AHi,

This weekend I had to cover a cake with black fondant so I purchased a container of black Satin Ice fondant, baked my cakes ahead of time and refrigerated them overnight so I would have a good, firm cake to level and frost. I kept the cakes mostly refrigerated throughout the prepping process of leveling, filling, crumb coating and covering with buttercream. So when it came time to apply the black fondant, I was really looking forward to having a nice smooth cake with sharp edges.

One more detail I should include is that the temperature of my kitchen was at about 73 degrees F throughout this process. I rolled out my black fondant, removed the chilled cake from the fridge and set the fondant on top and the minute it hit the cake it began to get sticky (I suppose, due to the temperature difference). What’s worse is that the stickiness got so bad that it made it impossible to smooth away the bubbles as my smoother just kept getting stuck to the fondant and began pulling it. It was so bad that when I tried to add my details on the side of the cake, it kept sliding down the fondant as the surface was not dry enough to hold in place. So much for smooth surface and sharp edges!

The entire cake developed this garbage bag shine (cringe) and as much as I wanted to rip it off and start again, time was against me. I tested out a small area I knew I’d be able to cover up, with powdered sugar, hoping that would help remove the shine but it formed a grey gooey “smudge” so I quickly abandoned that. In the end I left it shiny. Thank God it was a birthday cake I’d volunteered to make for a friend and not a paying customer as I would have been embarrassed to take money for it.

I’ve had this problem in the past with dark coloured fondants and I’m wondering two things. First, what’s the best way to avoid this from happening while still allowing me to get my buttercream to firm up? And are there any fixes for these situations? I know if it was a light coloured cake I might have been able to get rid of the shine with cornstarch or PS but given the dark colour that was not an option. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated and thanks for letting me share my plight.