I have agreed to do the cake for my niece's birthday party tomorrow. This will be my 5th cake, I've done 3 with fondant and haven't had any problems. I got Satin Ice Fondant, first time working with it. I used buttercream w/high ratio shortening to ice before, did a crumb coat and a 2nd coat, because I thought the Satin Ice tasted ok, but not wonderful and wanted enough buttercream to taste if the fondant was pulled off.

I don't know if I rolled it to thin or what, but it was cracking like crazy all over the sides and would not smooth! It was like I had to much icing underneath it b/c it was all mushy, lumpy, and puffy in some places. It looked horrible. What am I doing wrong? I tore off all the fondant and had to trash it, and it pulled away some of the cake. I'm totally freaking out now. LOL. I'm not completely confident in my abilities to get buttercream as smooth as I want, so I wanted to use fondant for the smooth finish. Any advice would greatly help me! Thanks so much!!!

I put a normal layer of BC or chocolate ganache under my fondant. You must get it smooth although not as smooth as if you were only doing BC. Maybe it was too thin, it should be an 1/8 th of an inch thick but you can make it thicker if you are new to fondant, it sounds to me as if it might have been too soft. Hope it turns out alright for you, I know how you feel, we have all been there.

I put more than a crumb coat but a hair less than if I were doing straight BC. I roll out my fondant almost 1/4" thick for covering. I also roll out my fondant on shortening versus cornstarch or other powdered stuff as it typically makes the fondant more pliable. Less apt to crack. I use Satin Ice to cover every cake and I really like how it works up. I hope you can get it work.