AHello everyone, just have a couple of questions. I always do all of my cakes iced in buttercream but never covered in fondant. Now I've got an order for this cake and I'm curious on how I can make the fondant decorations stick to my buttercream, I would greatly appreciate all of your advice thank you!!! [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3063048/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

The fondant just naturally sticks to the buttercream....nothing special is needed.

Yes, fondant will stick to fresh b'cream but if it has crusted you will need to pipe an open circle of b'cream on the back of the fondant piece before placing it.  In fact, it's a good idea to do that even if the icing hasn't crusted - just helps create a suction to hold the piece better. 

You want to make your fondant pieces as thing as you can that helps hold them in place.

Some fondant decorations (like zebra stripes) will stick to buttercream without anything behind them, but heavier decorations (like those drapes on the bottom cake) will need either water, edible glue, buttercream, royal icing, or candy melts to help hold them onto the cake. Make sure to roll your fondant decorations as thin as you possibly can, especially if you're doing drapes. The heavier the decorations the harder it is for the buttercream to hold them up. I find that fondant ropes & drapes are very hard to attach to a buttercream cake because they want to slide off. I usually use candy melts because it dries very hard, very fast.
 

AOk thank you very much now I just thought of another question. How can I do thelines on the middle tier without it looking so messy since its buttercream??

......... How can I do thelines on the middle tier without it looking so messy since its buttercream??

You let the b'c crust, then take a ruler, pad it w/several layers of paper toweling and just press it into the icing.

To make sure you keep the lines straing all around the cake put a mark at the top and bottom of the cake and slant the ruler from one top to a 2nd one on the bottom -(making a \ mark).  Unless you measure/mark both top & bottom you most likely will end up w/each line slightly off and won't be able to finish it nicely :(

AOk thank you kakeladi...we will see how it turns out

You can also get a diamond impression mat pretty cheaply, that might make things easier.  You might have to go back and make the lines deeper, but the pattern will be there and it will be nice and straight.
 

AWhere do I get one of those? The stores here were I live don't have a big selection

Amazon.com has one I picked up for three or four dollars and it's been a lifesaver!!

You can buy the impression mats on Amazon or Global Sugar Aart, they come in different sizes...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0053XKWZ2/?tag=cakecentral-20+impression+mat

You can also use diamond cutters to do the quilting pattern, but the lines aren't as visible as if you would use an impression mat...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000OEBVRS/?tag=cakecentral-20+cutters