On thursday I made an 8" fondant cake for the top of a cupcake stand. I did what I always do - thick crumb coat then cover with fondant. The cake was really smooth and then I piped a damask print on the front of it. I did dent the cake a little on the side from where my hand sat while piping, but I was able to smooth it out after I was done and you couldn't even tell. It sat out overnight on the countertop and in the morning when I went to look at it there was a dent in the side of the cake and a couple of small cracks on the top. The dent was small, but still noticeable.

The cake wasn't delivered until Saturday. That morning there was another problem. There was a sheer ribbon double-wrapped along the bottom of the cake. The fondant looked like it had been sliding down and was beginning to overlap the ribbon a little bit. I have never had this problem before. I didn't know what to do or why this happened. I live in Idaho so maybe it's because its really dry here? Did I make it too far in advance? (made thursday night, delivered saturday afternoon)

Any help is much needed and appreciated!
The picture I posted is of the cake the night I made it.

Well let me start by saying that your cake looks very nice.

The only thing I can think of is that you maybe didn't let your cake settle.

I usually bake my cake Thursday bout 10:00p.m let them cool and rest overnight.

Then Friday (morning) level, fill, crumbcoat
*leave it to settle with something a lil heavy*

Then usually start to decorate bout 10 in the night after everyone is asleep and Im able to concentrate .

Well hope someone can be of better help to yah!!

This has happened to me when I have chilled a cake prior to icing...rookie mistake for me. I have learned to make sure that my cake is back up to room temp and completely settled, or else I will end up trimming off a ton of fondant on the bottom, which is just awful when you have already decorated!

It's also possible that your thick crumb coat was to thick so when it warmed up, it couldn't support the weight of the fondant. Unfortunately that has happed to me, thank god it was on a cake for a teacher who didn't care, she was just excited that her class got her a cake.

this has happened to me more than once, i'm sorry to say. i have not been able to figure it out for certain. am thinking it has been related to too much icing underneath. i hope to learn from your question as well.

Thanks for all of the replies.

I usually freeze my cakes overnight after I bake them so that they are firm when I put the icing on the next day. Maybe I haven't been letting them thaw enough and the moisture caused it.

Also I haven't heard of putting something heavy on the cake to help it settle until just recently, I'm definitely going to start doing that. Do you do that after you've filled the cake or iced it? Thanx!