Amount of buttercream / fondant on cakes these days

[Ceàrdaman]

Is it me or is the amount of buttercream / fondant on cakes these days, just totally bonkers?

It's like the cake isn't important, but the toppings are the main event now?

Sure they need to look nice, but jeez

I guess IABU if the decorations and fondant are the important bits

And IANBU if the cake should take centre stage

(Images from google)

I dont think the GBBO look edible, maybe one or 2 in the last 5 or so years would be about it for me

I scrape it off! Such a waste but it's too cloying. Give me a simple iced bun or a fresh cream scone over all that icing 😋

Is fondant the same as sugar paste - in which case I hate it. Someone at a family Christmas gathering made a Christmas cake iced with sugar paste - absolute travesty!!! It should be royal icing!!

Coffee flavoured Buttercream is nice on a coffee and walnut cake - but not bucket loads swirled onto a fairy cake. Prefer glacé in a thin glaze.

Dh and I are a perfect match in this instance; I like the cake, he likes the icing.

Should be a Tinder question

Agree!

And cakes these days are some TALL.
I guess, for social media.

Proper buttercream yum but even so there's a limit.
Fondant- looks good but I can't eat it.Yuk.

Ganache, proper home made ganache - as much as possible. Doesn't even need cake underneath 😀

Despise fondant, it's purely for decoration.

Buttercream can go both ways. A proper buttercream is lovely, especially in the right flavour. I do think the giant cupcake swirls are a bit much at once.

But a lot of shops and decorators don't use real butter as it's expensive and not as stable. It's one thing to do some details in a mock buttercream or sugar paste (think: Flowers) but it should not be the filling or covering for a cake.

A well done buttercream provides a textural and flavour contrast to the cake, and keeps it from drying out.

Bring back butterfly buns!

Yes, I do this as well!! I’m about to look up the book recommended by pp - plain cake appreciation society. Sounds great.

Hard agree here. The topping shouldn't be more than 1/3 of the cake and it's often over half! Too much. And I do t want to eat a load of glitter and crap.

I make old school seventies cupcakes with boring white icing sugar and a smartie on them. Delicious with a cup of tea and the right balance of icing ro cake imo.

I often make them. And cakes topped with glacé icing topped with half a cherry or sprinkles.
A basic sponge recipe, 6 ounces each of butter, sugar and S.R. Flour and three medium eggs makes two dozen.

I am definitely not a fan of over decorated cakes. The elaborate cakes in the GBBO show stopper round look inedible.

Yep. Obesity crisis.

These cakes are more for Instagram than eating. I like a bit of icing within reason but I'd rather a lemon drizzle or a piece of good carrot cake than the sickly monstrosity in the OP any day.

It usually hides an inferior cake

Horrific and the sign of cakes that are nasty to eat. Homemade butter cream can be lovely, ganache a good thing, Italian meringue a win but any good cake needs little really. As for the horror of the weird sweet shaving cream that replaces actual whipped cream - yuck.

I'm old school. Give me a rich fruit cake (even better with cherries) marzipan and a layer of Royal icing.
Reader, I married a baker.

99% of the time I would say. I will never forget paying a popular local baker to make my Ds birthday cake, he wanted a Lego brick cake. Oh it looked the business absolutely nailed the design- it tasted awful!! So dry to the point of tasting stale. What a waste of money.

I’ve just ordered the plain cake appreciation book, looking forward to trying them out.

Bring back:

Calling it butter icing, not buttercream
Proper small fairy cakes with glacé icing
Reserving butter icing for butterfly cakes
Ugly but delicious food instead of Instagrammable cake

Really want a school fair-type fairy cake now, with a couple of jelly diamonds or angelica squidged on top of a smear of cracked water icing

It can make cakes very sickly.

I also think it's weird when cupcakes are decorated with whole jammie dodgers - because that's a biscuit, not a cake sprinkle.

Agreed about finding them too dry. I thought it was because I was buying shop bought cakes but plenty of homemade ones seem the same here. It must be a cultural difference.

I dislike fondant but enjoy buttercream on a celebration cake.

YANBU!

Give me a victoria sponge with a sprinkle of icing sugar on top, or a butterfly bun with a small spoonful of buttercream and jam to stick the wings to, or thin layer of plain icing with a glaze cherry on top, or a little milk chocolate drizzled over or even just plain cake!

A lady at work is a fantastic baker, but everything is so rich- think brownies baked with chunks of toffee and Maltesers in and cakes topped with oreos and chopped up mars bar etc. I feel sick after eating this stuff!

Italian or Swiss meringue buttercream is much nicer and far less sweet than the American style buttercream, but more difficult to make. Fondant should be thin but it's difficult to handle and get right if it is.

It's always been buttercream to me! (and I'm old)