fondant on chilled cakes? yes or no

I’ll tell you I do my cakes with perishable fillings so I’ve always need to refrigerate them. Summer is coming again here and I’m freaking out, cause last year I DID suffer the same way you tell us. I have no troubles during winter, cause the cakes don’t sweat at all, of course. And I do prefer perishable fillings since I think they taste a lot better (cream, fresh fruit, mousses – yum!). But summers here can be very suffocating (over 35ºC for sure and 60 to 80% humidity), and I can’t do anything about it, so I have no other choice but to switch to non-perishable fillings – and get and air conditioner, maybe a dehumidifier too in the future.- So I’m trying new recipes to give my customers a really tasty and not wet at all – cake.
Summarizing, fondant is a big NO for chilled cakes if you have hot and humid weather.

Although I’d like to advise you that if you have a chilled fondant cake, and weather is pretty hot, I recommend you take the cake out of the fridge a couple of hours in advance and put it in a room with air conditioner so the thermal shock is a little bit lower and so, the condensation on the fondant.

Hope it helped you! :)

Thank you @theorangelily. Very helpful info..i just hope it don’t melt again..they look beautiful when I make them but as soon as I transport them to the location is a melting mess..crossing my fingers

I refrigerate all my cakes too, fondant or not. There can be issues with condensation, but I have found that it you don’t touch it – it will dry out and look fine. I think the part that worries me the most is your comment about the cake collapsing… are you supporting your tiers properly?

FYI – I’m in the USA in GA (the Deep South) and our humidity is crazy bad from June through August

I was thinking about that too..maybe I didn’t place the support properly. .i think I put them too close to each other in the middle. .maybe that’s why.. this is how make cake looked

Oh dear xx My heart goes out to you xx You must have been so upset.
Onwards and upwards, you’ll get all the help and information on here. People who live in hot and humid countries use this site all the time so you’ll soon be put right xx

I was crying and upset about it..i hope that I do get help I need here. I really don’t want this to happen again..i mostly felt horrible for my client..thanks again everyone for replying

Hi there! I’ve been caking.. living in Singapore for a year now and would like to share my 2 cents :)
In a hot and humid climate like we have here.. perishable fillings are used and then the cake is refrigerated until required. However if one is to use fondant, then I would suggest to use a sturdier filling and frosting like ganache that can withstand the heat and humidity much better than the other options. Once I’ve ganache the cake I leave it in the fridge for a few hours for it to firm up well. When I am ready to cover it with fondant.. I then turn the AC on and chill my room and only then bring the cake out of the fridge and let it rest till it is at room temperature. I then very gently wipe all the condensation droplets with a paper towel. Now it’s ready to be covered with fondant. The finished cake continues to stay in the air conditioned room.. The client is advised to carry it in an air-conditioned car to their air-conditioned venue. Touchwood it has worked fine so far. As long as the temperature stays constant.. Fondant behaves well.
I have tried putting a fondant cake into the fridge.. But I have noticed that even though the fondant after coming coming to room temperature dries up .. It remains glossy and shiny. It doesn’t go back to the matt finish that it originally has. Have used that for cakes where I wanted the cake to look glossy :)
Hope that helps!
Xxx

@Creations, What kind of fondant and buttercream are you using?

@jennifferwhite I used milton Fondant. .i figure it was sturdy enough for the cake

@Creations, you are very welcome! I hope you can find a solution. I’m no expert but I’ll make my best to help you.
I think the problem was the buttercream, not the fondant, cause it looks like the buttercream just melted, and the fondant goes along with it. Inevitable it breaks ‘cause it has no stiff enough surface to stick on. Do you use all butter in your buttercream recipe? I have read that shortening is much more stable with hot temperatures, so I think you should try using half and half, or all shortening, if you don’t want to use chocolate ganache, which I think is the best option. I use it and it’s great. Cakes look so neat always.
As I told you before I’m still using refrigerated cakes, until I try non perishable recipes for my cakes. I’ll explain what I do, I hope it helps! Of course you should keep trying different ways till you find what it works best for you. For me, this is what it works for me for fairly warm days. What I do is, first of all I prepare my ganache. Once my ganache is ready I have to let it sit for a few hours at room temperature (or the fridge if I’m in a hurry) just about is the right consistency. Meanwhile, I make the fillings, and fill the cake. I put it in the freezer for just 5 or 10 minutes just to make the fillings a bit harder and have a pretty cool surface to work on. I take it out and make a crumb coat first, and then I cover it with ganache till it’s even. I let that sit in the fridge overnight.
Next morning, the FIRST thing I do (literally, even before I have breakfast haha), is taking the cake out of the fridge for a few hours to let it come to room temperature, you do not want the cake to be cold when you put the fondant on cause the thermal shock between the cold cake and the room temperature fondant will make it sweat! So once my cake is at room temperature I cover it with fondant and I do all the decorations I need to do ON the cake (stripes, royal icing decorations, etc). And when I’m done I put it in the fridge. And as I said before, I take it out of the fridge to an air conditioned room a few hours before deliver. The ganache does not melt at all and it keeps the shape great.