Is there a way to get cakes from sagging. I am not sure if its the weather but my fondont started sagging down when I dropped it off. So embarasssing. It was ok when i left but it arrived saggy. If there a way to avoid this. Maybe refrigerating it?

what fondant did u use? how thick was you icing under the fondant? sometimes icing like cream cheese or "whipped cream" will cause fondant to "sag". Yeah, i had to learn the hard way some types of fondant do not do well refrigerated. (MMF i don't like to refrigerate, but fondx, satinice, petinnice and MFF i have refrigerated).

Sometimes the buttercream underneath will start to melt in the heat and then the fondant sags. I use Indydebi's BC and it's fairly heat-resistant. It will still melt in the heat here.

The best way to transport a cake in the summer is to get the car nice and cool with the AC before you put the cake in, then cover the cake box with a piece of foil, shiny side up, to keep the sun off of it if it's going to be getting sun through one of the car windows.

Or... it could be from dowels too short, weight from above tier, or settled cake.

There are several reasons that this happened. It could be from melted BC under the fondant but the most common reason is not allowing a cake to settle before covering with fondant. Think of it like putting on a table cloth on a round table that just skims the floor...then reducing the height of the table by 2 inches...the cloth would be puddling on the floor. A cake can settle as much as 1 inch over several hours after filling and crumbcoating. I let mine settle at least 3 hours if not more to help prevent this.

Cat

Ok...Do you cover cake that is room temperature? I usually cover cakes that I have filled and crumb coated and have been either frozen or on refrigerator.

Yes, always cover a room temperature cake. I freeze as well and take them out of the freezer, fill, crumbcoat and then let it sit for at least 3 hours before covering in the final buttercream or fondant. This helps with any filling splooshing out, you can smooth it again before covering with the final coating, helps prevent the gas bubbles that can appear in a fondant covered cake or a blow out in a buttercream cake. During settling gas bubbles escape from the cake and from where the filling isn't even. I still watch my cake for the first two hours after covering to catch any bubbles that may occur but the only time I seem to get them is when I rush the coming to room temp/settling time table. A lot of people wait overnight to make sure the cake has had time to settle...some even weight the cake with a tile to help the process. I wait as long as my time table will allow but a minimum of 3 hours.

HTH Cat

"sagging fondant" can also be caused by not covering the cake properly. It's a good idea to elevate your cake so that it doesn't sit flush to your work surface. If I'm covering an eight inch cake I will sit it on top of a 6 inch cake pan. The fondant hangs down instead of bunching and I can be certain that I can trim it exactly to the bottom of my cake. I had this problem with fondant sagging on my cake until I started doing it this way. When you apply fondant and the cake is flat against the table, the fondant can "bunch up" a bit and even if it's only a fraction of an inch it can be enough to cause your cake to have that "sagging" look.

Also, like Cat said ALWAYS cover a cake at room temperature. NEVER cover a frozen, partially frozen or cake that is too COLD. You're just asking for trouble when ya do this.

Robin,

You hit upon my favorite tip from this website...elevating my cakes for applying the fondant was an "ah ha" moment for me! It's made such a huge difference! Its funny how I've had to use some weird stuff to elevate...this weekend I had a 12x6 cake and had to elevate it on two thin pasta boxes! LOL! It was strange and I was scraping BC off the boxes but it worked! LOL!

Cat

Cat, you should see some of the things that I've used to elevate my cakes. I usually use a cake pan a couple sizes smaller that the one that I'm covering but sometimes I have those pans in the oven and I grab the first thing that I can find that works. I will NOT cover a cake with fondant w/o elevating it. It makes that much of a difference. Don't ya think?

I was making my granddaughter birthday cake and had a BIG can of pork & beans on the counter. It worked great. Since it was so heavy it didn't move around and it was a comfortable height to work at.

Robin...absolutely. I'm finding that carved cakes are the hardest because they are not an average pan size so I have to go to weird lengths to get it right. But elevating makes a world of difference...no more ruffles at my edges!

All the above posts can be a cause of sagging fondant. Just to touch on one thing though...many people, pros, and myself included cover a refridgerated or "chilled" cake with fondant. It is actually the way I started being able to get my really crisp edges. There is an ongoing debate about this method, and just as many people would never do it, as there are people who always do it. It really comes down to personal opinion and your own experiances. I know that some say that pros have humidity controlled fridges; however, I do not, and I have never had a problem. The only time I did was when I had air brushed a cake...then when it was coming to room temp the condensation caused the color to bleed and run. I have not had this issue when the color is mixed into the BC or Fondant. I chill my cakes all the way up until delivery.

I also LOVE to elevate my cakes when covering with fondant. Wouldn't do it any other way!

Good luck!

Is Wilton or someone out there hearing this?!?! We need a small turntable!

Wow! Thanks CWR41. I haven't seen the Cake Wheel before.

Thanks Robin...great tips.   Thank heaven my "sagging" cake was made for my own Easter dinner and not for someone else.  I'd never had this problem before.   Your tips were helpful.  I also think my BC icing beneath the fondant may have been too soft (?).

I just elevated my nine inch round cake last night to do the final fondant covering ....Yes big difference...great tip! I don't know why I didn't do it before...