recently (since it has warmed up outside) my cakes have been sweating eccesively! i have never had this problem. what is the best way to prevent this???? what happens if i have very intricate painting on the cake, i cant risk the chance that it will run! any info would help. tia!

Are you putting the cakes in the refrigerator?

i definetely am.... i have never had this issue tho. is it because of the humidity? i need to be able to store them in the fridge so i can do them a day or two (if needed) ahead of time..... i think....

Why do the cakes need to be refrigerated? Is it because if the fillings and/or the icings? If neither of those items have to be refrigerated, there's no other reason to put the cakes in the fridge.

It's just the natural process of condensation--just like when a cold glass of liquid sits in a warmer room and the water droplets condense on the outside of the glass.

You can minimize it by boxing and wrapping the cake before putting it in the fridge & then leaving it boxed & wrapped for several hours after taking it out of the fridge. As long as it's at room temp when it comes out of the box, it shouldn't sweat much, if at all.

Rae

The reason your cake sweats is because the sugar in the fondant starts to breakdown and "melt" when taken from a fridge to a warmer humidified environment. This happens to me during our " humidity month of July in NM.
I take it from the fridge and put it in front of a box fan and let it dry. you may also put it in a very cool room or an air conditioned room. Sometimes it takes a couple hours. If you can let it come to room temp as slowly as possible the better off you are.

Your sugar isn't breaking down. It's water in the air as the pp's have said.

The fondant is not "breaking down".

The "sweating" is water condensation forming on the surface. It's a physical reaction that occurs when a cold object--the refrigerated cake-- comes into contact with warm, moist (humid) air. The warm, moist air condenses into water droplets that deposit on the cold surface.

Of course, water sitting on a sugar surface (fondant) will mix with the sugar and form sugar syrup droplets. If allowed to sit on the surface for a long period, those droplets can migrate causing bleeding or they may stay in place and cause pitting of the sugar surface.
Wiping the water away will cause overall marring of the surface.

Placing the cake in a stream of air will dry the condensation, but if the stream of air (fan) is stopped before the cake approached room temp, the droplets will re-form.

The reason for boxing & wrapping the room temp cake and then keeping the wrappings on until the cake again comes to room temp is so that the cake is never exposed to the moist air. The air trapped inside the box, even if somewhat moist, will generally migrate to the porous box and the wrappings--not the surface of the cake.

Rae

Guess all my research on this subject from pasty books is wrong. I deal with this condensation every July so i thought i would find out why. They explained it as change in the chemisty make up. Anyway, I stand corrected. Bottom line is now i can not only do my usual fan or refrigerated air but i can make sure to box it up before. Thanks!