Ok, So my last few cakes have been a saving grace. Each of them had to be airbrushed or decorated to no end. Now that I have this new wedding cake come up, I feel practically naked! It is going to be entirely white with a little bit of dots here and there. No room to hide my flaws! lol.  Could someone tell me how they roll their fondant out to be completely even and smooth? I know alot of people say to use the guides but I have the Wilton fondant roller that Is 20 inches long and the bottom tier of this cake is going to spread farther than that limit. I am also going to go with Fondarific fondant. I normally make my own with Veeana's cake art recipe but it comes out a little beige for my taste. I put a picture down below for the visuals of CC. I appreciate any and all tips! [postimage id="5176" thumb="900"]

I don't use spacers or anything. Rolling the fondant evenly comes with practice. But the tip I can give you is to 1) have a good fondant 2) have a perfectly smooth buttercream  (I use smbc and chill it until solid) or ganache and 3) use fondant smoother instead of your hands to get a nice clean finish.

Oh and most importantly the buttercream or ganache needs to be PERFECTLY SMOOTH 

Yes! Thank you soooo much @julia1812. I was starting to panic! lol. I appreciate the advice. I am going to practice on some dummy cakes with rolling the fondant out. I just bought THE MAT yesterday and I am hoping it will help me keep a better eye on smoothing out the fondant evenly. I was thinking about going with either FondX or Fonderific for the wedding cake. do you recommend either one? Thanks again. 

I'm sorry I use homemade fondant but am sure others here can give you advise on that

I completely understand. I would go with homeade if I could make it a pure white. 

Marshmallow fondant is pretty much brilliant white. If I have to do a real pure white fondant cake I use it. Icing sugar is white, marshmallows are white and I then use shortening instead of butter.

My rolled fondant is also pretty much white but if it has to match a pure white wedding dress Idk.  Maybe with some white food colouring added?

I've tried Marshmallow fondant about 5 times, thinking every time I tried it a miracle would happen lol. It comes out really sticky and I try to knead powdered sugar into it and it never seems to get to a right consistency. I have also tried white food coloring in my homemade fondant and I feel like I have to add the whole entire bottle to get it to "lighten up".  Im a mess! lol

Yes marshmallows are terribly sticky. What I found really helps is a) greasing the bowl you heat the marshmallows in with shortening b) using a greased spoon to stir in the first half to 2/3 of icing sugar and c) greasing the hands before kneading it. I use a 1:2 ratio of marshmallows to icing powder. No water and a bit of shortening. Remember to heat it up in the microwave when you're ready to use it because it doesn't become soft by kneading it only. 

The white gel colour needs some time to develop. Check the next day after it has rested a bit. And I also find that fondant (homemade) always lightens up in colour when worked. So it might look slightly off white when rested but pure white after rekneading.

I think it's less how you roll the fondant out and more what is under the fondant.  Like others have said, you need perfect buttercream or ganache under the fondant.  I also recommend covering a firm cake.  Ganache is usually firm enough without putting it in the fridge if you've let it sit long enough, but you can stick the cake in the fridge/freezer for a bit so you can cover it without denting the sides.  Also make sure you are using a firm surface to smooth the sides & top of the cake.  Use either a fondant smoother or pieces of acetate plastic sheets. 

Also, it doesn't matter if your final cake is larger than the guides allow.  Start rolling it out with the guides and by the time you need to take them off it will already be pretty smooth and you just need to thin it out.

I exclusively use home made marshmallow fondant and get very clean smooth edges with it.

Thank you both! I am going to print these tips out for "game-day" when the nerves start to stack on. lol. I guess I get so nervous about covering the cake in fondant in the first place, I forget about all the steps I need to take. I appreciate both of your tips. Pictures will be uploaded! 

I find that the new Wilton Fondant is actually quote good (their old product did not taste good at all). I made homemade MM for a long time and I just can't keep up with orders having to make my own. In regards to your initial question, here are some of my tips:

1)  Your crumbcoat/BC layer has to be super smooth, everything will show on the fondant if you don't. Your best friend here is a straight edge bench scraper , mine is about 6" since all my cakes are 5" high .

