I wanted to make my friend a cake for her surprise party yesterday and my sister made a very cool fondant cake a couple weeks ago and she inspired me to try one. I never really thought I would try one so this was definitely going to be a first.You have to make the fondant icing a day or two before and it is so easy and CHEAP! I had no idea how cheap it was. My sister found a yummy recipe on
http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm This woman makes a fondant that actually tastes good! It is made merely of marshmallows and powdered sugar. Most nasty tasting fondants have some type of yucky frosting glue in them and they taste bad. This so didn’t!
Here are the ingredients for the frosting…
So ridiculously cheaper then buying it from a bakery.
All you do is melt the marshmallows for 30 seconds at a time in the microwave (16 oz bag) and then add 3/4 of the powdered sugar and kneed it. This is the hardest part as this stuff gets stiff but it is kind of fun too and messy! The lady on the web site says add the whole bag of sugar eventually but I made 2 batches of this and my fondant worked better leaving it at 3/4 of a bag.
I also did one batch with Jet puffed marshamallows and one with the generic store brand (half the price) and both batches turned out exactly the same.
This is the finished product after 10 minutes of kneading!
This goes double wrapped int he fridge for at least a day (it can stay in there quite a long time if needed).
Then you put it in the microwave for 10-20 seconds and knead it again til it is a nice stretchy texture. You may have to add 1/2 tsp of water at a time to get it back.
Every time you knead the frosting you coat your hands with shortening and a lot! Coat the surface you are kneading it onto as well. That is why the shortening is in the first pic, it’s for the hands and counter.
Roll it out with a roller. I bought a fondant roller for $5.99 at the local meijer store here or you can use a regular roller. The only thing I would do different next time is buy a large roller because I could not use the measuring bands for the large fondant but could use them on all the decorating parts!
When you get it about 1/8 inch think you very carefuly place it on the cake. It wills tick to the counter so make sure you are using cornstarch underneath (generously) and on your roller so you can pick it up. I treid just using the powdered sugar at first and realized real quick that cornstarch works much better and does not add any taste to the fondant.
Make sure when you roll it you measure the cake and roll it at least 1 inch larger then you need. I placed the cake on a piece of cardboard so I could easily lift it up onto a paint can to trim the edges nice and close with a sharp knife. Then I transfered it to the larger base that I foiled so I could add a border.
Now you can decorate.
I kneaded color into my fondant with regular baking food coloring. You want to store it white and color it when you are ready to decorate.
Then I used a pizza cutter to make ribbons and cookie cutters to make circles. Add a little water (very little) to make it stick and just be creative! You can buy some rollers to hel make fancy edges but cold not find any locally so I just used straight edge. I want to buy a roller for next ti me though:)
To make a bow you simply take small piece of fondant (5 inches) and make a loop and store them on the sides (not in the fridge but room temp (for 12-24 hours). A day later you can stick them to the top of the cake where ever you want. I tried to do this with pure water at first but decided to use fondant instead. I just took a piece of fondant (size of a quarter) and kept adding water until it was more runny and added it to the top of the cake and the bows stuck beautifully!
The tissue is in there to help it keep it’s shape. Be careful though, if the fondant is too wet the tissue sticks!
Here is the finished product. Not too bad for a first (I don’t think anyway)!
You have to use dowels or something like that to help the two layers not slide around.
What I did not do (and I will next time) is keep the top layer on some type of hard round surface before I dowel it on a cake. I will probably just purchase something that is made to layer cakes. The next day when I took the cake out of the box at the party the bottom layer sunk a bit because the top was so heavy, but I still got a lot of compliments on it so it was no big deal.
DO NOT store this cake int eh fridge or in plastic. It must be stored in room temp and in a box so it does not sweat!
There you go…Happy decorating everyone!
I will try this again fro my daughter’s April birthday!
It was a fraction of the cost of buying it pre-made!
Tawna
I am posting from amazon what I am buying before I make my daughters cake but you don’t NEED them but it will make it easier!
I am torn between the two ribbon cutters. I think it may be more benefiical to buy the more expensive one because it “looks” like you can do more edges with it. I need to check that out! I am now going to be always on a “mission” to find the smalles cookie cutters I can find, and a variety, so I can have many options rather then just circles to add to my future cakes.
If anyone else tries this please share your first experience with both myself and my readers. Add a link in your comment where we can go see the cake.
