It is possible the the fondant is too dry or too thin or both. If it's cracking then it's too dry. If it's thinner than a dime then it's too thin. I roll mine out to the thickness of a nickle. Also, make sure you allow the cake to come to room temp before covering with fondant or you could end up with an air/gas bubble in the side of your cake..this is from air/gas escaping from a cake that's coming to room temp. If it's just crumbcoated the air/gas can escape, but not from a final coat of BC or fondant.
Cat
And working with chilled bc is fine, but it really only needs to stay in the fridge 15 minutes or so.
Absolutely...it's the cold cake to be worried about, not the chilled crumbcoat. I know lots here who put their room temp crumbcoated cake inot the fridge for a few minutes before the final BC or fondant coat. But that few minutes won't give you a cold cake, just a cold outerlayer....no worries there.
Cat
There are many reasons why your fondant could be tearing.
First is.. what kind of fondant are you using? Some are soft , some are too dry. It's all about finding the fondant that suites you and your enviroment (humidity) If your fondant is too soft - try add gum trag or tylose to it (tblspoon per kilo and let it rest to help firm up your fondant. If your fondant is too dry - knead a touch of shortening to it. (also make sure you don't leave your fondant out at all times of decorating)
How thin are you rolling it out? When starting out you may want to roll your fondant out thicker and as you become more experienced with decorating you can roll it thinner.
Are you take too long to get the fondant from the counter top to cake. The more you fuss with the fondant or take to long to gently smooth the corner down first, the fondant can way down and rip. Also rolling out your fodant to large in circuference can way down the fondant if your cake is lifted.
Hope this helps.
I agree with Leah_S...I put my crumbcoated cake in the freezer for 15 minutes. This is just long enough to firm up the cake without changing the internal temperature of the cake. Covering a 'too cold' cake will only cause problems.
I don't know what kind of fondant you're using but everytiime I've tried to use Wilton fondant to cover a cake it has cracked around the top of the cake no matter how thick or thin I've rolled it. I use Michele Foster's Fondant and never have any issues with tearing. I prefer a true gelatin based fondant because I find them easier to work with.
I'm going to copy and paste this from another thread I just posted it into:
if you want to persevere with it, try laying a very thin bit of your fondant on the areas of cake you expect to split, prior to putting on your final coat of fondant. That way if it DOES split, you won't see cake through the rip, only the same colour fondant. Then you can rub the edges with your fingers to try and make it blend in.
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