ASo next month I have been asked to create a 3D Hyacinth Hippo from Fantasia (the Hippo ballerina) and I have little to no experience in sculpted cakes.

I have been re-watching the whole Ace of Cakes series as a method of research, and I have noticed that when they did any kind of sculpting of a cake, the butter cream between the cake layers was very VERY thin, almost as if it was simply there as a glue. The same went for the outside of the cake. It seemed like simply a crumb coat was applied in order to get the fondant to stick.

Is this in line with how most people do it?

I also noticed that he used a mass produced American butter cream to cover his cakes (at least in the early seasons). Is an ABC preferred for sculpted cakes over a SMBC? Pros and cons?

Thanks in advance guys and gals =D

AI hate to be "that guy" but...

Bump?

I haven't ever watched Ace of Cakes, so I am totally unfamiliar with how they do it.  However, the sculpted cakes that I have done, I use slightly less buttercream between layers than usual and if I'm covering in fondant then yes just a crumb coat.  My opinion may not be the popular one, but my concern on a carved cake is more about the correct denseness/sturdiness of the actual cake, rather than the frosting/finish.  You will have to ask someone else (maybe ChellesCakes?--she made a wicked awesome Garfield just the other day!) about the SMBC/IMBC/ABC question.  I use ABC, mostly because I can't be bothered to make IM or SM. 

AI prefer using ganache, especially with carved cakes. It dries firmer and helps seal everything in. Whether I use BC or ganache I always do a thin crumb coat first, it helps to seal everything in and prevents crumbs from getting into your final coat of icing. As Cake Shoppe stated, when carving cakes I think the type of cake you use is more important. You want to make sure your cake is firm enough to hold up the fondant and withstand the carving. Also, carving a cake while it's partially frozen helps a lot.

I think the amount of BC you use between layers is really a preference of how much cake to icing you want. I haven't watched CakeBoss in a while but if I remember correctly they use a very thin layer of cake. The only thing I take into account when filling my cakes is when I have an actual filling requested (like lemon curd or strawberries) you want to build a dam of frosting around your layer so the filling doesn't ooze out the sides.