37 Replies

what do you typically use under your fondant? lots of people have success when using ganache (not the poured, but whipped for example). or perhaps roll your fondant thinner … i dunno, your cakes look fab to me!

Thanks so much for the compliment, metria! :) I either use Swiss meringue buttercream or just your basic “american” buttercream. I’m not completely displeased with my fondant coverings…just would really like to step it up to the “next level” ;)

Inspired By Michelle has some great you-tube tutorials on making ganache, ganaching a cake and getting sharp edges with fondant.
I don’t see why there’s any reason why you still couldn’t use buttercream and still use Michelles technique for sharp edges.

Well I don’t know about anyone else but I am overly anal about sharp edges on fondant and have spent a good few months perfecting it and I can now get sharp edges on ganache and buttercream. The buttercream is a bit more fiddly but certainly still doable.

Here is a cake I did recently using ganache:

Here is a cake I did recently using buttercream:

Firstly, the best method is to use ganache, hands down it’s the best medium and for this you want just a straight ganache, not a pouring ganache and not a whipped ganache. Here are the specifics:
Your chocolate ideally should be the best you can find and the cream is specific to the country. So far I know for a fact that if you live in the UK (like me) use Whipping Cream ONLY. In the USA using Heavy or Heavy Whipping Cream and in Australia use Pure Cream. Whatever you use it has to have a fat content of 35%. So the ratios are as follows:
Dark Chocolate Ganache: 2 parts dark chocoalte to 1 parts cream
Milk Chocolate & White Chocolate Ganache: 3 parts chocolate to 1 part cream

If you are using ganache, I cover my cake with it (using the upside down method – I use a mixture of two techniques – if you want to know how I do this, I’ll explain), then I put it in the fridge to get really solid. When I am ready to cover it, I bring it out of the fridge and give it a light brushing with a pastry brush that has been sitting in boiling water – you don’t want too much water, just enough to make it stick. Once you’ve done that, leave it out of the fridge while you roll out your fondant. The trick is to get it really very thin. I roll mines to about 2/3mm thick – no thicker!! Now, because I spend ages perfecting my ganache like below, when I cover it with my fondant, it is pretty much straight away really very sharp:

Now, once covered, I do a rough smoothing, just to make sure there are no air bubbles etc – I put my cake back in the fridge. Now the fridge isn’t essential, but I prefer it because I like working with firm fondant for the next step. The next step is to take two pieces of thick acetate (I use 500 micron that took me ages to find and was really expensive! but that’s because I warned you of my super anal’ness lol) – you want to use your acetate to go round the top edge of the cake and with one piece of acetate on the side of the cake and one piece on top, go round the cake and slide the acentate together to sharpen the edges. As I say this is much easier when the fondant has firmed up in the fridge, because otherwise it’s easy for the acetate to dig into the fondant and rip it, especially if you are like me and have hands like a panel beater lol.

Now with buttercream, you MUST use an all butter, buttercream – I only use Swiss Meringue Buttercream – the reason for using only butter (never shortening) is that the butter sets up solid in the fridge and shortening does not. So follow the same procedure for the ganache, but for me, I find the fridge step after covering with fondant, essential, because when you are smoothing the fondant, the buttercream starts to melt really easily and really quickly. So when I take it out of the fridge to smooth with the acetate, I sometimes have to smooth a bit and put it back in the fridge to firm up again and keep repeating this until the cake is as I like it.

Now with all fondant covered cakes, putting them in the fridge can result in sweating. If you work VERY quickly once you take it out of the fridge, you should be able to get the edges sharp, while the fondant is still dry – but if you don’t, just put it straight back in the fridge to dry again.

Once you have finished your smoothing etc, bring your cake out of the fridge and let the sweat evaporate before you start decorating etc, or you’ll get paw prints all over it! If you leave the cake alone, it will dry out.

Anyway, I think I’ve covered everything, but the start find for me was the acetate, because I went from this level of sharpness only using fondant smoothers (which I thought was pretty good at the time):

to this level of sharpness using acetate:

I’m sure you’ll agree the acetate just makes it so much better!

Anyway, that was a long post – feel free to fire me questions and I hope this helped. :)

holy cow! what a great tutorial! thanks so much for the tips and for the photos.

