Demystifying Fondant–It’s so much easier than you think :)

I’m with you, I know what you are thinking… yeah right!  After going out and buying ready made fondant, which tasted absolutely awful, I decided to figure out how to make my own.  And now I’d like to share it with you! Lots and lots of practice went into figuring this out, so now you don’t have to :)

So here we go!

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp unflavored gelatin
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup white corn syrup
• 1 1/2 tablespoon glycerin (can buy anywhere Wilton sells products or online)
• 2 tablespoons shortening
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (clear for white, real for ivory)
• 8 cups sifted icing sugar

Directions

1.     Combine gelatin and cold water; let stand until thick.

2.     Place gelatin mixture in top of double boiler and heat until dissolved.

3.    Add corn syrup and glycerin, mix well. Stir in shortening and just before completely melted, remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Mixture should cool until lukewarm.

4.    Place 6 cups icing sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and stir in the lukewarm gelatin mixture.

5.    Mix in and add more sugar a little at a time, until it looks like glue.  This took all 8 cups, it will change depending on the humidity of where you live.

 

6.     Remove from bowl (use a really sturdy spoon, I have broken one or two trying to get it all out :() Sprinkle sugar on rolling surface and knead in remaining sugar or more if required . Knead until the fondant is smooth, pliable and does not stick to your hands. If fondant is too soft, add more sugar; if too stiff, add water (a drop at a time).

7.    Wrap in plastic wrap and set aside while you prepare your surface for rolling. 

8.    Clean surface of all sugar residue and dust with corn starch.  Roll out to desired size.

• Use fondant immediately or store in airtight container in fridge (up to 3 months). When ready to use, bring to room temperature and knead again until soft.  You will need to add some shortening to add back a bit of moisture.
• To make it chocolate fondant, substitute 1 cup icing sugar with 1 cup unsweetened cocoa (makes it taste like fudge!)
• When colouring, make sure you put shortening on your hands or your hands will dye that colour. Gel colours work best.

Applying to a cake

• When rolling out I use cornstarch to stop it from sticking, some use icing sugar.  Up to you!
• Always roll it out thicker than you think about 1/4 inch.  As you smooth it on the cake, the fondant will thin out. If too thin it will crack and tear.
• Once rolled out to where you want it, I like to roll the fondant onto my roller and then unroll it onto the cake, starting at the bottom of cake, roll up and over.

• Smooth with fondant smoother or with the palm of your hand, trim excess. 
• This recipe will cover one 12-inch , or a 10-inch and a 6-inch round cake.
• Decorate any way you want!!!!

So for the above cake, my helper, Rowan, made the daisy decals!  Because I wanted to demonstrate and not bake another cake (the waistline can’t handle it), I used a cake pan as my cake and wrapped it in fondant.  If you want to do this for practice, just cover the pan in shortening as a glue base for the fondant to stick to. 

While I was taking it outside to take these pictures, it fell off the cake stand and fell to the ground. It’s a pan so it doesn’t have a lot of weight to hold it in place.  Sadly I bent my cake pan and as you can see, there is now a  huge gap between the cake plate and the “cake” and it’s not centered :).  OH the adventures in demonstrating.  Trying to be so cool and yet come out so dorky!!! With the magic of cropping, I can make that disappear ;)

Well I hope this helps with the misconception of fondant.  It’s really easy to do and is sooooooooooo much cheaper! 

Thanks for looking! and if you have any questions, just ask away!  I’d be happy to help :)

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Sweet Tooth Friday
Chic & Crafty
I'm Loving it Fridays @ Tidy Mom
Tatertots & Jello Weekend Wrap Up