Huge Amount Of Fondant Needed...
Decorating By valstupendo Updated 15 May 2007 , 2:38am by BlakesCakes
Any tips on rolling out/using HUGE amounts of fondant? I have to cover a 12", 10" and 8" square cakes (for 3 tier wedding cake) with chocolate fondant!!!! I've never rolled out fondant in this big a sheet before!! Is there anything I need to know? Or anything I need to make sure I do so it isn't a disaster??? I figure - I need to use half store bought fondant, and half MMF because she tasted the MMF at my tasting and really liked it over the store bought, but it melts so much faster and tears on the corners, so I think half and half should make it much more pliable.... but I need some hints and tips! Please! I don't want my first wedding cake to be a disaster!!!! 
I just took a Wilton fondant and gumpaste class a few weeks ago. One of the things I learned was how to cover a cake with fondant. If you have a 10 inch round cake that is 4 inches tall that you are covering with fondant you will need to roll out a circle of fondant that is 18 inches in circumfrance. I usually add an extra inch or 2 just to be on the safe side. Hopefully you have a fondant mat that has measurements on it. That would be helpful.
I had a disasterous weekend trying to roll out a huge amount of fondant for a sheet cake. What I learned was that the Wilton plastic mat was not big enough. So tonight I went to Walmart and bought two yards of clear plastic from the fabric area. Next time, I'll cover my dining room table with the plastic I bought and hopefully, I won't have such a difficult time.
Even for the 12" square, you will only need a piece of fondant 20" wide... I do that all the time. If you think you will have trouble lifting it, do as the pps said and flip the whole mat onto the cake then peel it off. Do not attempt to cover it in patches.
well... i thought about rolling it out in sections, but the cake has absolutely NO decorations or flowers or artwork of any kind on it!! So there will be nothing to hide any seams I have from putting more than one piece of fondant on. I'm not tooooo good at massaging the seams of fondant together. I also have a bit of a problem with covering a square cake and getting the corners flattened down without having HUGE pleats in the sides!?
Any tips there??? My other option was to cut a ribbon for the bottom to go around horizontally; and then cut a square of fondant to cover the top and do my best to meld the seams around the top edge. Does that sound okay?
I'm not sure where you're headed here--you shouldn't have any seams when you cover a cake--square, or otherwise. This cake is for the "big day", and it should be seamless. Perhaps you should practice on a box or on a set of square pans stacked so that you feel comfortable with the technique.
To cover a 12" square, you roll a 20" square-ish piece and put it on the top of the cake, letting the sides flare out. Press down each corner first and then work between two corners, flaring and smoothing in the excess from the top edge to the bottom--don't pull on it, just adjust it gently. Cut away the excess from the bottom using a sharp knife or pizza cutter held at a 45 degree+ angle to the bottom of the cake. The cake should be on a board the same size as itself (12"), too. This makes it more stable and easier to move around. If you're using a crusting buttercream under the fondant, mist the cake with water very lightly before applying the fondant.
For the 8" you need a 16" square and for the 6" you need 14" square of fondant.
The Wilton Yearbooks from 2004+ have some good directions in the center on how to apply fondant, how much to use, etc.
Rae
http://www.cakecentral.com/article47-How-to-Make-and-Decorate-with-Marshmallow-Fondant-MMF.html
This is how you should be draping your cake in fondant. I guess this is what I was trying to explain earlier and pretty much what BlakesCakes is describing here. Maybe check some websites like www.wilton.com and the article from CC like I have above before you do your cake. That way you will have a perfect cake for the final!
Edited to say: you should be only rolling enough fondant for each cake. Not one large piece trying to cut out a cover for all three. Hopefully I am explaining this correctly. Sorry for confusion if I got it incorrect!
I can't thank you guys enough for all the great comments and tips.
Thanks to all who responded. You were a great help. I'm going to get a small box tomorrow and practice.
Another question about the fondant though... because it's a really dark chocolate fondant... should I use cornstarch or icing sugar to roll it out? I've found with darker coloured fondant... the dust never really comes off! You've got all these white marks all over your dark fondant.
Any suggestions?
If you want a trouble free, dust free end product, roll it out on a piece of heavy vinyl (in the fabric area at WalMart for very little $s) that you've conditioned with a small amount of crisco. You can then pick up the vinyl with the choco fondant still stuck to it, lay it over the cake, and peel off the fondant.
Another option is to roll it out on cocoa powder.
If you roll it out on a white powder, you'll never get it clean & shiny.
Rae
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