Aaah! Thanks so MUCH for the help!! Knew there had to be some way to achieve those razor sharp edges!! You’re my hero, Tortacouture! ;)

awww cheers guys – I’m glad this helped you out. There is nothing worse than searching for information on a subject and no one is willing to share, or even more frustrating are the people who share snippets and leave you to figure out the rest, so hopefully I’ll have saved someone the 6 months I’ve spent getting this down pat :)

That is just amazing! Thanks so much for sharing all that information. I want to try the ganache method on one of my next practice cakes. Can you share where you were able to find the acetate? I wonder if they have it at the local craft stores here?

This is awesome information! Thank you so much for sharing! Your cakes are gorgeous! I hope that one day I too am able to achieve those gorgeous straight edges!!

Fantastic! I don’t get too many cake orders these days but it’s very handy to have this knowledge! Those corners look like they could cut you ;)

thank you so much!!! i was wondering how that was done. you talked about the “up side down method.” what is that? ok, and two more questions! one: how do you get the buttercream edges “sharp?” and two: i am doing a tiffany box wedding cake and was wondering if you had a certain technique for the fondant that you wouldn’t mind sharing? Thank you so much for your time!

Tammy
https://www.facebook.com/cakes.cookies.andmore.insavannah

oh, and what is acetate and where can i find it? i live in the States. Thanks again!

Tammy

For buttercream, if you use all butterand no shortening to get it to firm up in the fridge won’t it melt when out of the fridge even if covered in fondant? I haven’t tried the ganache and would love to soon but I use buttercream all the time. I find that even if my frosting has hardened or crusted, once I put the fondant on it just shifts all underneath and doesn’t stay put!

WhiskMeAway – I’ve been using an all butter-buttercream recipe for awhile now and it holds up quite well! (it’s a traditional American buttercream made with powdered sugar) However, I think she’s referring more to either a Swiss Meringue or Italian Meringue buttercream.

Torta – YOU ROCK!!!!! I’d love to know more about the upside down method too…..I’m also going to try with the acetate…….Sasha

I also have the same question regarding the acetate- What is it exactly and where can it be found?

I found some in hobbycraft – if you live in the UK……but not sure how to use it!! – Sasha

ok, i found a tutorial about the upside down method on cakecentral: http://cakecentral.com/articles/69/upside-down-icing-technique-for-perfectly-smooth-icing hope this helps some of you.

Hey, sorry but that’s not how I do the upside down method – it’s not precise enough for me. I actually use a technique that is a mixture of two other techniques but it’s not something I’ve ever seen anyone else do.

Basically, I put ganache on the top of my cake like I normally would and roughly smooth it. I then take a cake circle the same size as the cake circle underneath my cake (I use silver cake boards) – I sprinkle it with a little water and then put it on top of the ganache and line it up with the cake circle underneath my cake, checking in several positions to make sure it’s lined up. I then flip the cake upside down. I use a spirit level to check how level my cake is and push the cake down wherever is needed in order to make sure it is level. I then take my scraper and using, what is now the bottom board (now that it’s been flipped over) as a guide, I take my bench scraper and scrape away any ganache that is overhanging this board. I then pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes or so to harden. I then take it back out of the fridge and ganache the cake as I normally would, but I now have a board on the top and bottom, so that my scraper is completely supported and I am in no danger of having sloping sides. Once the cake is ganached, I pop it back in the fridge for several hours until it is completely solid. I take it back out of the fridge and flip it back over onto the bottom again. I then carefully remove the board on top, which should be easy as the ganache is solid. You will probably find that there are little holes and gaps to fill in the top, but just take a small amount of ganache and fill these areas – don’t use too much or your’ll lose that lovely flat and level top and you’ll have to turn it upside down again – you really only want to just fill the gaps and that is all – don’t start blobbing a load of ganache on top!
I then put the cake back in the fridge again and leave it until I am ready to cover it.

I hope that it explains it a bit better. The process is very similar for buttercream however instead of sprinkling the cake board with water, I actually attach (using removable adhesive on the board) a parchment cake circle that is just slightly smaller than the board and then put that on top of the cake.

