I was asked to do a cake which was not a difficult cake to make. A 2 Tier cake with Wizard of Waverly Place Theme. No biggie right. The cake was to be covered in fondant, and she wanted the icing underneath to be strawberry cream cheese. Innocent enough right.

I had no idea the cream cheese icing would totally change everything. The fondant kept stretching because the cream cheese icing. I wasn't able to achieve the smooth firm look that fondant gives to the cake. It seemed like the fondant was melting. At one point I thought the cake was going to cave in on itself. I make spiral loops to stick out of the cake, however they would not stay. All it did was make a hole in the fondant. So I covered the holes with fondant designs & did some buttercream designs on top.

I didn't like the finished project but She loved it...& the birthday girl loved it as well. I've been asked to do another cake for the family for this weekend.

Lesson learned. I will stick to BC underneath the fondant and just use the cream cheese as a stand alone icing or as a filler. Are there any other icings that I should be weary of when using fondant?

From what I have read, stick with bc or ganache under fondant. It is my understanding that whipped bc is disaterous under fondant, too.

I have used cream cheese successfully under fondant. The pink zebra cake in my photos was cream cheese frosting. I use a crusting cream cheese recipe, and the only thing I have noticed is that it makes the cake extra heavy, but no problems with the fondant. Maybe it was your cream cheese recipe??

Let me know if you have success with it. Happy baking!

Check out the Planet Cake book, it tells you just about everything you might want to know about using ganache under fondant.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1741963184/?tag=cakecentral-20

You said strawberry cream cheese? How did you put the strawberry flavor in? I learned the hard way that BC (in my case, IMBC) with strawberry puree might be a nice filling, but you don't want to put it under fondant. The small amounts of strawberry juice in the IMBC were coming in contact with the fondant layer and eating through it. My cake was weeping in places and the fondant was falling off. The only thing I did differently was add strawberry puree. I was so frustrated but learned my lesson!

Maybe you made the same mistake as me???

Jenny

This is the second post today I have seen where someone used cream cheese frosting under fondant and had issues. It is my understanding that it is not a good idea to put cream cheese frosting under fondant, because the acidity or something in the cream cheese melts the fondant. I can't speak from experience, because I have never tried using cream cheese frosting under fondant. But I have read more then a few posts on here that would suggest it is a good combination to stay away from.

Ive done quite a few cake with cream cheese under fondant and never had an issue with it. Maybe the recipe?

How do you make cream cheese frosting without butter??? And WHY would you make cream cheese frosting without butter??? A little bit of Paula Deen in me!

I had somewhat the same lesson last weekend. Except it was with ganache. I've only done 2 fondant cakes (both MMF) and used only ganache. The first cake turned out great, but this one last weekend didn't. I kind of underestimated the weather and had too much cream on the ganache and the cake kind of shifted a bit later that day, like it had waves or something. It didn't leak or break the MMF or anything, but it didn't give that polished fondant look.

In my understanding you need to avoid a frosting that contains lots of water. Because fondant is made out of sugar, it will melt if it gets in touch with water.

Creamcheese contains a lot of water, so if you mix it with a lot of Crisco or Butter it might be ok, but just simple creamcheese with sugar will not do the trick. Also heavy cream contains a lot of water, fruits as well!

With ganache, it is different. Because you mix the cream with chocolate (mostly 1:1 ratio for dark chocolate, 2:1 for milkchocolate, you need to weigh it, though. ) somehow the water in the cream gets absorbed, so it does not have any negative effects on the fondant. it is great to get sharp edges, by the way, I use it under every cake I make.

robbemorka the recipe didn't call for much water...it was mixed with Crisco if you read the whole thread you will see no fruits was added & the you can do it with the right recipe. Ganache is chocolate & that is not what the young lady wanted.
I understand a lot of people highly recommend ganache however, I can't see using for everything because not everyone loves chocolate & I'm not gonna put that on someone's cake with out them requesting that flavor. I've been using Indydebi's buttercream recipe & I feel that works really well. Thanks for your suggestion though.

Sorry for the misunderstanding, I know you didn't add any fruits or so.
I was just speaking generally, that frosting, that contains products that are very moist is not so suitable to put under fondant, because the fondant will melt.
Of course not everyone likes chocolate, you can use buttercream and it works just fine and tastes great

When asked to use cream cheese frosting under fondant I offer them cream cheese BC (edna's recipe) under the fondant and a real cream cheese frosting filling.

I have not used ganache yet.. but I do want to try it some day.. I just wondered what it tastes like. My family usually wants white cake with bc frosting and if I were to put ganache under the fondant instead I am not sure they would like it.. do people use it on white cakes too or just when you do chocolate cakes?

People do use it on a white cake but they would use a white chocolate ganache instead. I had been wanting to try this as well, so, I read all the threads I could on it and finally tried a chocolate one last weekend for an event at my church. I really liked the taste, but the thickness of the ganache (and I used only about 1/4 inch thick) was too much for me. I did like the look though. It was super smooth.

Try making some small cakes with all the different things you all have mentioned under the fondant...see how each works with your fondant...it would take a couple of hours, but it will make you feel a great deal better when you offer something to a client. Better to learn on your family, instead of a paying client!

Try making some small cakes with all the different things you all have mentioned under the fondant...see how each works with your fondant...it would take a couple of hours, but it will make you feel a great deal better when you offer something to a client. Better to learn on your family, instead of a paying client!