Decorating Red Velvet Cake

by Vivienne
(New Zealand)

Hi, you kindly answered my question on Red Velvet Cakes the other day but I forgot to ask another very important question.

The BrideZilla wants the cake covered in Fondant, so do I still use the Cream cheese filling when covering these cakes in fondant and could there be a reaction between the fondant and filling at the sides of the cake. Should I refrigerate the cakes to keep them firmer for covering...
Also they are being stacked on top of each other so I am concerned about transporting them. Is it best to keep them all separate or in twos.

Hi Vivienne, I would use buttercream filling if possible. If you do use cream cheese filling then make a rim or dam of buttercream around the edges before filling so that there is less chance of the cream cheese icing creeping out. Make sure you crumb coat and then final coat the cake well with buttercream, not cream cheese frosting.

The buttercream will be firmer when cold and hold everything together. It will also cover any of the red color so it will not show through the fondant. Yes keep the cakes cold after icing them and before putting on the rolled fondant. Once the fondant is on the cake do not refrigerate, just keep them in a cool place. The fondant will get shiny and gooey if you refrigerate the cakes. (although they will eventually dry off after removing them) it takes quite a while and it never quite looks as good. I prefer the porcelain finish over the shiny one.

If the cakes are very heavy then I would wait to stack them. I recently found this amazing cake support system that I purchased. I will be using it next week. Take a look at this cake stand (she actually holds the cake upside down and it stays put. I am tired of worrying about my cakes during the delivery and decided it was time. Come back for my review of the Cake Stackers. LOVE IT!!!!

I hope it all goes well and that your bridezilla is happy in the end. :-)