How Do I Make a Fondant Cake?

They are VERY easy. I have THE best recipe for home made fondant. Do not buy the wilton fondant (it tastes HORRIBLE).

Here is the recipe for the fondant. Go to the website for step by step directions with pictures on hw to make it (basically you melt the marshmellows in the microwave and kneed powder sugar and crisco in it). It tastes WONDERFUL and always makes a beautiful cake.

Fondant Icing 101 – Marshmallow (MM) Fondant
http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm

16 ounces white mini-marshmallows (use a good quality brand)
2 to 5 tablespoons water
2 pounds icing sugar (please use C&H Cane Powdered Sugar for the best results)
½ cup Crisco shortening (you will be digging into it so place in a very easily accessed bowl)

TIPS:

• To make bottom of cake look nice you can lay a ribbon or ruffle of fondant along the bottom. Lay when fondant is moist (not dry)
• Can use water as a glue when attaching fondant to fondant (I’ve also used butter cream frosting)
• If making a jelly center in a cake make a butter cream “dam” circle of icing to contain jelly
* if you color fondant ONLY use gel coloring (eg wilton brand) – liquid food coloring will make fondant gummy
* if you color fondant you can place a chunk of fondant in a zip lock bag, add gel food coloring and kneed coloring into fondant while in the baggie so it doesn’t get on your hands

After you make your cake and ice it then lay fondant on top. after laying the fondant over it you can decorate it a variety of ways – use cookie cutters to cut fondant pieces (cuts easy like elastic playdoh), use decorating tips and icing, etc. For example, one shower cake I made the person did not know the sex of the baby so I placed green question marks all over the cake (I used a cookie cutter), another cake I use the pattern (birds) from the comforter the person registered for (went to the website, copied the image, pasted in word, expanded the picture, printed it, cut it out and placed it on top of rolled fondant - you can use a toothpick to poke holes around picture, remove the picture and cut along the outline), another cake when asked the person said she wanted her son to be an educational lawyer so I drew a book and a justice scale on the cake.

Good luck and have a blast! :)

I am a cake decorator and my suggestion, since you haven't worked with fondant, is to make your favorite cake, ice it in buttercream frosting and then play around with the fondant using cookie cutters or the sets of cutters you can find at wal-mart/michaels made for fondant. You can attach the cute shapes to the sides/top of the cake with just a little dab of water on the back or some corn syrup. You can buy Wilton premade in white or colors. It is better tasting than it used to be. You could do circles, circle cut-outs, squares, or shapes like duckies, any cookie cutter shape you can find-just use your imagination!

Having never worked with fondant you would be setting yourself up for frustration and disappointment by trying to do a cake for something important like a shower the first time out using it. If you don't know how to work with it (and that comes from practice) you will be ready to pull your hair out trying to make your cake perfect. It takes a practiced hand and skill working the fondant to get that smooth, porcelain look.

Check out wilton.com and cakecentral.com for great beginner info and simple ideas using fondant without having to cover the entire cake.

And are you thinking 2 layers or 2 tiers? If you are making a tiered cake, that requires special construction of the cake so it is stable and doesn't collapse. 2 layers is just what you think of as a traditional cake-layer of cake, filling and layer of cake then all covered with icing.

Have fun with it!

Fondant is ridiculously easy. You bake and ice the cake. You need icing, or the fondant won't stick in place. Then you roll out the fondant to pie crust thickness and set it on top (use your forearms to carry it, or slide it off of a cutting board... fondant stretches like mad... so if you don't want holes... it needs to be supported). The single biggest trick is to have enough that the fondant is CUT around the base of the cake to fit. (aka use at least 1/2 more than you think you'll need). A pizza wheel is my favorite tool for trimming off the skirt so it's even with the base.

I suggest that you Google fondant and decorating with fondant on the Internet to see a recipe. This might help you decide if doing this would be within your skill level. Have you seen the TV program called Cake something or other. It's on cable or satellite and shows teams in competition with each other. Their creations are very complicated but you would get an idea of what is involved.

As I remember from years ago that the pliable fondant was difficult to make to the right texture for forming. There is a fondant frosting which is just poured.

Here is the address to the first answer when I Googled decorating with fondant.

http://www.squidoo.com/decorate-with-fondant

My friend works with fondant. You can either buy the fondant ready-made or make it yourself. I've got the fondant recipe my friend uses here (http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm); and "how to 'dense-up' a cake mix" here (http://baking911.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=cakebaking...) because the weight of fondant will collapse light cakes, so you need at least more eggs than normal, and maybe some other stuff too. Home-made cakes tend to be heavier than cakes made from a mix, so you may not need too much "doctoring" if you bake from scratch.

My friend frosts the cake first, to make a smooth and pliable surface for the fondant; and then she applies the fondant over it. You have to be careful not to tear it, but she says it's really fun -- sort of like sweet, edible play-dough for grown-ups. :-) Here's her website, to give you an idea of what you can do with fondant with some practice. (http://sliceatatime.com/special-occasion-cakes/)

A friend of my niece works with fondant and her cakes are cute, but the do look amateur.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1613,159180-228203,00.html

Fondant is not very easy to work with-it dries out, is hard to roll evenly, is hard to lay out, is hard to smooth, etc. If you have no experience with fondant, I would suggest LOTS and LOTS of practice (which could get expensive), changing to buttercream/whipped cream frosting or buying the cake instead of making it. If you do decide to go ahead with it, I wish you lots of luck!!