Hi, all ~
I have a cake that I'm doing for Monday. It is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and then I'm covering it with fondant. It is a carved cake. Since the cream cheese frosting must be refrigerated, is my fondant going to form condensation? What can I do to prevent this?

Thanks,
Julie

Well I don't know what everybody else will say, but I've left cakes with fondant & cream cheese icing out for an entire week with no ill effects, though that was for family eating. For a customer I would be OK with leaving it out, but no more than a day or so.

Any other suggestions?
Thanks!

I've also left cream cheese iced cakes out with no problem..

I would really encourage you to refrigerate this cake. I wouldn't eat a cream cheese frosting that had been left out overnight--I think you're just asking for trouble. Would you purchase unrefrigerated cream cheese from the store? You didn't mention if this was for a customer, but I can say that if I was a customer and found out the cake was not properly stored, I would be VERY unhappy indeed--VERY unhappy.

As for the fondant and sticking storing it in the fridge, I have no advice, I don't use fondant. I would say add the fondant and other details last minute.

I agree with lotsoftots! Real cream cheese needs refridgeration. If you are talking about the "cream cheese flavored" icing from a tub then it's a whole other story - I don't think that one needs to go in the fridge.

I usually suggest to people that if they are having a fondant cake, use ingredients that can do just fine without refrigeration. I don't recommend to them a fondant covered cream cheese filled cake. At this point, put it in the fridge. Take it out about 3 hours before it's due to take to the client, and see how it does on condensation. IF it is winter where you live, let it come to room temperature in a cool room in your house. It may not water up on you. If it does, dab with a clean cloth, and maybe dust very very lightly with powdered sugar.
That happened to my wedding cake this summer when it was 90 degrees out. I had it in the fridge for 2 days, covered in fondant. When I took it out, it got all wet with water beads. Within a few hours, the water evaporated and the cake looked normal for the reception. Noone noticed a thing.

Better safe than sorry!!

I don't know if my results are typical or not, but I have put several cakes with fondant in the refrigerator and they come out fine. I don't cover them at all, and I don't live in a humid area. I have seen that the surface of the fondant gets a little humid looking, but I don't touch it and just let it come to room temp and it's fine. It would probably get marks if I touched it before it was at room temp.

For your customer, I would hope they are picking it up the day of the event, and in that case I would think it would be OK without refrigeration for a few hours (it will still be cold inside from when you had it refrigerated). Of course, make sure they know to refrigerate the leftovers.

Hope this helps!

Cakes by ellen is right, fondant acts as a shell and will keep the inside of the cake cool for a while. Try using the crusting cream cheese frosting it gets crusty (which translates to low humidity) and firm, it'll hold nicely under the fondant and most likely help with bubbling. I did a fondant cake with crusting cream cheese frosting, it worked out perfect. Dusting the cake with powdered sugar is a good idea but it'll interfere with the fondant sticking to the cake, maybe dabing a little melted jam here and there would give you the results without the moisture.

I didn't mean to dust the actual cake with powdered sugar first. I meant dust the outside of the fondant with a very very light amount of powdered sugar if you get water marks on it. It may help a little.

Maybe follow cakes by ellen; don't touch it at all and let it evaporate. Hands off sometimes is the best policy

Thanks for all your help!

Julie

If you absolutely must, I would dust the outside of the fondant with cornstarch rather than powdered sugar. You want to bind up the water, not attract more water molecules to the fondant (remember that sugar is hygroscopic). Otherwise either just leave it alone for the condensation to evaporate on its own, or aim a fan at it to help speed the evaporation rate.