Hope that helps :)

thanks torta! for those who need a visual like me, i also found this video: http://jessicakesblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/video-tutorial-upside-down-frosting.html

and another slightly different technique: http://www.notquitenigella.com/2010/11/04/how-to-make-a-two-tier-wedding-cake-with-faye-cahill/

on this one it doesn’t say to use wax or parchment paper on the board, but i recommend it. tape it to the board and once ready, cut the paper away from the board and then just peel it off.

i have to say i tried the second technique similar to torta’s but you don’t actually flip it, and it work great!!! thanks again Torta for sharing your techniques!!!!!

Yeah I tried the faye cahill method, but I didn’t like it – it didn’t give me a flat surface, not even remotely and I tried it a couple of times, it’s just not a patch on the upside down method, because the weight of the cake gives you the best surface to work with. The two techniques I merge together are the faye cahill method and the jessicakes method – so I use two cake boards like faye cahill but do it upside down like jessicakes – definitely the best of both worlds.

Tortacouture, I thank you for sharing this information : )

WOW! Thank you all so much! I cannot wait to try this!

so funny that you mentioned this cause yesterday I came across a couple of sites. Here is one of them. She does the upside down method.
http://jessicakesblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/video-tutorial-upside-down-frosting.html

and here is another one that shows with the ganache. On this she puts another cake board on top.

http://www.notquitenigella.com/2010/11/04/how-to-make-a-two-tier-wedding-cake-with-faye-cahill/

This really is a fabuloous tutorial. So grateful that you shared this with everyone. Can’t wait to have a go at those straight edges I have been looking for a good tutorial for a while. Thanks again. :-)

I just joined this site (about 5 minutes ago!) and what a great thread already! I’ll definatly be adding this site to my list of daily visits! Thank you torta for such a great description of what you do. I use an all butter ABC, and I’m going to try this out for my edges.

Wow i just joined too and i’m so thankful for all the info and tutorial !
i have never used an all butter BC before, heck i didn’t even know one existed LOL i am in awe of the sharp edges and have been fighting for them for a few months so i’m going to try both of these and see if i can get better, Thank you so very much Torta for sharing !

Thank you, tortacouture!

What amazing advice and tutorials, I can’t wait to go try them! Does anyone have a good ganache recipe they wouldn’t mind sharing (with detailed instructions on working with it for us noobs!)? Last time I tried to make it it was a disaster.. But I would love to try it again on a cake like these!

Wow Thank you for taking the time to post Tortacouture! What a fabulous tutorial – I am happy with my modelling skills its the really sharp edges on my cakes I struggle with… I’m gonna practice practice practice this technique…. Thanks again :)

This is great! Thanks!

I went out and bought some 500 micron acetate after seeing this post. I got it from www.ukcardcrafts.com 5 A4 sheets were only £1.60 + p&p. Hope this helps :)

I’m also new and this is the 1st forum I clicked on…and WOW, this is just the kind of info I’ve been scouring the internet for! Thank you so much Tortacouture! As a new cake decorator, I can’t tell you how helpful this kind of info is!

Thank you Tortacouture..amazing info! We all dream of those sharp edges.

Thank you so much tortacouture! Been following you on FB and love your cakes! Thanks so much for taking the time to share so much!! I just need to find acetate now! I have started doing ganache and the upside down method pretty much like you do but I don’t use the acetate…def need to try and find that!!

what a wonderful tutorial! Thank you! Did anyone in the States find the Acetate?

Thanks for the tutorial tortacouture! I think perfect edges are something all decorators want to achieve. A few people already posted links I was going to share (jessicakes blog being one). I haven’t had a chance to read everyone’s comments yet but I had a question for those who do use upside down decorating techniques. After you cover your cakes with fondant and are decorating, do any of you have problems with air bubbles forming underneath the fondant? I know air bubbles can form when a chilled cake comes to room temp, do any of you ever have a issue with this?

Also here is another tutorial: http://sugarsweetcakesandtreats.blogspot.com/2010/05/covering-cake-in-ganache.html they share a link to http://www.artandappetite.com/2009/11/ganache-instead-of-buttercream/ and it shows a great video inspiredbymichelle made covering a cake with ganache to get start edges.