How to cover a cake with fondant
Here are some useful tips for an effortless finish on your fondant covered cake!
Do the math
Make sure your cake will support the weight of the icing. Lighter cakes will find it harder to hold it, which can result in warping and sinking.
Make sure your cake is level
Level out the top and sides of your cake so there’s no unwanted lumps and bumps! We have some great options of levellers on the website but you can also use a bread knife to do this too!
Always crumb coat
Cover your cake with a crumb coat of buttercream, be sure not to leave any scraper marks as these may show through your icing.
Using vegetable shortening
When kneading, pop some vegetable shortening on your hands if the sugarpaste is sticking to them.
The prevent your sugarpaste from sticking you can also dust your surface with corn-starch or confectioners’ sugar.
Using gloves when kneading colour into fondant
Colour your sugarpaste when you’re kneading it, don’t forget to pop some gloves on so your hands don’t get stained.
Use fresh sugarpaste!
Old sugarpaste can dry out and crack. If you do have a little dry patch you can fix this by rubbing a bit of shortening in until the crack disappears.
How much fondant to use
You can work out how much sugarpaste you need by measuring the diameter of the cake, then measuring both sides of the cake and adding them all together. Eg. 8” diameter + 4” side + 4” side = 16” of sugarpaste.
Make rolling your fondant effortless with these tips
Use a plastic rolling pin - wooden ones can leave little imprints.
Roll out your sugarpaste into the shape of the cake you are making, we recommend using a measuring mat so you exactly what size your aiming for.
Always roll out your sugarpaste from the center outwards, you want to roll it our evenly until it is around 3mm thin.
Use sugarpaste guide rings on your rolling pin to help you get the right thickness.
If it is your first time rolling out sugarpaste, you may think it’s better to roll out more than what you need. This may result in the excess being too heavy and tearing. Just roll out what you need.
When moving your sugarpaste on to your cake to cover, use a rolling pin to pick it up. Your fingers may warp or rip them sugarpaste.
Creating the perfect fondant covered finish
If your buttercream has dried out a little, very lightly mist your cake with water.
If you find the sugarpaste doesn’t completely cover the sides of the cake don’t worry! It will stretch a little as you smooth it out.
Smooth the top of the cake with a plastic smoother first, this makes sure that the sugarpaste stays in the right place.
As you work your way around the cake you may find you have excess on one side. Gently pull the sugarpaste on the other side of the cake and push the excess around. Keep doing so until you’re happy with the result.
Use a smoother to push any bubbles on the top to the sides, then work your down the sides to ensure the air bubbles are released at the bottom.
Trim the edge with a knife of a pizza cutter.
You can create a crisp sharp edge by using 2 scrapers, lightly pushing one up the side and one across the top so they meet in the corner creating a sharp edge.