I have read every direction and tip on smoothing fondant.

I make my own MMF, let it rest, it's actually coming out really nice these days. I crumb coat my cakes with buttercream but don't lay it on thick, just a nice crumb coat. I then pop them in the fridge to get them set up nicely.

I smooth the fondant on, very patiently work on it, even have the cake elevated so that the fondant hangs down. Trim it, everything looks great.

About 4 hours later there will be bubbles UNDER the fondant. Pockets of air. Even on a 6 inch cake I did last night..... I get so frustrated. The only way to fix it is to pop the bubble with a toothpick and let the air out. Then it will lay back and stick to the cake. I worked on that 6 inch, there was no air under it when I placed the fondant on, I smoothed it so carefully.

Last night I even tried a simply syrup glaze to really "glue" the fondant on the cake and still got 2 huge bubbles form.

What on earth could be doing this? Could refridgerating the cakes be screwing me up?

I'm no fondant whiz, but I got smooth fondant on my first try. I placed the fondant on the crumbcoat *before* it set. The frosting acted as the glue for the fondant. If you're allowing the frosting to set, then what is holding the fondant to the cake?

hth

Piping gel on the cake might hold it down for you, that is what they told me in my cake class. Good luck

Are the cakes multiple layers? What I mean is...it could be that your filling is the culprit. If you fill between two layers of cake, when you put the top layer on, air might be getting trapped. When you put your fondant on the cake, the weight and pressure could be causing the air bubbles to be released. Does that make sense? It's hard to describe what I mean on the computer.

What Misdawn said is exactly what I was thinking.

Your cake will not suck in air under the fondant...the air is already present when you put your fondant on your cake and is working its way out while your cake settles. Air will not remain trapped in a cake...it WILL find its way out (and usually out the front! LOL).

You need to work on refining how you put your layers on...I kind of "roll" my layers on from one edge to the opposite edge so as not to trap air.

Hope that helps!

I never thought of air in the filling or cake. Thanks.

I do whip up my buttercream and put it in the layers... the latest cakes have been 4 layers with buttercream in between each layer. I will work on that.

Thanks so much, it's been driving me crazy! I will have a gorgeous cake all done and later on I look at it and there is this BULGE on one side and it really upsets me.

You know, I actually read about this on that Baking911 website. They explain it like Misdawn did. It is suggested that you let your cake, filling and all, rest for a certain period of time so it can "settle". Then you apply the fondant. This actually makes perfect sense now that I think about it. When I made a 4 tier cake covered in fondant I let those layers rest overnight before slapping that fondant on and didnt have that problem. I made 2- 6" cakes didn't let them rest and bubbles everywhere! EUREKA!!!

By jove I think we've got it!

How cute!!!!! I didn't even see that emoticon!!!!!!!!

You have to click on the link that says, "View more smileys" or something like that.

And there they are...he he.