Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi there – I’m planning to put a fruit cake onto an iced board.Do I need to put something under the fruit cake to stop it ‘leaking’ or do they not leak?! Thank you!

Hi Aileen
Just put your cake onto a piece of thin cake card, the same size as the cake, so it can’t be seen. You can also just cut out the fondant, which would be under the cake, but I’d still use a thin cake board under the cake, regardless of it being fruit or sponge.

Hi Aileen

If you don’t want to put fondant under our fruit cake Paul’s method in the tradition fruit cake tutorial is an ideal way to cover a cake board. It also saves a lot of icing. I never place my fruit cakes directly onto a foil cake board because fruit can sometimes react with foil. I cut a round or what ever shape of parchment and stick it to the board with a little royal icing (make it up with the roll out icing with some boiled water) and place the cake on that, again securing it down with RI. I have recently seen very thin plastic plate mats in my local caravan centre which I may consider using this year, might do the job and are reusable.

Sorry Aileen, no fruit cakes do not leak out onto the icing.

Hi Aileen, My mum always used to ice her board first then place the fruit cake on top. From what I remember she never had a problem with the cake actually staining the icing however as others have mentioned thats quite an expensive use of Fondant. I prefer Pauls method of cutting a smaller circle and dropping the board icing over the cake but I do place a parchment circle between the base of the cake and the foil board, Apparently the fruit can have a reaction with the metal foil on a cake board.

Thanks everyone for your help – So much to learn!

You can also put a very thin layer of marzipan on the bottom of the cake first then turn it the right way up and marzipan the rest as usual!

Good morning i put on fondant icing on some fruits, just realized they are leaking

Hi donphillips 352

Where are they leaking from? If it’s from the bottom, place the cake on a thin card and then place it back on the covered board. If it’s leaking all over, this may be due to overfeeding or feeding too close to icing. In which case, the cake will have to be stripped of icing and allowed to dry for a week or so. Cover the cake up in parchment paper and let it rest in an airtight container before re-icing.