Please Help! Getting Very Frustrated With Fondant!
Decorating By Megabot Updated 28 Apr 2010 , 9:21pm by Megabot
I've been casually making cakes for a little less than a year and I've probably make 8-10 cakes total and I can not seem to fix some basic problems with my fondant. I would really really appreciate some help. I can't seem to make the pictures post here so I put pictures up on my profile to show you an example, its the baby shower cake.
1. My fondant looks good the first day, but on the day of the event it will be cracking and falling off.
2. I can't seem to not have any "elephant skin" on my cakes, its always on at least on portion of the cake
3. I have no idea how to get lines straight or edges smooth.
Thank you soo much for your help!
Heres teh link
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1658604.html
The "elephant" skin is due to not being kneaded enough before rolling it out.
To get clean edges, use a sharp cutter, and I grease it (carefully!) to get a very clean sharp cut edge. I use a pizza cutter for the most part - just lightly grease the edge, and you won't have those "frayed" edges anymore.
It looks like your cake is settling after you have the fondant on it. Make sure to give ample time between filling/crumb coating and putting your fondant on.
It also looks like the stripes were partially dried prior to being put on the cake which caused the cracking. You need to make sure you are working fast with your fondandt and covering anything that isn't ready to be put on the cake with plastic wrap.
HTH!
Make sure your cake/fillings are settled first before covering with fondant. Maybe try a book or tile on top over night or at least a few hours to make sure everything is fully settled. If your fondant is drying out too fast use some crisco and re-knead it in, should soften it up a bit.
What kind of fondant are you using? The cake is setttling for sure...thats the major issue, what recipe are you using for your cake? The rounded edges can be from the fondant being too thick, or your crumbcoat being too thick, or a combination of the two. Are you letting your crumbcoat crust hard before you apply the fondant?
Before covering any of my cakes in fondant I fill and crumb coat with buttercream then I leave them in the fridge overnight. How long do you wait after you crumbcoat to cover the cake??
Thanks for all of your help!! i will start kneading more, rolling thinner and attempting to work faster.
I usually let my cakes settle in the fridge overnight but on this one I wasn't able to so I covered it a couple of hours after frosting and stacking it. Sometimes after letting is settle overnight the sides are not flat and I have no idea how to fix this, how do you do this?
I have been using Satin Ice fondant
I try to work fast but If I'm making stripes I roll a portion out, cut them and place them on the cake and it still seems like I somehow take too long and they start to dry. How fast is fast?
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