What Went Wrong? Fondant Panels Cracked
Decorating By tguegirl Updated 1 Oct 2018 , 11:11pm by maybenot
Hi all,
I made a cake for my grandma this past weekend, and it worked out pretty well. It was a box of mah jong tiles. I used dried fondant panels for the box sides, which I made three days in advance and dried. It looked beautiful once I was finished and for a full day later. However, by the time it came to cut the cake two days later, two of the panels had cracked, right down the middle. There were also some minor bulges at the base of the cake, which probably led to the cracking. Luckily, most of the cracks didn't occur until halfway through dinner, after the big reveal, but still. What went wrong? I want to make sure this doesn't happen again.
A few details:
1. Due to various family obligations that weekend, I had to make 90% of the cake in advance. I put the fondant panels on Friday night, and the cake was for a Sunday night event.
2. The cake was driven out to NJ from NYC (2 hours in the car) Saturday morning, sat at room temperature in NJ for Saturday and Sunday, and then was driven 15 minutes to the restaurant. The cracks mostly happened during the second drive.
3. I used the Chocolate Ganache 1 recipe, which is a 1.5 chocolate: 1 cream ratio.
4. Filling was just ganache, a thin layer at that.
5. I didn't let the cake settle. (I know! But it was only a ganache filling!). I filled it, carved it, covered in ganache, and then covered in the fondant and fondant panels that same night.
Here are my thoughts as to what went wrong. Please weigh in!
1. Next time, use a 2:1 chocolate to cream ganache ratio. Mine was too soft.
2. Let the chocolate ganache harden at room temperature before adhering the fondant panels.
3. Wait until the day of to adhere the fondant panels? Do they soften if you add them ahead of time?
4. Let the cake sit overnight after crumb coating to let it settle? Is this necessary with a ganache filling? Or maybe add the fondant to just the top of the cake, and the mah jong tiles before adding the panels. I wonder if the weight of the mah jong tiles made the ganache filling ooze out a bit.
Thanks for any help and sorry this is so long! I've attached a picture of the cake before it cracked. You can see the warped panels on the right. It warped before cracking.
I think it likely that the fondant panels absorbed moisture from the cake. This is an awesome cake!
Lovely cake.
Straight fondant panels are nearly pure sugar. Sugar is hygroscopic--it is attracted to and absorbs water. 3 days only dries the surface of the panels--they are still soft inside under the dry outside. They absorbed water and broke.
Panels made of gum paste or pastillage would be best. Tylose or cmc added to fondant and allowed to dry for at least a week [or in a dehydrator or oven] would probably have been OK, too. Panels need to be rotated so that they dry on both sides.
Got it! I did add tylose to the fondant, turned the the panels and dried them for maybe 5 hours in an oven under the light. But I guess it wasn’t long enough and I left them on the ganache for too long. Maybe next time I’ll (1) dry them longer, (2) put on the panels closer to serving time or (3) cover the sides with fondant and then add the panels so that the panels aren’t touching the ganache and absorbing moisture. Does that make sense?
It was just hard because I didn’t want to wait so long that they would be impossible to trim to fit!
Quote by @tguegirl on 20 hours ago
Got it! I did add tylose to the fondant, turned the the panels and dried them for maybe 5 hours in an oven under the light. But I guess it wasn’t long enough and I left them on the ganache for too long. Maybe next time I’ll (1) dry them longer, (2) put on the panels closer to serving time or (3) cover the sides with fondant and then add the panels so that the panels aren’t touching the ganache and absorbing moisture. Does that make sense?
It was just hard because I didn’t want to wait so long that they would be impossible to trim to fit!
Your solutions are on point. Covering the cake with a thin layer of fondant and adhering with melted chocolate will solve absorbing water from the icing/cake, as will adding the panels closer to serving [so less time to absorb moisture from the air].
True gum paste-not fondant with tylose added to it--actually dries faster and harder than the fondant product. Pastillage and mexican paste dry even harder and can be sanded down, rather than cut, when fitting things together.
If you use modelling chocolate it won't soften as it sits on the cake. I wouldn't use gumpaste as you don't really want to be eating that.
I agree with bubs1stbirthday, modeling chocolate is a much better choice and it tastes good too!
Quote by @bubs1stbirthday on 19 hours ago
If you use modelling chocolate it won't soften as it sits on the cake. I wouldn't use gumpaste as you don't really want to be eating that.
Well, of course, the point is to REMOVE the gumpaste/pastillage/mexican paste panels BEFORE serving...............but those products will ensure solid, straight sides that won't warp, react to heat, etc.
Yes, modeling chocolate is a lovely product, but it does react to heat and can warp under its own weight if pieces are large, heavy, or unsupported.
Rather than modeling chocolate, I'd do the panels out of cast chocolate if temperature isn't an issue. Very easy to trim to fit, too.
If the ganache is made to the right ratio then it in itself will give you good solid sides anyway, Ganache is solid enough when made right that the cake once allowed to set overnight can be picked up by the sides (flat hands) and transferred to a cake board/on top of another cake without denting or marking it.
well yeah but there's moisture in the cake and it all gets spread around and throughout those side panels too -- so if she had placed the panels last minute it woulda been no worries -- but placing them in advance gave it enough time for the moisture to crack it -- even with well set ganache --
the devil is in the details with decorating and baking too -- all of the mediums everyone has listed will work great under the right circumstances
My reply was to MaybeNot who seems to have taken a little offence to my suggestion that gumpaste (no offence intended by the way) is not the best application here and yes I agree that if the fondant was put on last thing instead of days before it should have been fine.
No offense taken, per se, but to dismiss gumpaste because people wouldn't want to eat it is to take a perfectly reasonable arrow out of the decorator's quiver. Too many decorators shortchange themselves by not having, or not knowing about, good options. Flexibility is key when it comes to problem solving.
All of the products mentioned are technically edible and obviously non-toxic. Each would provide a good option for a particular reason. Each would provide a different price point, e.g. solid chocolate panels being much more expensive than gumpaste. Each would react differently to heat, structure, and transportation & assembly options.
I maintain that fondant, even with gum/drying agent added, is the worst of all of the options. It NEVER really dries because it is a sponge. All of the other options are less hygroscopic, allowing for earlier placement.
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