Fondant

when it comes to cake decorating, there are a couple of different ways in order to finish it off. This includes butter cream, royal icing, and fondant. Buttercream is most often used as it is a quick and clean finish to your cake. Royal icing is mostly used to cover a fruit cake. Fondant on the other hand is used when you are wanting to get a little fancy and create an outstanding finish to your product.

Fondant is a product that is made out of sugar, glucose (or corn syrup), water, and flavour if needed. It can be manipulated in many different ways. It can be used to make drapes down a cake, little sculptures, creating a realistic shape cake and much more. Though this product is pretty easy to use, it helps to understand what the best product out there is.

There are many different fondants made from different companies. They also come in different flavours, amounts and costs depending on the manufacturer. From my experience, my favorite fondant to use is "Satin Ice". The flavor is actually tasty. Not only that, but the flexibility of the fondant is quite outstanding. On a previous cake, I wanted to put drapes on. With certain fondants, once you shape it onto the cake, that's it. You better like it. Satin Ice on the other hand allowed me to constantly change the position of the fondant without it drying out and cracking.

On the other side of the spectrum, there is Wilton Fondant. Not only does it dry and crack within minutes, the taste is basically inedible. I would highly recommend not purchasing this product, but then it is up to you.

You can get Satin Ice fondant here in Calgary at the PM Hobby Craft Store if you are interested.

Has anyone else used fondant other then Satin Ice, or Wilton? Has anyone ever made marshmallow fondant? I have heard from other people that it is very tasty but finicky to make. Any thoughts anyone?

Sweet Dreams,

Tyla

He Scores!!! A Personalized Jersey That You Can Eat

Last weekend, I was asked by a friend to make a birthday cake that was the shape of a hockey jersey. I have never done this before, shaping and carving of a cake that is.

The type of cake used was a red velvet. The recipe came from the Joy of Baking website that I love and trust. The filling was a cream cheese, mascarpone Chantilly and was masked with cream cheese butter cream. The Chantilly filling recipe was also found on Joy of Baking just under the red velvet recipe. This is where you can get it.

The butter cream recipe came out of my head. Just throw equal parts of butter and cream cheese as well as a splash of vanilla into a mixer and cream until smooth. Next add icing sugar and a bit of whipped cream until you reach the desired consistency.

The fondant was from Satin Ice, my favorite fondant, as they have them pre-coloured therefore not wasting 20 minutes to needing the fondant. It is also very easy to work with and actually tastes pretty good.

Here are pictures of the final product:

The things that I learned from making this cake is that it needs to be masked in a buttercream (or marzipan if you so choose) before the fondant layer, as the butter in the icing will harden making it a stable product. I also realized the amount of waste when it comes to making shaped cakes. What better way to utilize them by making a bucket of cake scraps for rum balls. Yummy!!!

Sweet Dreams,

Tyla