Fondant-Covered Cake Question...for Real!

Decorating By cookieman Updated 3 May 2007 , 2:54am by KoryAK

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cookieman Posted 3 May 2007 , 12:15am
post #1 of 4

Disclaimer alert: This is not meant to be a joke, hurt anyone's feelings or seem ignorant. I really want opinions, answers, ideas, etc. on this topic. Thanks in advance!

A friend and I were discussing the trend of sculpted and fondant-heavy decorated cakes. Although we love the look of them (and let me say right here--we are so AMAZED at the beautiful works of art displayed on this site!!!) we were wondering if people actually eat them. It seems like the fondant outweighs the amount of cake by at least 2 to 1 on a lot of them. I don't want to single out any one cake (because, once again, I am not criticizing the cakes), but you know the type I am talking about. It just puzzles us how much waste there is on such a cake. Surely no one would eat that much fondant. So...do you strip away the fondant when it comes time to actually "dig in" and then cut it up to serve? Cut it up as is and let the guests decide what to eat? Something else?

I would love to hear what all you very talented cake artistes have to say. Thanks so much.

3 replies
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moydear77 Posted 3 May 2007 , 12:20am
post #2 of 4

Most of my clients eat the fondant. I actually place a very thick coat of buttercream along with a thin layer of fondant. They love it!

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DecoratingDingbat Posted 3 May 2007 , 12:48am
post #3 of 4

Ditto ... I like a nice layer of Buttercream and roll my fondant as thin as possible. I think the best cakes are the Buttercream with fondant accents for the decorating, but you can't get away with that for some designs. Even the best tasting BC will probably have Gumpaste flowers set to the side.
Some of the 3D cakes have pieces that aren't meant for consumption, in which case you remove them to the side when the carving gets going. I personally will try to use as much cake as possible on my 3D's, but again ... depends on the design. I understand what you and your friend mean though, some cakes seem to be more for visual effect. A $2000.00 cake that only feeds 12 after the fondant covering and decorations have been stripped away. The problem with editing is it looks alot easier than it actually is, and the more complex the design the more $ for the talent. Some people want the cake to be more of a showpiece than an actual dessert.

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KoryAK Posted 3 May 2007 , 2:54am
post #4 of 4

Exactly as DecoratingDingbat said... the kind of cakes you are talking about are intended to be a showpiece and the bonus is there is a tasty cake deep down. Its not wasteful if the customer paid for it icon_smile.gif

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