasons. You may have overfilled your cake, or applied fondant to a crumb coated cake. I notice bulges when cakes are not iced before applying fondant. I always completely ice my cake as if it was just a butter cream cake that was ordered. After a 24 hour chill, I then fondant. I don't put anything on my cakes to squish them. Simply fill, crumb, ice, fondant. Maybe others will have other views for you. Your cake is still adorable! Just love the candy border!!!!
Very Cute cake! So your bulge issue there are a couple of things you can do to stop this problem. 1) I stiffen my buttercream I use for my icing dam. I add enough powder sugar til it can be picked up with your hands and roll into a ball. It won't be easy to pipe...but it won't spread! 2) you can always fill your cake a few hours a head or even the night before you actually frost it. Wrap light in plastic...then the next day take it out of the fridge take plastic off let it come to room temp ...make sure all the condensation dries off...then frost...this way it had time to settle! I hope this helps! Good luck! 
It looks like your filling is coming out. Did you allow it to settle for a while? I fill and crumb coat and give it overnight to bulge. If I have to do it right away I place a tile with a heavy book on top of the cake for a few hours. This forces the filling that is going to come out to do its thing before I fondant. A really stiff icing dam helps as well.
LOL we are not on TV. This is real life stuff. Usually the bulges don't occur until several hours AFTER the cake is decorated (i.e. when it's too late to fix). On TV you don't see a cake several hours after it's been made. And yes, I have watched several of the shows where the cake has been chilled. Usually they are kept in the cooler quite a while before being decorated. Chilling firms up everything so it stays put. Generally when you see the bulges it's because there is too much filling and the weight of the cake is compressing it.
You need to a) reduce the amount of filling you're using or b) use a stiffer dam. When I say stiff I mean you add so much PS that you can mold the BC with your hand, but will still pipe through a coupler. If you buy the DVD Perfecting the Art of Buttercream by Sharon Zambito (sugarshack on here) then this will help you tremendously.
The heavy-object-on-top-of-the-cake trick is good for when you don't have time to let the cake settle.
When working in a busy shop there is NO TIME to let a cake rest overnight to 24 hours 
Making a stiff dam is one of the best things you can do. Do not fill more than 1/4" thick.
Old school of thumb was to use a bag with only a coupler (no tip) but that give too much of a dam and most people will fill right up to the top of a dam. Use a tip 12 OR roll your thickened icing only as thick as what one would pipe w/a #12 - no thicker. Also perhaps you need a thicker filling. You don't say what you used but if it was something like a thin jam it will spread w/the weight of the layer on top of it. Another way is to torte each 2" layer into 3 pieces and use just a thin smear of filling on each. To do that you must have a very good leveler
This will give each bite of cake lots of taste and moisture from filling w/o ever having buldge problems.
One last consideration - how thick is your layer of fondant? You might need to roll it thinner so it is not so heavy - won't pull/weight the cake down.
Almost every cake decorating show on tv shows them storing their cakes in a refrigerator. Then they go straight to delivery. I use the coupler method for filling my cakes and I don't have any problems with bulging. I actually add two rings high so I get about 1/4 to 1/2 inches of filling. When I add the top layer the extra frosting from the dam helps seal things in as I press down the cake. I also add a heavy object such as a dinner plate or book and let it settle for a couple of hours if I have the extra time. I love watching the cake decorating show on tv but in reality they take an entire day and cut it down to a one hour show. My daughter and I were watching the Cake boss one day where they are trying to transport a tiered wedding cake and it collapsed. You could clearly see that the cake had no center dowel. But in the episode they wanted you to see that they could make a cake from scratch in a couple of hours. I truly believe it was all for the ratings and getting people to watch the show.
Not being a smart alec, just stating the truth. On TV everything is spliced and edited to the point where nothing is believable, and one cannot expect to duplicate what happens on TV at home.
I think the real key here is not to over-fill. I pretty much use meringue buttercreams now and never have a bulging problem. The good news with those is that you can put them in the fridge and they will harden (like solid butter). The other thing is that I put my dam more toward the inside so it's not hanging out right on the edge.
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