Hi All,

I'm going be covering some dummy cakes this week for an upcoming show and I've noticed that a couple of them have some unfortunate imperfections and dents in the foam.

I'm keen to keep the nice crisp edge you get with foam cakes so don't want to cover them twice and I'm curious as to how others deal with this situation. Obviously I want the smoothest finish possible since I'm competing against others so I want my dummy cakes to be as neat as possible before I cover them.

I thought about putting a fine layer of royal icing over them and using it to fill the dents but I'm worried it will be too harsh underneath the fondant and cause it to rip.

Any suggestions as to how I tackle the problem will be gratefully received!!

ACan you cut the dummy down to make it neater? I've used a hot wire to cut Styrofoam (though not for dummy cakes).en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot-wire_foam_cutter I'm a measure so I don't have advice from experience in the cake world, in just thinking back to my sculpture days in college :)

AOops ... measure = newbie

AOr sand down the bumps and.fill any divots in with a little smear of soft fondant.

A

Use fine grit paper. I get the fondant wet and goers then use it like spackle.

Sand out imperfections with fine grit paper/block. 

Smooth/round off upper edges a bit with the same [if you don't, the fondant will tear because the edge will act like a knife]. 

Fill in any actual holes with crisco, softened fondant, or royal icing.  Allow to dry. 

Rub dummy with shortening, cover with fondant.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Think I'll go with the softened fondant approach and cross my finger . Will let you know how I go!

Had another look at the imperfections and decided to use royal icing after all. I applied small amounts then wet my fingers and worked it until it was as smooth as I could get. Left the cakes overnight and then used an emery board to sand it back a little and also to take the bite off the foam edges. So far so good! Thanks again for your suggestions.

Just make sure that you do not use water to stick the fondant to the dummy as the water will ruin your RI-job. Ask me how I know...

AIs there any way to sand fondant/royal icing on a real cake that people will eat?

I have sanded a fondant covered cake before with fine grade sand paper (if memory serves!). I had done a piped design with royal icing on the corners and hated it, so picked off the icing then sanded off the remaining colour. It was a desperate measure but worked ok. You just have to be careful and do it gradually. I also use an emery board quite a lot if I have rough edges on my sugar flowers or figurines. Works well.

Not sure about sanding royal icing but I gues if it's set properly and you use a fine sand paper and work slowly you should be ok. HTH

AThanks guys! I didn't know if it was safe to sand / emery fondant on a cake that will be eaten.