Hi all, I tried to cover my cake with Satin Ice fondant, however it looks wobbly, like not even when it comes into contact with the butter cream. Could it be because I covered my cake with too much butter cream? Do we just crumb coat the cake or fully cover it? This is the first time I work with fondant so I really don't have any experience.

 

Im making this cake for my daughter's first bday party on Sunday 15 Dec. Can i cover the cake with fondant on Thursday 12 Dec and refrigerate it? I have just threw away the wobbly looking fondant batch just now in order to save my cake :(

 

Thanks for all the advise.

A

Did you happen to take a picture before you removed the fondant? If you ever have a problem posting a picture will be the quickest way for us to help you resolve the issue.

Congratulations on your little ones first birthday! Most importantly, you need to have fun with it.

I don't understand what you mean by wobbly. The most important part to a nicely decorated cake is the foundation. Your cake needs to be level (this is what I picture when you say wobbly or wobbling).

It doesn't matter if you crumb coat, some people just put the icing on and smooth from there. The crumb coat is helpful (especially when starting out) because it helps you avoid getting crumbs in your clean icing. It's supposed to be a very thin layer that just seals the crumbs in, let that firm up and add your final layer-you want this as smooth as possible. Any dents will be seen through your fondant. I recommend a bench scraper for smooth BC-others use a crushing bc that you smooth with the 'Viva paper towel method' or a high-density foam roller.

You also want some sort of base for your cake (cake circle, foamcore, etc.) Your desired thickness should be at least 1/8th" (I am usually between 1/16"-1/8") you just get a feel for the thickness after a while. If your getting bubbles then prick with a sanitary needle and smooth it out gently later. I'm still unsure exactly what problems you're having. I imagine you are rolling it out too thick.

I hope this helps!

AHi smckinney07, first of all thank you for your reply and advise. Really appreciate it. Sorry I didn't take any photo and sorry for not being clear. What exactly happened was after I rolled my fondant and covered my cake, it looked really not even, as if the butter cream was melting underneath, hence the liquid got into the fondant and made it look really wobbling and not firmly attached to the surface of the cake. But I guess my problem was caused from not waiting for the butter cream to crust. After crumb-coating the cake, I immediately covered it with fondant, while the butter cream was still soft. Did you think this was the cause too?

Thanks!

Before fondanting cakes, I completely ice my cakes and refrigerate to get allow butter cream to dry.    2 reasons...(1) 99% of people here hate fonant cakes & if the design dictates fondant, they can peel it off & still have a butter cream cake plus it provides a smooth base..and (2) I just like covering a cake where the butter cream is dry.

A

You don't have to apologize! It's just the quickest way to 'diagnose' the issues you are having. It's difficult to articulate the problem since you're new to this so no worries.

I'm still confused why your buttercream was melting-you said you used a 'crusting BC' (powdered sugar, shortening/butter, flavoring & a bit of liquid)? Was the cake completely cooled before you iced it? Some people love crusting (American) BC because it firms up combined with the 'viva' method it smoothes quickly. I never had much luck with this method but it's very popular, that's not really relevant to your problem just use whatever frosting you enjoy.

I like to stick my cakes in and out of the fridge between coats (like DDaigle suggested), it's not necessary, but when using Swiss or Italian bc the cold makes the bc harden quickly-which makes the frosting/smoothing process faster.

I would recommend watching some YouTube videos, just search cake frosting/covering a cake in fondant. Watching someone do it might be helpful, CupADeesCakes.blogspot.com has some nice videos that show how to frost a cake (she has a YouTube channel by the same name and she's also a CC member).

Is your cake level? I use an actual level on top of my cake (the cake is protected with a board).

AThanks smckinney, my butter cream is from the bunnywoman's. While I waited for the cake to cool completely, I didn't wait for the bc to crust on cake (ie didn't put it in the fridge for it to get harden). Hence when I put my fondant on top of my frosted cake, the bc was still soft and bit runny. You can imagine like if you make jelly, while the jelly hasn't set, you put sth heavy on it, the whole surface thing will become wobbling. I already threw that batch of fondant, and already had my bc completely harden and crusted. I will cover my cake with fondant in the 15th morning itself. I'm not gonna refrigerate the cake, I put some fondant in the fridge and the fondant seems to sweat a lot when I removed it from the refrigerator) Yes I did level my cake using wilton cake leveler. Do you have an alternative for cake pillar? I can't find the small hidden type in Singapore (where I live) at all. My base tier is 9 inch and 2nd tier is 6 inch. Thanks!

Well, using the Wilton leveler may not have really leveled the cake.  Those things are notoriously unreliable.

You can always use dowels for support instead of the hidden pillars.

 

::thud:: yes I said dowels.

AHi I finally out my fondant onto my top tier. I don't know why the surface doesn't look smooth. I think it's air bubble? I try to use a needle and pin it but I can't seem to smooth it out using the smoother because the fondant seems wet so the edge smoother couldn't run on it. Any advise please? Thanks

AI wanna send a photo here so you can see my problem but I don't know how. Try embedding image but doesn't work. If you can show me how to do I will attach the photo right away thanks.

AHello, I believe you are not allowing your buttercream to harden in the fridge. Make sure you use a little of shortening for your satin fondant. Level your cake then smooth your buttercream.