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Black Chandelier Cake
Icing and Fondant
With recipes in hand, you're going to need two 12-inch cakes, two 10-inch cakes and two 8-inch cakes. You're also going to need a batch of buttercream and a couple of batches of rolled fondant. In fact, you're going to need somewhere around five to six pounds of fondant, if you use the recipe from the book. Recipes vary, and depending on what you make or buy, you may need as much as eight pounds.
You'll need to cut your cakes into hexagon shapes before you do anything else. Put a hexagon over a matching cake round and hold it in place as you gently cut away the sides, using the hexagon as a template. Do this for each cake, and then set one of each size on top of the hexagons. Put as much buttercream as you feel is needed on each layer, but remember that each slice will have fondant with it too, and that's a lot of sugar. Anything more than 1/4-inch is probably way too much.
When you have a layer iced, go ahead and set the corresponding size layer on top of it, being sure to match up the sides. Mine was a lot easier to handle because I froze all of my layers after cutting them into hexagons, and they ended up freezing to their cake rounds. All I had to do was position them, and then gently peel away the cake round.
When you have the layers assembled, you need to ice the outside of them as well. This serves two purposes, and they're both related to the fondant. Not only does the buttercream act as a glue to keep the fondant in place, it also acts as a cushion when you form the fondant around the cake. Without it, you run the risk of having bumpy fondant that just falls off the first chance it gets. Make sure you get the sides and the top, and don't go overboard.
With your layers completely iced, you need to roll out the fondant. It may be a little hard if you used the same recipe as I did. Give it ten seconds in the microwave and then try to knead it. If it's still too hard, give it another five seconds and try kneading it again. Be careful not to heat it too much; it gets gooey when it gets too hot. When it's nice and workable, sprinkle a little powdered sugar on your rolling area just in case, and roll out some fondant. Start with about two pounds of it for the biggest layer.
Carefully place the fondant over the cake layer and form it into place with your hands. If you have a fondant smoother (which I didn't), now is the time to use it. Be careful when you get to the edges. The fondant is pretty elastic, but not so much that it won't crease on you and make the cake look sloppy.
When you have it completely formed around the cake, use a pizza cutter to cut away at the base. Be careful not to cut too much. If there's a little extra you can always trim it, but if you trim it too much, then it's really hard to repair.
