Let Them Eat Cake!

I wanted to share some personal insight and hopefully answer a few questions about fondant and what it is exactly!

First, let me start by saying that fondant is not your grandmama's icing!  Decorating a cake with fondant is completely different than those elaborately piped buttercream cakes with the clear pillars, cascades of buttercream flowers and tiny running fountains that were popular back in the eighties and nineties. People forget that cakes have trends too.

What are you eating when you bite into a cake covered in fondant? Sugar. Water. Glucose. And that's basically it.
Fondant is so impossibly smooth and elegant that one must rapidly assume that it is an invention that roughly coincides with the birth of Alton Brown. But that would be a mistake because fondant actually has early roots start back in Renaissance times. It was Marie Antoinette's infamous saying about letting the poor eat cake that really got the ball rolling. The poor really did love eating cake, but they couldn't afford the pure sugar with which to make it, so poor bakers made a paste made from sugar and almonds which they molded and sculpted into decorations. Shows like "Cake Boss" and "Ace of Cakes" have greatly boosted the popularity of modern fondant from use mainly with wedding cakes to really any celebration!



freshly made rolled fondant of my own recipe

While fondant looks like it would be easy to manipulate and work with, unfortunately, this is not always the case. Fondant is finicky stuff! It attracts lint like nobody's business (let me tell you how annoying this lovely trait is when you finally get that giant piece of white fondant rolled out perfectly smooth only to look down and peer into a sea of little black specks...grrr!) but it's also sensitive to temperature and humidity. My advice is to make sure you start with a VERY clean work surface, clean tools and clean hands. Keep a container of vegetable shortening (like Crisco) and confectioners sugar around to help prevent sticking. You use the shortening by rubbing a thin film on your workspace before rolling, when you want your fondant to stick initially but then release. The confectioners sugar is used to dust the workspace and tools when you need the fondant to move around freely (like when making ruffles). You can also kneed some shortening into the fondant if it becomes dry and hard to work.

For novice bakers and those just starting to venture into the world of fondant, I highly suggest using a prepackaged fondant strictly for ease of use. The more daring decorator may opt to make their own fondant in an effort to achieve a better taste and more appealing texture. Personally, I use 2 fondant recipes to make my own so that I can customize taste to a particular client's order. One is a basic marshmallow fondant and one is a slightly more involved rolled fondant.

The most appealing aspect of fondant is the velvety smooth finished look that it leaves on cakes. This is the part that I would say the vast majority of people struggle with. As a reminder, I not only decorate and sell cakes, but I am a Wilton Method instructor as well. This means that teach people how to cover cakes in fondant all the time. Here are a few tips and tricks that I like to use:

• Kneed your fondant well before attempting to roll it out, the warmth from your hands helps make it more elastic and pliable.
• Check your fondant often when rolling to ensure it is not sticking to your counter or workspace. There is nothing more frustrating than going to transfer your perfectly rolled fondant onto a cake only to realize that is stuck to the counter!
• For very new fondant users, I highly suggest getting a mat such as Wilton's Roll and Cut Mat to roll your fondant onto. Coat the whole mat surface with a film of Crisco before rolling, so that the fondant will stick initially. When you are ready to lay the fondant onto the cake, just pick up the whole mat and flip it over onto the cake, then carefully peel off the mat. Voila!
• Start smoothing the top of the cake first (after you have applied the fondant of course) and slowly work your way down a little at a time. If you find a 'ruffle' gently pull it away from the side of the cake and even it out as you smooth down the sides.
• If you find any air bubbles after you have finished smoothing, simply poke them with a clean straight pin to release trapped air.

I always like to remind my students that even if this is what I do, that most certainly does not make it the ONLY way to do it! There is a whole world of cake out there! Go explore it!