HELP PLEASE!!!

Why are you getting a bulge? Are the cakes flat on top?

Did you use an icing dam? Did you let your filled cake rest before covering it?

Oh I feel your pain right now!! :o(

I find the bulge happens if my buttercream isn’t thick enough or if the cakes aren’t stacked properly causing unnecessary weight on the layers – plus weather (humidity) can be a factor. I’ve never been able to correct it after it happens. I’d been interested in hearing what others have to say too! Good luck!

Loren

Oh now I understand :-) Can you smooth the cakes? If so, I would smooth them and pop them back in the fridge for at least a hour

• The only way to really fix it is to take the fondant off and fix it inside the layers. Or. Take the fondant off, press your cakes down really well to squeeze the excess out, then re smoothe the icing. Or. Take the fondant off, resmooth the icing best you can and if you can ganache it I would do that then chill it then re fondant. The ganache can hold the icing in better. The bulge is caused by different things. Too much filing without a stiff buttercream dam piped around it. Too much buttercream between the layers. Not enough around the outside of the cake to cover the separation between the layers. You also might be having air escaping and bulging the fondant. Without knowing what is inside the cakes or what it looks like its difficult to say. If you can’t remove the fondant then the only thing you can really do is use your fondant smoother to press it all back as even as possible and chill it. When the cake is delivered and comes to room temp again the bulges may come back though.

It’s funny I never had this problem when working at a local cakery. Now that I’m doing this myself from home though, it happens all the time. A trick I learned from other cakers is once your cake is together & pre-iced, lay a piece of wax paper across the top, then set the same size cake pan on top & fill about halfway full with water. I let this sit a minimum of 4 hours, then remove it, frost the cake &/or add fondant- ta da! No bulges! This just gives the settling process a little extra help. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time though! Also, idk where you live, but in humid areas, you want to be careful putting your cakes in the fridge, or leaving them in there too long for sure, or else you might end up w/sweating when you take them out. Good luck! :-)

Thank you everyone for your advice, I have now stripped the cake ready to start again. The layering was fine and I refridgerated the cake for 2 hours before covering, but it is really humid here and I think that was the culprit. I will make a fresh batch of buttericing to cover it but does anyone now how much merange powder I should add as a stabilizer please.

Hi, Kelly,

I know just how you feel – the deaded bulge!!! For your next cake, make sure you refrigerate your cake thoroughly after you crumb-coat it – overnight would be great. I live in Florida where the humidity is awful and I’ve noticed that refrigerating the cake overnight has kept me from getting those unsighlty bulges. Short of removing the fondant, as you did, there’s not much you can do – other than use decorations – I’ve added ribbon borders, gumpaste flowers, etc. That works well enough, but it depends on your cake. Good luck and post a picture – I’m sure it will turn out great!

I was having the same issues, so I tried to make my buttercream thicker, especially for the dam…. And it helped me out tremendously!