Until recently, I haven't done much with fondant, but I did some researching online and bought some of Wilton's pre-made white rolling fondant. I wanted to use it to decorate the sides of a baby shower cake that I made last week. Coloring the fondant was simple.
I divided the fondant into 6 pieces (for six different colors) and used gel food coloring so that the added color wouldn't make it too sticky to work with and I just kneaded each piece until it matched the color I was aiming for. While searching the internet to teach myself about fondant, I found out several tips:
-NEVER cover a cake with fondant and put it in the fridge because once it goes back to room temperature, condensation develops and can cause unfixable spotting on the fondant's surface. *If the cake covered in fondant has already been placed in the fridge for a while, take it out and place it under a cardboard box while it comes to room temperature to allow the fondant to breath and prevent condensation from developing on it.
-Fondant can be colored, double-wrapped and stored in the fridge far in advance. (this allows colors to ripen)
-Fondant stays somewhat soft and does not become hard like gum paste.
-Adding too much food coloring to achieve something like a dark brown or black causes it to taste bitter.
-Fondant can be adhered to other pieces of fondant just by using water.
-It is easiest to adhere fondant decoration to a cake covered in buttercream once the final coat has set-up. Then, fresh buttercream can be used as glue to bond the sugar molecules in the fondant and buttercream which creates one surface.
-Fondant holds moisture in cakes for 3-5 days.... I think five days is pushing it though...
I just bought some new fondant toys which was a really exciting purchase for me! I got a fondant cutter that is a rolling wheel and it also came with attachments that roll designs into the fondant to make it look like ribbon which is EXACTLY what I needed for this baby shower cake I made. I also bought circular cutters to cut polka dots for the top tier and I bought a fondant roller that has different sized rings on each end to roll the fondant to a desired width. And the best part was... It cost me less than 15 bucks because my mom sent me to the store with a coupon (she's the best :P).
As far as cutting the length and height of each fondant ribbon I made as well as the large brown fondant ribbon I placed around the bottom and top tier, I used floss to measure around the tiers and a ruler to figure the size that the ribbon should be based on the height of the bottom tier once the brown fondant ribbon had been applied. The fondant ribbon got placed on first (seam in back) and then the stripes and polka dots were added. It was so much fun doing the decoration! My sister and niece were in awe of it all. The fondant really allowed the cake to come together and added an air of elegance.
I almost forgot to discuss the flavors of the two tiers and the filling. Obviously the outside of the cake got frosted with vanilla buttercream, but I actually filled the layers of both tiers with a mousseline - a mixture of equal volumes of buttercream and pastry cream. The top tier was four layers of chocolate sponge cake with chocolate chips that were filled with an orange mousseline and the bottom tier was four layers of vanilla sponge cake with sprinkles that were filled with a strawberry mousseline. I have to give out the recipe for the fruit pastry cream because it was the easiest pastry cream I have ever made and it actually tasted rich and fruity (no cornstarch necessary):
Fruit Pastry Cream
5 egg yolks
5 whole eggs
2 sticks of butter, melted (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
4-6 oz fruit puree (depending on strength of flavor...)
*if you use fruit juice, like orange juice use 4-5 oz
METHOD: put all ingredients in one bowl and whisk together over a double boiler until thickened. BE CAREFUL not to over cook this because the eggs will coagulate... gross.
To top off the cake, I used a edible duck that my mom bought after Easter (don't worry it hadn't been removed from it's box yet so it was still safe to eat :P). Then, cupcakes (chocolate with chocolate chips and filled with the leftover orange pastry cream) were the last addition for two reasons:
1. I needed to feed 30 people and got nervous that the cake was too small.
2. They were the perfect medium to spell "Lil Azevedo" which is going to be the baby's name when she is born.
After making this cake and becoming better acquainted with fondant, I would definitely recommend using it for decoration but due to its terrible flavor, I wouldn't recommend covering whole tiers with it. However, there are recipes out there for homemade fondant. I actually ran across one that used marshmallows as the main ingredient and sounded like it might actually taste decent so I'll have to make an attempt at homemade fondant sometime soon.
My Next Project: I'm making beer bread and a hazelnut Charlotte Russe for a dinner get-together tomorrow night, my family calls them "Pachangas." It should be fun and very delicious!
