Hello! I am new here. I apologize if this has been discussed before but I cannot find the answer.

I am making a fondant cake for the first time. I was wondering what the proper procedure is for applying it to my cake, which I will home make. The fondant is in a tub (not wilton, sorry I don't have it in front of me but it was from a local cake store, pretty expensive!), premade. My Cake Bible says that the cake needs to be refrigerated for 12 hours, and then the fondant needs to be applied, and then it needs to be refrigerated for 12 more hours before tiering. The cake store lady made it sound like fondant was really temperamental to temperature and humidity and told me to put it on at room temperature, right before I was to decorate it.

What is the correct way to apply fondant? When? Room temp or cold? So confused, thanks so much!

Tote and level your cake, fill and let it settle, generally overnight.
Crumb coat and apply a thin-ish layer of bc. Chill or not, your choice.
Roll out fondant and apply to cake.
Decorate

Other than the settling time, there is no need to chill and hold for 12 hours.

Thanks Leah!

I think my fear is that chilling the cake and then putting the fondant and letting it warm back to room temperature before serving will somehow mess up the fondant. Won't it condense on the outside and get all weird looking? Or, maybe it'll eventually crack once the condensation dries up?

This is my thought, after reading some other posts here about it (finally found something!)... I will make the cake and fill it, and crumb coat it Thursday, fridge it, and then friday evening i will put the final thin layer of swiss buttercream on top and sides (it'll be thin b/c i plan to make it 4 layers of fruity buttercream filling), and then just put the fondant on top. the thinking is that since it'll have been fridged for nearly 24 hours, the final thin layer of buttercream will probably turn a little hard after applying it from the cold of the cake.

But again, I fear that the cake will thaw out and mess up the fondant in the process. What do you think?

I always get some condensation on my fondant when I cover a cake fresh from the fridge. It usually dries up pretty fast though and then I start on the details of the cake. If it is humid where you live it make take longer to dry out or cause problems. You can try putting a dehumidifier in the room you are covering your cake in and close the room off as much as you can.

Thanks for the help regarding the condensation... I'm glad to hear that it doesn't present long term issues~!

I was wondering too... do any of you put shortening on the fondant to make sure it doesn't crack? Sometimes I see photos of fondant and it looks dry, like it has confectioner's sugar on it, and cracked. I do not want that look, obviously. Just wasn't sure if there was something I could really do to prevent it?