Ok, so I was watching one of Sharon's DVD and she was talking about how you need to let the cake settle (optimally overnight). I am planning my "wedding cake timeline" (for a cake being cut on Saturday night) and if If I fill my cake with SMBC, I was planning on refrigerating it until I put fondant over it because I think 3 days unrefrigerated is pretty excessive. If I fill it Thursday and refrigerate it, will the hardening of the filling delay the "cake settling"? I mean, when it come to room temp the next day, will it do its settling then? I hope I explained it right. I was planning on baking and freezing Wed., filling thursday (refrigerate), fondant and decorate Friday. Thanks for any help!

I would love to know this too, as I do not use SMBC. Great question!!

I'm interested to know this timeline as well. Have you considered putting a board on top of the cake, pushing down & letting it settle an hour or two before putting it in the fridge? I'm thinking I've read that SMBC should be fine that long.

lori,

i have never worked with SMBC before but, ideally, i would dam, fill and crumbcoat my cakes, cover them with cling wrap and let them sit on the countertop for about 2 hours. i would then remove any bulging buttercream before putting the cakes in the fridge overnight. the next day, i let the cakes come to room temperature and scrap off any bulging buttercream.

sometimes, i even skip the 1st step and put the cakes straight into the fridge and then remove the bulging once they come to room temperature. remember...if you follow SS's technique of covering the cake with buttercream (i think that she recommends that the icing be 1/2" thick) , you wouldn't see much bulging anyway.

I almost always leave my cakes in the fridge overnight. The only time I don't is if I am under major time pressure. What I do is dam and crumb coat late afternoon Thursday, and then decorate on Friday.

HTH!

Thanks for the replies. If I refrigerate them, when can I start decorating them? I would think that a 14, 10, and 6 in square cakes will take awhile to come to room temp, or am I wrong? Thats is where I am unsure. I dont want to waste too much of the "decorating day" waiting for thawing. Thanks for the input!

Why wait for warming before decorating? Just pull and go!

This is what I do: I defrost my cakes on Friday morning, dam and fill later in the day wrap plastic wrap around and put a little weight on top and wait for an hour or two. I unwrap scrape the excess off and cover with IMBC. I place it in the freezer for about 10-15 min, this depends on how quickly I can get my fondant to cooperate. I bring the cake out of freezer and do a quick smoothing w/ a paper towel and smoothing tool. Then cover w/ fondant. This last part I try to do quickly so I can work the fondant on the cake while the IMBC is still firm.
I am by no means a professional, but I do own both of Sharon's Dvd and have found this method to work pretty well for me.
I would use Sharon's bc but I cannot get it right so I keep w/ the IMBC from Indydeb.
I hope this helps. Each cake I make seems to get a little easier for me...unless I am using a colored fondant and then it's h-e-!!. But that is another post.
No really it is

You don't want your SMBC cake come to room temp before put the fondant on it because the weight of fondant would squeeze out your filling and push your icing around. It has to be very well chilled, you could put it in the freezer for a short time, too. I chill my SMBC cakes after they are iced and only bring them to room temp before serving time. They never bulged and also they never develope a bubble from condensation either. It happens when I use powdered sugar icing, though.

sounds like I am making this harder than it has to be! I was afraid if I filled it the day before and it wasnt 100% thawed I would get condensation on it or something. Thank you so much for your help!

Can I ask a really stupid question?? Does Sharon's method work with SMBC, stupid me-I thought you had to just use a crusting BC to do her method (like the way she smooths, etc.)? Now when I use SMBC, I know it doesn't really crust- (BUY MY GOD I COULD EAT IT SANS CAKE!) So does her method work with it too? Is is stable enough?

Unfortunately the smoothing part doesn't work with her method because SMBC doesn't crust at all. It needs a totally different smoothing method. The hot spatula/benchscraper would melt the butter in your SMBC. I use some of her method but the paper towel would stick in your icing. I level the top with the method from her DVD (build up the sides then take away from the icing with a spatula at the lowest point.)
I wish JanH would be online because she alway has a relating thread to attach (and there are some good ones here) on how to smooth it. If I find the thread I'll attach it.