Cake dried out under fondant!

[Taryn]

I recently decorated my first cake with fondant, and it turned out beautifully (after a bit of trial and error haha). I tried the cake (orange cake) after it was baked before it was decorated and it was delicious! I covered it in buttercream and fondant and put it into a cake tupperware and then in the fridge for 3 days before it was cut. I was under the impression that fondant kept cake moist so I was quite surprised to find that my lovely cake was very very dry. Did I wait too long, or should I have not stored it in the fridge? Any advise would be very appreciated!! Thanks!

-Taryn

 

[LPBeier]

It is best not to fondant a cake until the day before an event. You can make the cake a few days earlier, even fill it, wrap it in plastic wrap tightly and freeze it. Take it out of the freezer and put on the buttercream layer before it totally thaws out. Put in fridge to harden buttercream slightly and then put on the fondant. At this point, the cake should not go back in the fridge or freezer.

Once the cake has been seen and eaten, extras can go in the fridge or freezer, but to do so before can wreck the finish and to leave it for three days fully done in the fridge - with or without fondant - will definitely dry out the cake.

Hope this helps.

 

[Taryn]

Thanks for the reply! I normally would have baked the day of or the day before but this cake was a surprise for my boyfriends birthday and he was out of town the at the time. I had just heard that fondant can keep it fresh! Guess I was wrong :-/

 

[LPBeier]

Fondant can keep it fresh, but it does not do well in the fridge for any length of time. Fondant is sugar and sugar melts in heat or moisture so with the humidity in a fridge being so high, it breaks down the fondant letting air into a cake.

 

[Taryn]

Okay that is great to know! My next fondant cake should be much better

 

[bakechef]

Was the cake made with butter or oil? A cake with butter will be quite firm and appear drier if eaten cold, these are best eaten at room temperature, they can soften up.

Just a thought.

 

[LPBeier]

That makes sense too, BC. The combination of the oil/butter in the cake firming up and the fondant relaxing in the fridge could really do a number on the flavour. The cake should sit out until room temperature before eating to solve both problems if you do have to refrigerate it for awhile.

 

[DaveSoMD]

Also remember that sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it will pull moisture out of things around it, including the air. That is why putting a slice of bread or a apple in a sealed container with cookies keeps them soft. The sugar in the fondant probably pulled the moisture out of the cake since it was since it was wrapped around the cake and then it was all sealed in the container.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

That's what I was thinking, but I'm glad you said it, Dave. I always forget the word for it.

 

[DaveSoMD]

That's what I was thinking, but I'm glad you said it, Dave. I always forget the word for it.

It is the science geek in me.