First off great forum. The amount of information is overwhelming. I am new to cake decorating and had a few questions to help with a project.
Two tier oval cake, each tier about 3" high, buttercream frosting, fondant covered(fondarific). RK structure on dowels on top of 2nd tier, fondant covered. I will place the layers over the dowels.
I am going to make it 1 day before the event.
1. Buttercream recipe has milk in it, does it need to be refrigerated the day before and/or the day of. need about 8 hours w/o refrig.
2. If refrigerated, how will it effect the fondant or what precautions should I take.
3. Traveling about 4 hours, outside of running the AC, is there anything else that I need to do. Do cakes typically travel well?
4. Should I use dowels between the first and second tier?

Also I am planning an isomalt window pane, hopefully its not more than following directions and pouring into a mold.
I am sure more questions will come up as I get comments and questions from others. Thanks.

You don't need to worry about the BC...the sugar keeps it from spoiling. No effect for the fondant either. As for traveling you should be ok. A crisco based BC will stand up to the heat better than a butter based one so thats something to consider. Keep your car as cold as possible. If you have a heat resistant BC such as indydebi's recipe then you should be just fine. The fondant won't melt but the BC under may and the cake may get too moist as it does...BUT if you have a heat resistant BC then this won't happen. And, yes, support the top tier with dowels...4 should do it. As for isomalt...I have no answers. Sorry!

Cat

Re: Isomalt.

There are a few pieces created using this in the Pastry & Baking magazines.

Luckily, they're free (back issues, lots of them). And you can download them (or the pages you need).

These are the issues that have the pieces:

2008 ISSUE 2
2006 ISSUE 2 ASIA PACIFIC
2007 ISSUE 4 ASIA PACIFIC
2007 ISSUE 3 ASIA PACIFIC

And this is the website:
www.pastryna.com

There might be others in the magazines since pastry chefs use it a lot.

Hope that helps.

thanks for the indydebi tip, i will try it and see how it works.
Will refrigerating the finished cake cause any problems?
the isomalt will take some reading, good references. thanks.

If you do refridgerate then make sure you have time for it to come back to room temp and for the condensation to evaporate before presentation. Also, if you have any stand up fondant decorations or flowers they will wilt in the fridge and royal icing decor may melt and run from the condensation. So there are the warnings<G>

Cat

I wouldn't refrigerate unless absoultely necessary. are you planning on using a parishable filling? if not, don't worry about refrigeration, the fondant keeps everything fresh for a couple of days.