Covering cake with fondant

This blog post is mainly for myself but may just be useful for others as well. My husband always laughs when I open up my own blog because I can't find the hard copy of  a recipe  that I posted! Bookmarks work well but I thought it would just be easier to have everything in one place. The motivation for this came yesterday as I was making a cake for one of my best friends birthdays. I was flattening out the fondant and wondering why it looked so irregular. Then my beloved husband asked, "Don't you have this white plastic thing to level it out?" How could I have forgotten? I have no idea. After that the cake didn't look quite so bad but it would have looked better if I had never touched it in the first place!

Cake Recipes 

These are the recipes I use if I am covering it with fondant:

1. http://www.glorioustreats.com/2011/07/perfect-vanilla-cupcakes-recipe.html - twice the recipe gives a good sized 9 inch cake. Best to bake in two 9" spring forms and then split each into two so that you have 4 layers.
2. https://vinitasfamilyblog.blogspot.de/2015_12_01_archive.html - Red velvet (chocolate) cake - easy to make, stays moist.
3. http://www.food.com/recipe/spagos-chocolate-chiffon-cake-37811 - Chocolate cake - easy to carve, stays moist, difficult to make, tends to deflate if you over beat it.

Butter Cream

For the inside of the cake. 1:2, butter: icing sugar plus a dash of milk or cream, flavouring and colouring. Beat it until it is light and fluffy.

Ganache

A very important part of a fondant cake. The best underlay for fondant. Here are somethings that will help:

1. The ganacherator - to calculate how much ganache you will need (note the values here assume that you are filling the cake with ganache too. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28726919/The%20Ganacherator.xlsx 
2. How to ganache a cake - absolutely wonderful tutorial. Only thing I have trouble getting right is the consistency of the ganache. Usually dries up before I can really smooth it out. http://sweetnessandbite.com/2014/10/how-to-ganache-a-cake/

Covering with Fondant

If only I had a tutorial for this one. I have used a multiple of different sources over the years. One thing I can say is that you must have the correct equipment. A non-stick rolling pin is a must as is the cheap plastic tool to flatten the final product (a smoother). I never use icing sugar to roll out my fondant. It makes a mess in the kitchen and everything gets sticky. I use cornstarch instead. Some advice ⁠⁠though from my wonderful cousin... never use cornstarch if you are covering a fruit cake, it might explode! My cousin does this professionally so she should know. 
I have an old tea towel which I have filled with corn starch and secured the ends with a rubber band. This creates a corn starch puff! I use this to dust the surface of everything to prevent sticking. 

This video shows you pretty clearly how to put your fondant onto the cake and get a round cake covered. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vecmy4nKT-A (note the little white things she/he uses to smooth the surface!