I am attempting my first fondant cake and have a few questions:
1. Is it ok if the fondant is not directly against the thin layer of buttercream? (i.e. it is not a "tight" fit...there seems to be some air in between) Will the fondant slide off or other problems arise?

2. What can you use to decorate on top of the fondant? Can you use buttercream, modeling chocolate, and gum paste? How do you apply it to the fondant? Do you use buttercream as a glue?

3. What do you do if there is a tear or crack? Anyway to fix it?

4. What do you do if there is a hole (about 1/2 inch)? Can you patch it?

5. I am making a pirate ship and need to put wooden skewers for the sails. Do I just puncture a hole directly through the fondant?

Thank you for your help. As you can see...this 1st experience is not working out as planned.

1. Are you trying to say that the cake (without the fondant) looks like its sinking in the middle?

2. You can use modeling chocolate, gumpaste and I've seen some people use buttercream but didn't like it. Some use water as a glue but even better if you use tylose glue or maybe royal icing. I'm not sure but I think some people dissolve the gumpaste on water. Like they leave it there until it dissolves. I'm not really sure.

3. If it looks like I can fix it, I'll rub it with shortening, just to kind of soften the seam. If not, I will just have to cover it with something.

4. Maybe you can patch it and then rub shortening on the seams.

5. I've done it, Just make sure it doesn't tip over.

1. its a bit iffy, you want the fondant to adhere to the cake, as otherwise you may get a bubble nder the fondant. your bc doesnt need to be perfect, but you do want the fondant sticking to it.

2. you can use absolutely anything. water attatches most things, if its a bit heavier i will use bcleft over from doing the cake, or edible glue, and ri or cocolate is good aswell. you can pipe anything over fondant too.

3. as RylanTy said, shortening or hiding it!

4. i find it difficult to merge seems like that, id go for coving it up if possible. if possible, id re-roll and cover - if you notice tearing when you lift the fondant, just stop.

5. yup.
xx

i read somewhere to mist the crumb coated cake lightly with water before covering with fondant.

"glue"-found on wilton.com the suggestion to take 1 oz of fondant and mix it with water till you get a paste. This is what did and it worked perfectly.

good luck with your cake! Keep thinking to yourself I CAN I WILL and I am sure you will be fine!

We do not crumb coat here in Oz under fondant - just brush on strained preserves or sugar syrup (or rum if it is a fruit cake). This will be sufficient to adhere the fondant.

I attach flowers sometimes by sticking a blob of fondant onto the cake with RI and then putting the flower wires into that. Wires should NEVER penetrate a cake. I use RI or egg white or clear edible glue to attach things to fondant, depending on what it is.

Very hard to fix tears and holes. Either cover them with a decoration or start again. Note, you will have to throw out fondant that has crumbs and BC on its underside once you've removed it from a cake. Re-kneading and rolling will only incorporate that mess into your fondant.

Great thread. Thanks to all of you!

Thanks for everyone's help. Unfortunately, time was not on my side and after discovering that the whole back end of my ship broke off (due to heavy fondant)...I had to redo the whole thing in buttercream. It turned out ok, but I was really looking forward to using the fondant. I guess it's practice that I need. "Ace of Cakes" makes it look so easy. I will be saving this thread for future use. Thanks again for the great advice.