Hi Everyone,
I'm so happy to be a part of this site. You are an amazing group of people.

I was just wondering which cakes should you use when you are using rolled fondant, MMF, or rolled buttercream? Which ones should I stay away from?? There are so many wonderful recipes on this site but after reading them I often find myself wondering if it will be good enough for those frostings. Also, which cakes are best for stacking??


I have soooooo much to learn!! Please give me your opinions!!



Daniela

Well, I know there will be folks that disagree, but basically if you open up any book that has information about covering a cake with rolled fondant, or go on any information site, you will see that they recommend using a dense cake, usually poundcake, to support the weight of regular rolled fondant.
What does that mean? Well, you can doctor a cake mix cake to make it more dense, usually decreasing the oil and liquid, substituting milk for water, adding sour cream, adding an instant pudding mix, more eggs, less oil, there are various combinations.
The old standard for applying regular rolled fondant is to have it 1/4 inch thick. So that is a lot of weight. The weight of the fondant alone on the top of the cake can depress the cake.
Marshmallow fondant is usually applied a lot thinner, so less weight there but if you are stacking a cake, again, even though the cakes are boarded and the supporting cakes are dowelled, there is still a lot of weight. So generally a more dense cake is the way to go.
Rolled buttercream, well it would depend on the weight but again with a stacked cake you are best to use a dense cake.
Your cake has to be strong enough to support the dowels that will support the boarded cakes.
This is less of an issue when it is a single cake you are talking about. If your cakes are small and are only two-tiered, it isn;t so much of an issue either. But I still would go with a more dense cake.
I can tell you from experience that I had trouble with a Marble Cake mix when used as directed on the package, the middle tier of a three tiered cake, broke at the dowels. It was well dowelled and well supported so that wasn't the issue. I think with marble cakes the texture is very light and also you get a bit of air pockets because of the manner in which a marble cake is made. Basically a bit of air where you drop the chocolate batter into the white and it doesn't matter if you rap the cake pans on the counter, there is still air trapped inside.
I have from scratch carrot and chocolate cakes that I use for this purpose all the time and they hold up well. I use other recipes that firm up nicely too.
I would let a cake sit covered for a day to allow it to firm up a bit before covering it with fondant.
You wouldn't want to cover a light sponge or chiffon or angel food cake with heavy rolled fondant, for example.
Hugs Squirrelly

Squirrelly,
Thanks for your input I really appreciate it. You gave me a lot of useful tips to keep in mind. I actually wrote them down so that I can remember them !!


Luv Daniela

Hi Daniella,
you are most welcome and thank you!
Hugs Squirrelly

I guess I've been really lucky. The novice that I am, I've only used box mix and followed the baking directions. No matter what size cake I'm making. Even for the three layer tiered cake that I made for my dtr's first birthday that took 6 boxes of cake mix, and it didn't fall appart. That was just with frosting though.

The only cake i've had problems with (so far) when using rolled icings is chocolate cakes They seem to be more moist and tend to compress after a while when fondant is placed on them. I haven't had problems with the others "yet".

Debbie

The reason why I'm asking is because I have two baby showers coming up within the mext couple of months and I want to make sure that I know what I'm doing before I make the cakes!! I wouldn't want the cakes to fall apart on me. I think I would die if that happened!! Can you imagine??? I can't even think about that



Daniela

Yes Sheila, regular buttercream is a lot lighter weight. Also a lot depends on the size of the cakes, the larger and deeper and heavier the more risk. When I think of stacked cakes and such, I tend to be thinking about wedding cakes and fondant. You would not believe how heavy those suckers can get, haha!
The cake I had trouble with was actually a three tiered, 5. 6 and 8 inch round. However the tiers were made from two layers of 3 inch high cake.
Interestingly, I was on a local bakery site recently where they limited all fondant covered cakes to pound cakes and all deeper or larger stacked cakes also to pound cakes. Again, they mentioned that the stability of a pound cake was necessary for these types of cakes, but for some of the smaller cakes or the two tiered ones, they would consider making non-pound cakes, depending on the stability of the filling and choice of icing. I know that they use boxed cake mixes.
Hugs Squirrelly

One of the things i've learned when decorating cakes is that it's amazing what you can do with buttercream! You can "glue" pieces back on, fill holes and even round out or square off corners if necessary!

You'll be fine! Don't be afraid to try new things. That's how we learn!

Debbie

I'll definately be doing trials before the final cakes are made.!!! AT least for the first little while.The best part about those is that once you're done you can eat them!!!!!

I also use box mixes if it is a chocolate, white, yellow, or strawberry. i made a wedding cake, 4 tier, it took 41 boxes of betty crocker. lol i have made an itaian cream cake from scratch it was so good. i was watching food network a while back and the show was about decoration cakes and making icing. They said box mixes were better to use because they use ingrediants in thier cake that are not always avalible for the public. Icing on the other hand is always better homemade.

41 boxes! Wow. the most I've used on any cake is 6 boxes. I think I'll stick with the smaller sizes! LOL. Even my brother's wedding cake was only about 6 boxes. I have not tried the MMF yet. I have to say, the fondant cake I made for class was gross to eat. I only use that stuff on my cookies on a stick. The kids seem to like it. (I just uploaded my first tierd cake. I had to edit my dtr's face out of it first).

41 boxes?? Was that a typo?? I'd love to see the pic for that cake!!

omg that's alot of boxes of cake mix ! i'd like to see the pic to.