2) Make sure you apply the fondant when your cakes are chilled a bit, the BC won't 'give' as much

3) make sure you're using some quality fondant smoothers 

4) Avoid air pockets under your fondant by making sure you really squeeze in your BC between the layers as much as you can. I apply quite a bit of pressure to make sure. If you don't when the cake settles from the added weight of the fondant, air wants to get out and it's annoying. 

5) Make sure your fondant is thick enough. If you're trying to roll 1/8" thick fondant and make it smooth on a cake, you're going to be in trouble . For cakes that need to be super smooth, I go 1/4" at least. If you're not good at eyeing that yet, use rolling pin guides (either the sticks or the bands)

6) When you're rolling out your fondant, before picking it up to transfer , dust it with a light coating of powdered sugar/corn starch mixture. That makes it easier to handle. Speaking of transferring the fondant, I use a long PVC pipe to do that (30" PVC works well).

Smoothing fondant can take a bit until you get really good at it. 

This type of design is pretty unforgiving:

[postimage id="5181" thumb="900"]

Hope that helps, Frank

Thank you @Frank68 ‍ That is a beautiful cake and it is very very similar to the one I have to make in a few weeks (3 tier, all white wedding cake with really small silver and yellow dots) I felt like I was turning into a pro when it came to putting chocolate ganache on a cake and letting it cool to cover with fondant. But maybe my eyes are deceiving me. I bought some acrylic guides and a bench scraper too just to be extra sure. I did some research and The Mat that I just purchased should help me with the transfer of the fondant to the cake. Good news: I should have a pretty well crafted cake with all the help and the investment. Bad news: Im going to go broke from all the investment. But you are definitely right. That cake is very unforgiving!

Oh And I do appreciate the tip about rolling thicker fondant. I never considered that and I am the girl who tries to roll the fondant out as thin as possible! lol 

Beautiful cake Frank68!  That is very much the style of cake I love!

I just want to add that if you do get air bubbles you can use a clean pin to pierce the bubble and smooth it down.  If you do it on an angle the pin hole sometimes disappears completely as you are smoothing things, but if it doesn't you can use gunge to patch it and it will completely disappear.

I cover my cakes with a nice stiff crusting buttercream, before I add my fondant my sides are perfectly smooth and level.

Then I cover it with  fondant and leave it overnight.

By the morning, my buttercream is bulging underneath my fondant and looks a right mess.

I have no idea why this keeps happening. I live in Florida so it's hot and humid perhaps this affect it but surely not.

I  don't ganache because despite A/C my house never gets cool enough and is too hot that  the chocolate melts. 

This is so annoying. Any ideas how I can stop this from happening.

[postimage id="5651" thumb="900"]

I actually started to panel wrap my cakes. I love the sharp edges that you get with paneling. It is easier to put on and is nice and smooooooth. After paneling, I use JH's upsidedown method to give it that really sharp edge.

Thanks! That's an idea 

I've tried paneling before, and I love the sharp edges it gives but the seems are horrible and very noticeable! Any advice?

1.  Bulges are often a result of cake settling and air needing a way to escape. I reduce bulges by filling and wrapping with Saran, then putting another cakeboard on top with a weight. I usually use a can of soup or something similar. If you do a search here you should find more info. I also use a clean pin to poke tiny holes around the base and any decorations where I can hide the holes. This allows air to escape and reduces bulges and blowouts. 

For the seams of panels, you can use gunge (fondant mixed with water to make a paste) to sort if "spakle" the seams. They nearly disappear. 

Last time I tried gunge it was a mess. The gunge never dried and remained sticky when it was on the cake. It was also extremely difficult to apply. Did this happen because i didn't add enough water? What is the consistency supposed to be like?

That's sounds like a neat trick. So do  you do that before or after you do the crumb coat?

You don't add water at all. You thin a matching colour of fondant with clear alcohol  (vodka) and milk. The Vodka evaporates and the full fat milk lets it dry NOT shiny. Only works when your fondant is absolutely dry, so if you refrigerate your cake and it sweats while you apply gunge you'll have messy shiny joins as the condensation water mixes with the gunge...

@julia1812 ‍ that makes a lot more sense than adding water thank you! Do you have to use vodka or can you use lemon extract? 

Anything that evaporates quickly is fine. Extracts normally have alcohol in it so that should be fine I guess.