Fondant. That thing that most people don't know what it is when you say the word but when seen on professionally done cakes earns "oohs" and "ahhs" and is a staple in the wedding cake industry. For those who don't know, fondant is basically an edible play-doh made of sugar. While it is sweet, it doesn't necessarily taste the best but boy does it make for some pretty cakes. My journey with fondant began over two years ago when I thought it would be fun to make a cake for my friend, Charlotte's, birthday. Now that I think back to it, it was definitely a naive notion on my part that I thought I could pick up fondant for the first time and make a presentable cake. My inspiration and goal... a polka-dotted cake with a bow on top. After many hours of trial and error, this was the end result:
The bow actually turned out surprisingly well after half a dozen attempts; what I didn't like was the folding of the fondant at the bottom of the top tier and the less than perfect shape of both tiers. Aside from that, Charlotte was ecstatic and thankful for the homemade treat.
Since then, I have done a few cakes including one for Mardi Gras and a friend's husband. My perfectionist quality consistently prevents me from loving the end result 100% but I have been happy with how much I have learned so far. Of course I didn't take pictures of the cakes I have made since Charlotte's, but just this past week I made a "gender reveal" cake for a co-worker. As this is a relatively new concept, a gender reveal cake is the center of baby showers and parties where an expecting couple surrounds themselves with loved ones and gets the surprise of a lifetime when they find out what they're having. I spent a week researching cakes in search of creative inspiration when I finally developed my plan and set out to Wal-Mart for the supplies. Cake making is a relatively cheap process and yes I do use boxed cake mixes. Funfetti is just too delicious for me to think I can do better. Where the costs come in is in buying the fondant. You have several choices in buying fondant; you can buy sheets (which saves the efforts behind the rolling pin), pre-colored fondant, or plain white fondant. The benefit to buying white fondant is the endless amount of possibilities in colors as you experiment with your own dye kit; the downside... the cramping in your hands as you knead in the color to perfect it. If you are ever looking for fondant, you can always visit your local Michaels or the cake-making section in Wal-Mart. I think it is also a special touch to put the cake on a decorative piece of metallic cardboard.
After baking the cake, letting it cool, making cupcakes on the side, and icing the cake, this was the end result for the gender reveal. I wish I had a picture of the inside but I used Funfetti cake and dyed the cream cheese frosting a shade of baby blue.
On a side note, not a fondant cake, but a pretty awesome ice cream cake I made for my husband, then fiance, for his birthday a year and a half ago. The several pounds of ice cream and crumbled brownie made for a very heavy, but delicious, cake. If you haven't tried it, making an ice cream cake is a harder endeavor than you'd expect.
This is just the beginning, please continue to check back for bigger and better cakes to come!!
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