Fondant Trimming

watch this video by Lorraine McKay (who I just adore!) … it really helped me to watch someone trim fondant with a paring knife. she shows this trick of scraping the fondant off the knife periodically with the excess fondant.

http://www.youtube.com/user/aine2#p/u/3/mp1pOvCvjmM

I always make sure the fondant is nice and tight to the bottom of the cake and then use a pizza cutter and roll it around the cake at a 45 degree angle. If I get in a rush and don’t get that fondant right up against the cake all the way down to the bottom, then some times it will turn up a little short in spots.

As for tearing, is it possible you need to roll your fondant slightly thicker?

Hope that helps. Keep at it, you’ll get it!

I try to cut off the excess fondant so it won’t weigh down the cake and tear – then, as I’m getting to the bottom, I put my cake on top of a bowl turned upside down so the cake is raised off the counter and I trim the fondant at the bottom – so far this method has worked pretty well.

I use a pizza cutter too at a 45 degree angle. If the fondant has high or low spots after cutting, I use my fondant smoother in a gentle downward motion all the way around the cake to push the fondant down to achieve a pretty perfect trim around the bottom of the cake. You can see how in the picture I just posted that it works pretty well because the cake doesn’t have much of an added border.

All the methods mentioned above are excellent…I use a variety of them…

I use different methods for different types of cake designs. For a square or round cake; I use a pizza cutter. For 3D cakes; I use a paring knife or something similar.

Something else I’ve started doing is keeping a small fine mist sprayer on hand. Just before I place the fondant on the cake, I spritz my cake with my mister (filled with either water or a clear liquor). This helps the fondant to adhere to the cake better and reduces the risk of sliding or ripping. But one drawback is, once you put the fondant on there, it’s going to stick. So make sure you place your fondant where you want it the first time :-)

Like SandyT, I mist my cakes with water from a spray bottle before I cover them to make sure the fondant sticks to the crusted buttercream. Then after making sure the fondant is snug around the base and sides I trim with a pizza cutter. If its a shape the pizza cutter cant handle then I use an exacto knife :)