[postimage id="3252" thumb="900"]I filled the cake with buttercream and did a crumb coat and let it settle in the fridge overnight! The next day I I covered it with buttercream left in the fridge for probably 8 hours and decorated with fondant at night ! The next day I finished decorating and the cake was fine! No bubbles! After a few hours some bubbles started to form and I popped with a needle and all this started happening... I got rid of the bubbles but I couldn't get rid of the wrinkles? Does anyone have any tips to help me! This is the 2nd time it happens! I'm using Wilton fondant!

You did such a nice job! That must be frustrating. I think maybe it could be the fondant itself and a problem with that particular brand? I made my fondant with marshmallows so I'm not sure about using Wilton fondant- can't offer any advice there. My fondant slumps like that when I roll it too thick or if the icing underneath is too buttery. But I would definitely try a different type or brand of fondant and see if that helps. Wish I could be more helpful!

Hi..was the cake left outside after applying the fondant? I just did a cake with wilton fondant 2 days ago. I did pretty much the same steps and ironically it was an elmo cake too! lol  i put it in the fridge after my crumb coat over night, next day did the fondant work but i made sure the cake had reached almost room temp before adding the fondant. However, after finishing the fondant work i put it back in the refrigerator till the next day. When i was working on my bottom half of the cake i noticed the top half was starting to get wrinkly while it was sitting out because the butter cream had started melting and i guess it starting messing up the fondant. I put it back in the fridge and evened it out later after the buttercream had hardened again. If you left it out after putting the fondant and the temperature in the room was to warm it may have been cause by the buttercream melting. 

@lisatipperoo ‍  Thank you!! It's very frustrating! I used to use marshmallow fondant but as a newbie to cake decorating I was getting lots of elephant skin plus the time and mess to make it...

@SoniaMT ‍ the buttercream melting totally makes sense! And I could feel it getting soft underneath . But I heard from many sources that if you put the cake in fridge after you cover with fondant can cause it to sweat. So I didn't try! Are your fondant cakes fine after going to the refrigerator???

Hello! Phenomenal job on that cake! Your edges are razor sharp! Amazing!

You mentioned that after you crumb coat your cakes you leave them to settle in the fridge overnight, and then again after you ice them. What could be happening is that once you remove the cake from the fridge and it starts coming up to room temperature, any air trapped between the layers starts to expand and bulge out of the sides of the cake. It's fine after a crumb coat since you wouldn't be able to tell, but if your cake is covered with fondant you'll start to see bulges.

Also, in the fridge your buttercream will harden almost back to the consistency of butter. This makes it a lot stronger, so it doesn't collapse under the weight of the cake layers. But once you take your cake out and the buttercream starts softening, it will start to bulge.

So next time maybe you could try letting your cake settle on the counter rather than inside the fridge. Buttercream is shelf stable, so it won't go bad.

Hope this helps!

How thick are you rolling your fondant? From the picture it looks fairly thin. Try rolling it thicker (1/8"+) to see if that makes a difference. My general method for covering cakes in fondant:

Torte/fill/stack cake, cover in light SMB buttercream. I make sure I force the SMB between tiers with a bench scaper. I used to have problems with bulging all of the time, this was the primary culprit. Air can get stuck between tiers if you don't make sure icing is well packed. 

I then apply a final coat of SMB with a Wilton 789 tip and get it as smooth as I can. Pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes (enough so butter gets a little hard but not too hard). Take the cake out, cover with fondant and I'm done.

I typically pop the cake back into the fridge until I'm ready to decorate. 

@Frank68 ‍ I think I've been rolling the fondant thin... I'll try to roll it thicker next time!! Thank you so much for all your tips! Do you have a special fridge to keep fondant covered cakes in? I'm so scared to put the cakes in the fridge after its covered with fondant since I bake from home.

@bakemeenchanted ‍ thank you!!! 

I agree with bakemeenchanted. The cake can't properly settle in cold conditions. I did something similar and the buttercream cracked when it came to room temp.