I'm working on a three tiered cake this weekend. Because the party is small and they wanted a big cake I decided to use a dummy for the bottom base. I've never covered a dummy with Fondant before. Would you use...buttercream? royal icing? some site even said to wet dummy.....What have you done in the past? What worked best for you?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Thinned Royal icing(do not allow to dry before applying fondant), piping gel and water all work. I prefer either of the first 2.

hmmmm piping gel...great idea! but i'm going to try the icing...should it be watery...like when filling in cookies?

if i roll fondant out on mat with shortening.. i use piping gel.. very lite coat.. if i roll out on powder sugar or cornstarch.. i mist my dummy with water.. very litlle.. some people coat their dummy with lite coat of shortening and then apply fondant.. again, i would roll out fondant on powder sugar or cornstarch... if i used shortening to coat dummy .

I rubbed clear piping gel between my hands, and then rubbed them all over the dummy. Put the fondant on, worked like a charm! Not too thick, just what comes off from your hands. If you brush it on, you'll have it gooped in places, not in other places....the unevenness can show through when you are done.

Question: Will the dummy cake look tooo "perfect" next to the other real cakes? Only my botton layer is a dummy.

btw....thanks for all your replies.....great advice!

If you do it right....probably!

Yikes.....is it really obvious? any way to make the dummy look more "natural"...or should i just leave it alone?

I've used icing, piping gel and water before...for the sake of cleanup I just use a little water now...I used piping gel on a 5 tier dummy cake and took it to a couple of shows over about 2 months and when it came time to remove the fondant I almost had to chisel it off...I ended up having to put it in our proof box for almost an hour to soften everything up enough to pull it off. I'm doing a cake for my daughters birthday and using a dummy for the bottom tier also...I don't want to get stuck with 2 weeks worth of cake!

Well, honestly, my experience with dummies so far, is limited to a setup for a competition, where I wanted them to look as perfect as possible. I have yet to see a real honest to god perfectly smooth real cake with not a bump or crease anywhere.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now don't laugh, however you can use spackling compound on the styrofoam and then once it is hard you can sand it perfectly. That way you are not mixing royal icing for nothing and not wasting ingredients. Then you can place the fondant on it without problem.

I know a lot of cake decorators who do lots of shows & competitions and since no one is eating the cake and they are being judged on perfection and design they use spackling compound.

Good luck.