Lesson 10: Fondant

I had been really looking forward to this class.  Covering a cupcake with fondant is quite different from covering a cake with it.  My first attempt nearly ended in dissaster and I was trying to cover a cake that was 10" high!  At the begining of the class we were shown a dozen photographs of cakes that have been covered and decorated with fondant and were given an option to choose a design.

There were some really beautiful designs to choose from but I wanted to try a technique that was different from your standard covered cake with bows so I decided on one that covered the cake in angled stripes.  The colours for these stripes were inspired by a dress I saw recently that had a fabulous combination of lipstick red and fushia.  There were a few looks exchanged between the teacher and her assistant when I mentioned the colours as they were deep colours so required a lot of mixing and kneading to achieve.  I guess they were wondering whether I would have enough time as well to complete it within the 3 hours it was quite a bit of work.

I got down to business and while my other classmates choose some nice pastels which took 10 mins or less to mix into the fondant, I had 2 really deep colours to mix.  You have to mix the colours into small batches of fondant just in case you make it too dark... which wouldn't have been the problem in my case but I went with it  After almost 30mins I had my two colours and was ready to knead.  By this point, most everyone else was covering their cakes.

First I had to roll them about 4mm thick into long and wide pieces then cut them into equal lengths.  They also have to be the same width otherwise the cake is going to look like it came from the Mad Hatters Tea Party... hmmmm, might be an idea for another day!

This was time consuming.  I laid the strips in angles onto the fake cake.  It was actually a styrofoam square so that we could keep the cake for months.  The first method proved a little difficult as the striped bunched up at the top.  Crystal suggested we cut the strips shorter so there will be a little gap in the centre and that would be covered by the ribbon.  1 hour 45 mins later I had covered the cake in strips of red and fushia.  Next came the ribbon on the top which was relatively easy to do and then I made some mini cupcakes and marshmallows to decorate the corner of the board.

One of her assistants (I still don't know her name till today - must find out) was helping the rest with the decorations and helped me make a cupcake, a doughnut and 2 ice creams!  They were adorable!!  It's like giving playdough to an adult and given more time I am sure I would have liked to try to make a Sundae!