Hi, nikki983 -
I am guessing that you are from England, as you mention fondant on fruitcake. Forgive me if I am wrong.
Here in the USA, we apply rolled fondant to almost any kind of cake, including chocolate cakes. Most people use buttercream icing as a base, some use melted jam like they do in Europe. Many refrigerate their cake for 30 minutes after applying the buttercream icing, so the icing is firmer and can take the punishment of smoothing the rolled fondant out on the cake.
Theresa 
I use fondant on all kinds of cakes and all kinds of frostings. The last cake I made (the Bridal Shower cake in my photos) was my famous Double Chocolate Layer cake with Bittersweet Chocolate Frosting covered with fondant. I love covering my cakes with fondant 
Also, my first wedding cake that is in my photos was 3 different cakes covered in fondant. It was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. You can put fondant over ummmmmm everything I think.
Lazy_Susan
You can use fondant on anything you like. I just recently made a chocolate mud cake and covered it with fondant. It was a dora cake pan/tin. I cover it first in white fondant then dressed dora including skin and hair in coloured fondant. I then posted it to Brisbane from Sydney and it arrived in one piece.
thanks guys.. i dont no if i got the term fondant right.. is that same as royal icing? it looks the same from what i can tell.. I live in new zealand and some of the terms for things i have to work out what we call it here.. like confectionors sugar, took me a while to work out that is what we call icing sugar..
Theresa, when you say you apply buttercream as a base, is that just a thin layer and does it matter what type of buttercream you use? something else i discovered was that there are so many types of buttercream! i only ever new of one which was butter, icing sugar, cocoa (for chocolate) and water/milk..
sorry for all the questions, but is frosting just another way of saying icing? hehe i so live on the rong side of the world!
thanks for all your help, i look forward to making a chocolate cake with fondant icing!
Hey Nikki983!
I know what u mean! hehe Fondant is what we call plastic icing or RTR, which you can use on any type of cake and also i use it to make my figurines and sometime flowers.. Royal icing is a different icing as it is made out of egg whites and icing sugar and is used mainly for pipe work or sometimes to cover cakes...
Well I live in Australia as well but I would not call Fondant Plastic Icing unless I had brought it. Bakels RTR is what I call plastic icing. It depends on where you are in the world if you are on the right side or not. Thats the old style of butter cream Nikki.
The term Fondant is also used for the glossy icing that you see on donuts and slices...
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