Fondant is a special covering used for cakes and cupcakes instead of traditional frosting. There are three types of fondant, each having a specific use. They are: rolled fondant, poured fondant and sculpted fondant. Fondant is more often used on birthday cakes, and almost never used on wedding cakes.
You will need
- Baked cake
- Cake board
- Butter cream icing
- Spatula
- Rolled fondant
- Gel food colouring (optional)
- Icing sugar
- Rolling pin
- Cake smoother tool
- Prepared poured fondant
- Prepared sculpting fondant
Instructions
Rolled fondant
- Secure baked cakes to a cake board by dabbing some icing onto the board. Place the cake on top of it and frost the cake with a thin layer of butter cream icing. The icing will act as a base for the rolled fondant.
- If colouring is desired, apply a small amount of gel food colouring to the ball of fondant before kneading. Make a small hole in the top of the ball and add the gel; knead until the desired shade is reached.
- Knead the fondant to a pliable consistency so that it can be rolled out further with the rolling pin.
- Sprinkle it with a little confectioner’s sugar if the fondant feels sticky.
- Dust a surface with icing sugar and set the fondant on it. Roll it out to ¼ of an inch. When the fondant is rolled to that extent, roll it up onto the rolling pin.
- Unroll the fondant onto the cake with the rolling pin until the cake is draped with the rolled fondant. Carefully smooth the fondant with your palm or a cake smoother, to work out small bubbles or ripples in the fondant.
- Cut off excess with fondant cutters or a sharp knife. If desired, add a second layer of fondant, repeating prior steps.
- Allow to dry for a few hours.
Poured fondant
- Pour a prepared liquid fondant on the centre of the cake.
- Use a spatula to smooth the fondant over the cake and down the sides.
- the fondant to dry.
Sculpting fondant
- Break off a piece of prepared sculpting fondant.
- Form the figure of an object, flower, person or animal.
- Use food colouring or fondant sculpting tools and technique as desired. Sculpting fondant is not used to cover the cake but to instead make cake decorations such as cake toppers.
- Add completed sculpted cake decorations to the rolled or poured fondant cake.
Do
- Add a little bit of colour at a time when colouring fondants and make more fondant than needed. For marbled fondant, add colour to rolled fondant, but knead only until colour is partially mixed instead of completely.
Do not
- Get rolled fondant wet, or it will become gluey and will not be useable.
