With a week to go to her wedding, the bride has decided to tell me that she does not want any ganache filling or crumb coat on her mud cakes. She is pregnant so can't handle the taste and I guess doesn't care what the rest of the people eating it like :S. Is it possible just to brush some sugar water over the cake and put fondant over it hoping for the best? Do you have any suggestions? Please help, thank you xx

I have no clue, my crumb coat usually smooths out my cakes

Can you suggest to her making one cake without filling and the rest with? I believe a lot of people use a hot apricot jam to make the fondant stick. I was just reading a cupcake blog that did that also..

What about buttercream instead? More mild flavor for her to handle? Truthfully I also use crumb coat to smooth out my cake before applying fondant so I wouldn't be able to avoid doing one of some kind. With a whole cake she can;t just eat some of the middle slices that don;t have the crumb coat?

Can you really get your fondant as smooth as you're hoping without any ganache or buttercream? If not, you need to tell her so, and suggest she scrape hers off. I would just tell her that she doens't want a lumpy cake, and this is the process of how to get it smooth.

Did you explain to her that a crumb coat is just cake and icing and that it's what it already in the cake? I don't understand why she wouldn't want this. If you use cake and icing, you can't tell the difference. Weird request. I'd probably tell her that that is how you smooth your cakes, so it's part of your process and can't be omitted.

I personally have never done a cake without a crumb coat . This is what I would do, I would make a small cake (sample cake) and try using maybe sugar water or apricot glaze as a crumb coat, cover the cake with fondant and see how it works out. But in advance I would notify the customer that this might not work out and make sure she is FULLY AWARE of a possible uneven looking cake after all the BC is what makes our cakes look nice and smooth. I would also get something in writing (just to cover my a..) letting her know what the outcome might be. I think that this would also increase the price of the cake because you might have to use more fondant to avoid the color of the cake to show through the fondant, right ? Well let us know how it worked out for you, and Good Luck

Thanks everyone. I have suggested to her that she uses buttercream instead but she didn't like that idea. I've warned her that I will try my best but can't guarantee the cake will be smooth and I will have to use a thicker fondant coat, plus the cake tiers will turn out thinner. Gah, this is so annoying. I always use a crumb coat on my cakes.

I do not think that means what she thinks it means... o_0

I can understand not filling but you cant fondant a cake without a coating of something underneath. Well you can but it will be the lumpiest cake ever. Tell her you need to do a coating of something around the cake, I dont understand why she wouldnt want ganache, its chocolate and she's pregnant!

Perhaps ask her exactly what it is she doesnt like about it and tell her it would severely affect the look of her cake. But hey, its her wedding!

Wait...so she just wants cake and fondant???

How about she just NOT eat cake if she is pregnant and that picky? Everyone else will enjoy it. I would not sell a cake without at least some sort of filling (buttercream?) and some sort of something under the fondant.

oh my, there is a disaster waiting to happen.... i was reading on here one time that a bride was having a 3 tier cake and insisted on "no doweling".... I say there is a way to do it and a way not to do it and she will have to just suck it up!!!!!!!!

Just my personal experience but I inadvertantly placed fondant directly onto cake with no icing, no ganache, no apricot glaze, no nothin' and the moisture of the cake basically melted the fondant and created a lovely gooey seeping mess!

Luckily for me, this was not an order. It was a collection of small gift bags (in my photos) that I put together for a competition. After peeling off the fondant 3 times and trying to patch it up with buttercream before replacing the fondant they about hit the trash. I ended up putting wax paper right up next to each of the bags into the center of the cake plate. That covered the gooey mess and then I used the very thin fondant to look like tissue paper all around the bags. It worked but before I got to this point, I fought with those stupid little bags for 3 days!

Not a chance on God's green earth would I do something like this intentionally just because the customer says that's what they want. I'm guessing the customer knows nothing of caking and therefore should not be dictating how the cake should be constructed.

Thank God she just agreed to buttercream!! phew! thanks so much everyone for your help ans sympathy haha

this addresses my big pet peeve: the cake is for the GUESTS not the bride and groom! It is a gift from them to their guests for coming. It should be what the guests will enjoy. That really yanks my chain, lol

I have tried sugar water and its just too wet and it leaks out - just my experience mind you others probably wont have this problem. You could use jam and put 2 layers of fondant on - I had to do this when my boy put his fingers through the icing once Was a practice cake thank god.

I'm glad she agreed to the buttercream, but for future reference, and for anyone else who has a customer with a wacky request - this is when you pull out the "I'm the professional, and this is the way it's going to be" card. Customers get to choose flavor and design. They do not get to make decisions about the basic construction of the cake, and I absolutely consider buttercream or ganache under the fondant to be "basic construction".

I would suggest making a separate cutting cake on the side. A small 6 inch. Just tell her that the cutting cake is for her and this way you can make the guest's happy by having ganache or frosting on their cake making decorating and the final product easier for you. I really doubt she plans on eating the entire wedding cake so I don't why she wouldn't want her guest's to be happy.

I am so glad she agreed to buttercream. Can you imagine just cake and fondant? GROSS!!! Nobody would want to eat that!

All worked out well and both the bride and guests wer happy Here's the cake http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1851008

Gorgeous. Glad it worked out for you.