Hi.  My daughter’s birthday is coming up and I want to make her a Barbie Doll Cake.

I have seen some really nice pics of these cakes covered in fondant.  But the last time I used fondant and kept in the fridge, the fondant decorations ‘melted’ away (soft & gooey). 

The party is this Saturday and I can’t take time off on Friday to make the cake.  I was thinking of making the decorations starting tonight, bake the cake on Thursday night and covering/decorating the cake on Friday night.  My only problem is I don’t know where to store the fondant decorations and the cake after it has been covered.  The fridge seems logical with the 85 deg weather but am afraid it will become soft?  And if I leave the cake out, I am afraid the MBC which I want to use to fill and crumb coat will melt?

Is it ok to slice the cake into three layers and fill with MBC (given the height of the Barbie)?  Any suggestions/tips?  Help Please!! :(

Hi jlllyn,

Rose’s fondant is good at room temp for up to a month. If you do a search on the forum, you’ll find several discussions of how fondant often melts when refrigerated. Not always—it seems to depend on how humid your particular refrigerator is. Her mousseline buttercream is good for two days at room temp. These notes, by the way, accompany each of Rose’s recipes in The Cake Bible. Look on the margins of the recipes under “Store” and “Pointers for Success”.

So it seems to me that it would be best to store both the decorations and the cake, once completed, at room temp in an air-conditioned room. If you don’t have one, do an experiment now with leaving a piece of fondant out on your counter for several hours or overnight to see what happens. It’s counter-intuitive, perhaps, but room temp of 85 degrees is going to be better than a humid fridge. As for the mousseline, it’s Rose’s most tolerant buttercream for heat. It will be fine. The only time you really need refrigeration is when your cake and/or fillings have a lot of whipping cream or other ingredients subject to food safety concerns at room temp.

I’ve never done a doll cake. I know that Hector and others have. They will probably have some excellent advice for you on other aspects of this project. Good luck!

Carol

I’ve done doll cakes covered in buttercream, but not fondant.  If there is any humidity in your house, I think you’ll have the best success if your fondant decorations are flat, not dimensional - hope it works out for you!