Fondant

Ingredients & Recipes

It is important to use high-quality ingredients when making fondant. Using a store-brand powdered sugar or marshmallows can make the fondant come out with tiny rock-like lumps of sugar in it or change the consistency. I always use the brands named below.

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe
16 oz. white mini-marshmallows (Jet-Puffed brand)
2-5 T. water
2 pounds C&H Cane Powdered Sugar
white Crisco shortening

Chocolate Marshmallow Fondant Recipe
1 batch Marshmallow Fondant
1 oz. top-quality bakers chocolate, melted
1 T. cocoa powder (use the best powdered cocoa you can get. The cheap brands take shortcuts on grinding the cocoa so you might get a grainy fondant if you use a cheap brand.)

Decorating Frosting Recipe
2 tsp. vanilla extract (or other flavors; you could use almond extract, mint extract, etc.)
8 T. milk or water
2 c. shortening
2 T. Wilton Meringue Powder (optional)
2 lb. (approximately 8 c.) powdered sugar

Cream shortening, flavorings and milk or water. Gradually add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. Blend an additional minute or so, until creamy.

Chocolate Decorating Frosting Recipe
1 batch of decorating frosting
1 T. cocoa powder
1-2 oz. melted bakers chocolate

Mix all together as directed for the decorating frosting recipe, just adding in these ingredients.

Making your Fondant

1. Generously grease a large, microwave-safe bowl, a spatula, and your countertop. If you are using a stand-mixer, grease the bowl and dough hook of the mixer instead of your counter.

2. Melt the marshmallows and 2 T. of water in a microwave, stopping and stirring every 30 seconds until completely melted.

3. Pour the melted marshmallows onto your greased countertop and then pour about 1/2 your bag of powdered sugar on top. Be carefully, the marshmallows will be HOT!

4. Grease your hands generously. Seriously. Be generous. Between your fingers, both sides…

5. Start kneading the powdered sugar into the marshmallows, just like bread dough. Keep kneading! Slowly add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands as needed.

6. It usually takes about 8 minutes to incorporate all the powdered sugar and get the fondant to a good consistency.

*Note – The consistency of fondant is very important. You do NOT want it to be sticky. If it is sticking to you at all, you need to add more powdered sugar. On the other hand, you do NOT want it to be dry and tearing. If it feels too dry, try adding some Crisco, or add more water about 1/2 T. at a time.

7. If you want to store the fondant, coat it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, smother it in plastic wrap and then put it in a air-tight Ziploc bag. You can refrigerate it for weeks, if needed.

8. If you want to use the fondant now, color it if desired by adding food coloring and kneading it in.

Decorating with Fondant

1. On a clean surface spread plenty of powdered sugar.

2. Put your disk of fondant on the powdered sugar and begin rolling it out like a piecrust. You probably want it about 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch thick. (If you don’t have a non-stick rolling pin, coat your rolling pin with powdered sugar.)

*Note - If you notice a bubble in the surface, take a thin sharp needle and poke a tiny hole, at an angle, in the bubble. If you poke straight down, you can almost always see the hole even after the most careful smoothing. The angled hole lets the air out of the bubble, and with a tiny bit of rubbing you can reseal the hole.

3. As you roll out the fondant, continually pick it up and flip it over and move it around to make sure that it’s not sticking to the countertop. Add more powdered sugar as needed.

4. When the fondant is rolled out to the desired size, pick up half the fondant and fling over your arm or your rolling pin. Quickly place one edge of the fondant over the cake, unrolling as you go, letting the fondant fall onto the cake.

5. With your hand, begin smoothing the fondant onto the cake. Start with the top. Then begin smoothing the edges. If doing a round cake, pretend it’s a clock. Smooth the edge at 12 o’clock, then move to the edge at 6 o’clock, then 3 and 9, etc. If a wrinkle is developing, pull on the bottom of the fondant and re-smooth. Keep working it out until all wrinkles are gone and the fondant is smooth.

6. Trim the edges with a sharp knife or pizza cutter.

7. Decorate as desired! Cut out and shape your own decorations out of fondant. A drop of water on the back of a piece of fondant is the perfect glue and all that is necessary to hold it in place.

Storing Your Fondant Covered Cake

Most decorators feel that a fondant covered cake will hold the moisture in the cake for 3 to 5 days, depending on your atmosphere. I personally have never done a cake more than 1 or so days in advance. I like the cake to have a fresh taste.

There is no need to cover your fondant covered cake for moisture reasons; the fondant itself acts as a cover and keeps the cake moist and fresh.

Do not refrigerate your covered cake! When you take the cake out of the refrigerator, moisture will condense and destroy your beautiful surface. If you don’t want to leave the cake just sitting out, your best option is to store the cake in a sealed bakery box. The cardboard sides of a box will keep the dust in the air off the cake, but allows the Fondant to breath.

Other Resources

If you want to see some pictures of what fondant is, and look at some fondant cakes I've done, you can view my cake blog at www.CakesByJenn.blogspot.com

Also, if you want to learn more about fondant and cake decorating, here are some great resources where I have learned a lot!

YouTube – type in fondant or decorating a cake or whatever you are interested in learning about and watch videos demonstrating these skills. Very useful!

www.wilton.com - Has tons of great information about making and decorating cakes, including fun ideas!

www.whatscookingamerica.net/Peg@/DecoratingFondantQA.htm - probably the most useful site I used when first getting started!

www.ices.org - a fun and useful site!

www.cakecentral.com - a fun gallery of pictures and ideas!