Hi,
recently i discovered something. apologies if this has been discussed already but might help someone.
I recently made a cake in which i used icing sugar+cornflour to roll out fondant.Previously i used shortening. When you use shortening or roll out on a mat that doesnt need anything to prevent sticking, the fondant in the fridge never sweats but if you use icing sugar to dust, the fondant will definitely sweat.
So if your cake needs to be refrigerated, use shortening to roll out fondant or non stick mat.
If it does, just keep it under fan or ac and it will be fine in couple of hours.
just wanted to share this.

Thanks!

You can better deal with condensation once you understand the science of it...

Cakes do not sweat. The moisture you see is not coming from the cake...or from the fridge. Nor does it matter what your cake is made with. Condensation comes from the humidity in the warm air outside of your fridge, condensing on your cold cake when you take it out.

Water takes different forms depending on its temperature, from steam/humidity at the warm end, liquid in the middle range to solid/ice at the cold end.

When the humidity (warm/gas) in the air in your room hits the cool of your cake, the temperature changes the gas to a liquid which accumulates on the cool cake surface.

So, the cure for decorated cakes "sweating" when you take them out of the fridge is to prevent the humid air from getting to your cake. If the cake is in a sealed box when you take it out, the humid/warm/gas cannot reach the cool surface of the cake. It will hit the outside of the cool box and condense there instead, leaving your cake surface perfectly dry. The cake will be safe as it comes to room temp as long as you keep the humid air from reaching its surface.

What you use to roll your fondant out on has nothing to do with whether condensation will form on it. condensation will form on anything, paper, rocks, butter, your glass of iced tea, whatever. It doesn't matter what the object is or how it was made. What matters is the humidity in the room and the temperature change between the fridge and the room. It could just be a coincidence that the humidity and/or room temp was lower on the day you used your mat or PS instead of shortening.

Hope this helps.

hmmmm right, actually this is the first time in 2 yrs of my cake decorating that fondant sweat, previously i only heard about it, and coincidently this was the first time i used sugar to roll out. I still think that the particles of sugar on fondant helped promote more condensation.
Thanks for information

As a geologist and someone that has a far better than average understanding of phase changes of liquids/gas, I can assure you that the fondant rolled out with powdered sugar will likey develop much larger condensation beads as the sugar particles give the water in the air condensation nucleii on which to attach themselves. It is true that humidity in the air will be attracted to a cold surface regardless of is makeup, however drops of water will likely not be as readily able to form on fondant rolled in shortening as there aren't as many exposed sugary points to attch to. So, both are valid observations/conclusions.

Thanks for the clarification claireybear.

...the more you know...

I can tell you that I only roll on shortening and that I do refrigerate & sometimes freeze fondant covered cakes. For freezing, I box, wrap boxed in saran & foil, and defrost fully boxed & wrapped. I have never had condensation issues.

It makes perfect sense that sugar, being hygroscopic, would attract the humidity & form visible condensation, creating syrup drops. Shortening is an edible moisture barrier, keeping humidity from reaching the sugar in/on the fondant.

Rae

I've never rolled fondant on shortening. Do you have to flip it onto the cake and have the side that came in contact with the shortening facing out or does it not matter?
I'm definitely going to try it, being that the dreaded hotter months are coming!

I don't flip my fondant over, but I do wipe my rolling pin with a smear of shortening. I also often use a bit of shortening on the surface to cure fresh imperfections.

If you use The Mat--a 2 piece food safe vinyl rolling surface--it is "cured" using shortening.

Rae

I alway use cornstarch to roll out fondant. One time I used shortening and had trouble smoothing it as the smoother was sticking to the shortening on the fondant. Any tricks for smoothing the fondant when using shortening???

That would work but I roll the fondant around the rolling pin to unroll it on the cake and that's when I had problems smoothing it. How do you move larger pieces of fondant?

I don't roll the entire piece onto the pin. I "drape" the fondant over the pin so that the front (rolled) sides are on the inside and the pin is halfway down the fondant piece.

Hope that makes some sense.
Rae

Thanks...I'll try that next time!

Very informative. Thanks for the scientific explanation!

very educative,thanks guys

That's good to know, I always use cornstarch. Ok, can you put decoration (flowers, butterflies,faces)around the cake and still put it in the fridge? I am affraid they will fall off.

Very interesting .......... But I read from another member that you can freeze your fondant cakes I always advice my customer to NOT freeze them, how do they hold up, do they taste the same?

i have problems regarding my fondant sweating...it never used to and now even my 3D models are sweating, not a cake in site or a fridge... i simply dont understand, and help would be great, i ve been using Renshaw icing

Sugar is hygroscopic--it attracts water--so I would assume that your things are "sweating" is due to a moist, humidified environment as a result of rain or humid weather.  If your home/kitchen/shop is cold and it's a warm/humid/rainy day, the humidity will condense into droplets and those will sit on the surface of the sugar.

Thank you, i guess i need to try a dehumidifier, tho i dont think its that humid and i ve been making cake all through the summer and not had a problem, plus they wont dry out, i ve had it in a dry place over night and still sticky....apart from the white parts that seem fine.

AHi. I found your post very helpful. I have this problem a lot and its very stressful trying to fix it. I once had a cake get completely ruined by condensation. My question now is if I don't have a large enough box to put the cakes in, can I cover and seal with parchment paper? Will that work?

No, parchment paper won't do the job.  The idea is that the box will absorb the condensation, rather than letting it sit on the cake.  It's also not touching the cake.

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You could toss a couple of these silica gel packs into the box to wick out any condensation. It's the same ones you find in medicine bottles and beef jerky bags.