After I finish covering my cakes in fondant, in time it starts to sag down the sides of the cake resulting in folds or bulging near the base of the cake. I've changed nothing for years...sometimes it works okay, but more often than not lately, this is happening. The ride in the car seems to worsten the situation. I've put minimal filling and buttercream underneath the fondant to no avail. I use the standard fondant recipe...gelatin water, powdered sugar, glycerine, corn syrup, shortening and corn syrup, which I like the taste of. I've attemped to lessen the water content to make up for my added flavorings.

Is my cake not sturdy enough and the weight of the fondant causes it to squish? Am I going to have to give up taste for looks? I like my chocolate cake recipe especially, but maybe this is it. Any desirable and sturdy recipes?

I am so discouraged by this, I am finding myself wanting to give it up. I dread having these situations after putting so much time into it. My last endeavor was 5 pumpkin cakes, one in particular was worse than the others. Maybe it has to do with the thickness that the fondant is rolled out. The cake that did the worst may have gotten a little thin on the side that wrinkled most. Fortunately, pumpkins aren't perfect, so it didn't matter much....unfortunatley I am a perfectionist!

How do I fix this problem? I would appreciate any and all comments! Thank you!

Hi peasacake,

First of all, take a deep breath. I can't really say what's wrong with your fondant - or if it is the fondant. Do you find that the cake is getting squished at the sides, or is it just the fondant? If it is the cakes, then they are probably not firm enough. There are lots of great recipes on this site which are nice and firm and taste great too. Amongst others, I would try Nati's butter chocolate cake. It's lovely and moist and holds up nicely fondant.

Also, how thick are you rolling your fondant? And are you smoothing it down enough? If not you will have excess fondant and it has to go somewhere.

Don't give up. It's horrible when you put in a lot of effort and it doesn't come out as planned, but it will get better as you tweak your technique..

Here's a tutorial on using fondant: http://www.atecousa.net/learn/satin_ice_1.shtml

All the best..

I thought of a couple of things it could be:

1) Have you let the fondant "set" leave it overnight in a ziploc bag to rest.

2) Are your cakes good and cold when you cover them?

Hi there! First off, I appreciate and thank you for your replies,advice and support.

I will look into that cake recipe for sure. I thought I was smoothing the cakes enough, but maybe not. I am rolling out the fondant to about a quarter inch or so. Not so thin to show imperfections underneath, and not too thick that it's undesirable. Maybe in some cases it was too thick.

I do wrap the fondant and place it in baggies at least overnight. My cakes are cold when I work with them. I had wondered if that wasn't possibly the problem, in that the chilled cakes hadn't settled completely and compressed further when they come to room temperature, hence sagging fondant. However, I know that you need to work with chilled cakes when applying buttercream and fondant. That would be a crumb nightmare to not.

I tried attaching pictures to my post , but was unsuccessful. If you can look at my uploaded pictures, you can get the gist of my concerns by looking at the cake named Korina.