Covering a cake

roseann48, May 23, 7:19am
I have been asked to cover a choc cake in pale pink fondant icing. I would normally cover with almond icing first but they don't like the almond. Would I need to seal the cake with something else or can I place the fondant directly on to the choc cake.

kiwigal007, May 23, 7:21am
I'm pretty sure butter icing would be ok :) I'm sure someone on here will know

sarahb5, May 23, 7:57am
I find butter cream under fondant far too sweet and sickly - I would use warm, sieved apricot jam as the "glue" for the fondant

deano, May 24, 1:28am
I had to ice my son's mudcake wedding cake and was faced with a similar problem. I used a flavoured butter icing and then chilled the cake to give a firm base before apply fondant. Worked well

roseann48, May 24, 2:10am
Thanx for your replies Deano did you use butter cream i.e butter, icing sugar, milk & flavouring.

greerg, May 24, 8:15am
Chocolate ganache is commonly used under fondant, especially on chocolate cakes. You can use the ganache to get the cake perfectly smooth and the top edges sharp so the fondant goes on perfectly. I use 2 parts chocolate to one part cream so it's quite a stiff ganache mix.

waswoods, May 24, 9:09am
Ganache is good, but can sometimes be seen under pale coloured fondant. Butter icing is fine

roseann48, Jul 13, 12:57am
Many thanx - cake completed & looking ok. Still prefer to use almond icing to 'iron' out the defects but butter cream was ok.