Chocolate Cake with Fondant Icing? Help!

[NeighbourHitMyCar]

After some help please on several fronts!

My niece has asked for a unicorn birthday cake that's chocolate. I've started getting back into baking so had offered

I've got a lovely chocolate cake but am now thinking that a brown unicorn looks a little weird (chocolate buttercream around the outside?). Can I cover with chocolate buttercream and then put pink fondant over the top? Will this look and taste weird?

Also...I've got several layers and I think chocolate buttercream inside and all around might be too much. So I was toying with either raspberry jam and cream inside or chocolate cream cheese icing to mix it up

As you can tell I'm still in amateur stages and mostly doing this as a fun activity with my son but I'm now overthinking it all!

Thanks

It will be fine!

Fondant, ready roll or sugar paste icing is thick and opaque. You won’t see any chocolate coming through.

@JustinThyme thank you so much for the reassurance. I was more thinking from a taste perspective, will it taste weird to have ready roll fondant over chocolate buttercream?

Could you do chocolate buttercream on the inside and vanilla buttercream on the outside. You can add food colouring to turn it pink and throw over some sprinkles and sparkles.

You can never have too much buttercream!!!!

@StormingNorman that's a good idea... you don't think it'll be too sweet? The only thing is my sons 'helped' with decanting into the cake tins so they look a bit wobbly. Might need to fondant to even it out!

I'd do chocolate cake with plain buttercream inside, and as a crumb coat, then white/pink fondant on top.

Any fondant covered cake I have ever made or seen made has been buttercream filled and covered beforehand. It tends to be fruit cake that isn't before fondant goes on.

My tip would be to cover the cake in buttercream and get that as smooth as you can and fill in any wobbly bits with buttercream before putting on the fondant. The fondant will work much smoother and easier going onto a flat smooth crumb coated cake. There are various youtube tutorials you can watch but I do this using an off set spatula.

Another tip when doing the buttercream, have a pint of cold water handy and keep dipping the spatula into the water before applications onto the cake, this will help stop it getting really sticky and coming away from the cake taking half the cake with you (if you see what I mean).

Also, no I don't think it will be too sweet, but I would use a really good quality cocoa powder for the buttercream (Menier or similar) so you get a proper chocolate taste rather than a superficial sweet taste. If you are really worried about it being too sweet you can always add in a bit of cream cheese.

It’s completely normal to have chocolate buttercream under fondant icing you’re overthinking this.

This is a cake I did last week, chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream and covered in fondant. Excuse the phallic looking bit sticking up, it was a mushroom stalk and I topped it with a mushroom head before it went out the door.

What about a white chocolate cake? Or a normal chocolate cake covered in white chocolate?

Not at all, very common.

Fondant’s basically revoltingly sweet anyway. That’s why kids like it and about half the adults leave it. Don’t overthink it.

I always do buttercream for the flavour, and fondant mostly for the aesthetics and fully expect it to be picked off and chucked in the bin!

I would advise against cream cheese icing, or a cream filling, as the cake will then need to be refrigerated, and that can cause fondant icing to 'sweat' as it attracts the moisture in the fridge.

Chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream and pink fondant sounds perfect.

Cocoa will take the sweetness off the buttercream, and you could always add a bit of melted dark chocolate too to counteract the sweetness.

Fondant will never even things out. Think of fondant as a satin dress. Not very forgiving, accentuates every lump and bump! Particularly if you’re not very experienced with working with it.

I’d go with either a vanilla buttercream or white chocolate ganache on the outside. A tart raspberry jam layered into the filling adds a bit of sharpness if you’re worried about sweetness.

Exactly as said above, fondant isn't for evening out, you need a smooth surface to put it on (love the satin dress analagy, will be using that!) or the bumps will show.

Fine to have filling and covering under fondant buttercream, that's basically what all those cakes are other than the few that have ganache under the fondant. A good dark chocolate ganache can be nice with the sweetness of fondant but don't think it's really worth the bother in this case, more a wedding cake sort of thing.

Dont put fresh cream or cream cheese anywhere in the cake fillings as fondant cake is best kept at room temp and either would mean refrigerating it. A nice skim of raspberry jam would be nice with the buttercream filling but all choc is fine too.

I would just to buttercream without fondant personally. You can use a piping tip or a fork to give it a softer furry finish. Do a cumb coat first and chill then a second finishing layer. Use a cake smoother or something with a straight edge and a turn table ideally to spin and smooth the cake. A bit harder without a turn table. Once you have that later smooth, add your finishing details, fur texture or use white chocolate buttons for texture, use strawberry laces for a mane etc. agree rainbow sprinkles are your friend.

I just wanted to come back to this thread and say thank you so so much for all the fantastic and helpful advice!

I used the Brooklyn blackout cake recipe from hummingbird bakery and did chocolate buttercream with raspberry jam in the middle. Then I covered it with pink vanilla buttercream but I did add some cream cheese as suggested which did take away some of the sweetness and added a really yummy flavour !

Thank you as well for all the hints and tips. I had never done a crumb layer before but it really did help! And to the helpful poster who recommended having cold water for the pallet knife.

The cake was a triumph and more importantly, it really did taste yummy. The only thing I really couldn't work out was how to get a very smooth buttercream finish. It still had lumps and bumps whatever I did. But it added to the authenticity of a home-made cake!

Well done, OP. It sounds amazing. I think with the smoothness of buttercream, it's just practice, practice, and practice until perfect. Use the offset spatula so you have a good angle, a rotating plate stand, and keep dipping the spatula in water and smoothing until you get it right. I know it has taken me many cakes to perfect the technique. I suppose it rather depends on how many cakes you make!