The Great Cake Experiment: Fondanteded

Monday, October 11, 2010 - Posted by Amanda Bast
Tonight was the riskiest part of the experiment: fondant. Let me start off by saying that fondant does not look edible, and it's really not that great tasting. It tastes like sugar in playdough form. I felt like I was breaking some sort of school rule when I sampled some.
It comes in a brick and you are supposed to knead it (but not too much, or it gets sticky) and then roll it with a rolling pin. I decided to skip the kneading (why? I have no idea. I was getting a little cocky before I even started) and when straight to rolling. This here is the hard blob-o-fondant:


It worked fine, other than it made rolling it out into an ab workout. This either means I don't need to exercise today, or I should really start if mere icing preparation causes me to feel the burn. Now came a challenge. Move the large, flat piece of icing onto the cake. Hmm ok, HOW? The distance is too great!


I did figure it out but experienced some sticking and tearing. And then it looked like a ghost:


At this point in time I looked at my mother and said, "Um...how...?" and then attempted to smooth out the icing. The top is no problem, but the sides caused some trouble. The icing decided to fold and buckle in some places and tear in others. Observe:



BOO TO FONDANT. I admit that I almost had a little, "I tried my best!" moment. I then told myself that it was ok, and I can't be perfect at anything and everything artistic (although I will try my darndest). I think the biggest problem was that I overworked it, and it was beginning to dry out and crack. I will fix this by kneading first before rolling, to heat things up a little. Then came the fun part: colouring the remaining fondant!


A little pink, a little green, a little white, some really cute cookie cutters and some syrup to glue them all together and......


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 TA DA!!!!! It actually turned out much much cuter than I thought it would, and I'm fairly happy considering it was my first go with the stuff. Some of the flowers were strategically placed in an effort to hide the flaws in the white fondant. This picture actually looks worse than the real thing:


 From another angle:


Bird's eye view:


Things I learned:
1. Kelly green colouring gel + a little bit of lemon yellow colouring gel = an ok lime green
2. Knead before rolling to avoid drying out
3. Even "big" mistakes can be covered up by extremely cute flowers
4. Cake boards covered in tinfoil look chintzy and will be replaced with a pretty glass cake plate for the real deal
5. Fondant sticks to itself using water or syrup. It also sticks to fingers that have water or syrup on them.
6. If you put the syrup away before you remember to stick the letters to the board, spit works just as well (EW EW I know that's gross, but no one is going to eat the letters anyway. Relax).
7. This was fun, and with practice I know it will be ridiculous amounts of fun
8. The Bean is way cuter than this cake.