Hi there,

I am attempting my first ever fondant covered cake this weekend. It is for a party on Sunday morning, and I just have a couple of questions that I am hoping someone can help me with.

I am going to bake a chocolate cake, which uses melted chocolate and buttermilk, amongst other ingredients. How far in advance can I bake? I need to have the cake finished by Friday night as we are going away for the weekend early Saturday morning, and we will take it with us. Can I bake it Thursday night, decorate Friday, and it be OK? I don't want the cake to dry out at all.

I am planning on covering the cake with a layer of ganache underneath the fondant. I will put this on, then refrigerate the cake for a bit, and then put on the fondant. Do I need to use anything to help the fondant stick to the ganache at all?

Once the cake is finished, is it going to be ok at room temperature, or should I keep it in the fridge?

If someone could help me with a bit of a timeline, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

I'm not sure about using buttermilk in the chocolate cake recipe. If I were you, I would chose a different recipe that you are sure is ok at room temperature.

As far as the timeline, as long as you get your cake covered in ganache it won't dry out as it won't be exposed to the air.

To attach your fondant to the ganache, brush on a light coating on simple syrup with a pastry brush. This will help adhere your fondant to the ganache. Once this is done, don't refrigerate your cake. It is not recommended for fondant (as long as all your recipes are stable at room temp)

you should be able to bake on thursday without any problems. id recomened putting a simple syrup on your layers tho just to help with moisture. ive also heard on here putting it in the fridge drys it out way faster then just sitting on ur counter. Is your filling perishable? Id say the buttermilk is fine once baked. also is this a choclate cake recipie your familiar with? im just asking becuase if this is your first time making this u might want to try a different one that has been super tested by cakecentral and therefore again wont have as much of a drying factor. theres tons of threads on choc cake. i think the most popular however is the hersheys choclate cake and a choc cake from epicurious.com. if you use this recipie all the time tho and you know for a fact its not quick to dry out then by all means bake away lol anyways hope this helped a little

Buttermilk should be just fine at room temp once baked into the cake. Fondant keeps the cake moist, so sitting out will not dry the cake out any. I brush on a light layer of jam or simple syrup and the fondant sticks just fine to the ganache. Good luck!

I make my choc cake with buttermilk and melted choc as well, although very good when fresh, it actually gets better if a couple of days old. the leftovers, if any, taste better with each day, even my customers have said that