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I’m making a goth themed cake so the main cake is black. The main icing on it is melting I put it in fridge after I’d done it to see of that would help and it did it went back to normal and looked great so I took it out later to put the decorations on and it only has to be put the fridge for two minutes and it’s melting again. I always put my cakes in fridge and I’ve never had this problem before. Any ideas what I could do. X

Well after 5 hours in front of the fan and new ribbon and extra flowers to cover up some bad bits. I’ve managed to save it. Thank you so much for all your help xx

Hi Lisajl

Normally the moisture in the fridge will make the icing melt. Icing absorbs moisture which weakens the structure making it soft and gloopy. If you’ve never had this problem before, have you done something differently this time? have you changed your brand of icing? If the icing still looks ok all you can do, short of re-icing the cake, is to leave it out of the fridge and and allow it to dry. Running a fan near the cake will help it dry.

* Black and other dark coloured icings are more prone to melting. This is because the amount of dye required to achieve depth of colour changes the consistency of the icing.

Hi I haven’t change brands it’s all renshaw. Only thing that’s
different is it’s all black. It’s not sinking or anything and my ganache under Is sturdy just gone very sticky. It went like this before I put it in the fridge. I’m worried if I take it out the fridge over night I’ll wake up to a soggy mess.

I think you’ll find that it is the black icing. Renshaws used to be the brand I used but I changed because of a few problems. More comments from other members here:

renshaws sugarpaste

Madeitwithlove need help

You’ll need to let it dry out on the counter. Inside the fridge it is asorbing more and more moisture. When it comes out to room temperature it forms dew making the icing even wetter. If you leave it out the moisture will dry off but it will leave a shine on the cake which sometimes wears off. The black paste is very soft to start with, that’s why it felt so sticky.

I took it out over night to see if that helped. This morning it’s a melted mess. She is picking it up at lunch time. It’s currently in front of the fan hope that will help it some how.

That’s a terrible shame! either way it will have melted. Even if you had kept it in the fridge, once it came out the melting would have started. As rule of thumb cakes iced in sugarpaste should not be placed in the fridge. The moisture in the fridge atmosphere condenses on the icing and the result is as seen. There are lots of similar questions on the site, here are a couple:

can fondant decorated cakes survive in the fridge

fondant moisture

And if you type in the search box ‘cake in fridge’, ‘fondant in fridge’ ‘melting fondant’
there are other similar themed questions. You’ve been particularly unlucky because of the colour which is soft to begin with.

Well after 5 hours in front of the fan and new ribbon and extra flowers to cover up some bad bits. I’ve managed to save it. Thank you so much for all your help xx

Thank goodness you managed to save it. I felt sad for all your hard work going to waste. Black paste is always very soft as is the chocolate. The paste can be firmed up by adding 1 teaspoon of gum tragacanth or tylose powder to 500g of paste. Let it rest overnight to activate the gum. The paste will feel firmer and go on more easily. The Carmas Massa brand also make coloured paste which is firmer. See the colours here:
http://www.cake-stuff.com/edibles-c1/sugarpaste-fondant-icing-c8/massa-ticino-m61
Many other cake decorating stores stock it now so please do shop around for best prices and postal costs. xx