Thursday, March 19, 2009

Testing my use of fondant

So I made dessert again this weekend and it turned out good. Again, no picture, because the kids dug into it too quickly...I made a yellow cake from scratch and then covered it with fondant. I wanted to figure out how to make fondant and if I could use it. The kids have birthdays coming up and I wanted to see if I could do it for that.

Bottom line - I can, but it is HARD!

So I made the cake, two layers, and let them cool completely. Then I made regular icing and did it between the layers and a crumb coat on top. For those who may have not done a crumb coat before, it is a super-thin layer of icing on the cake. I did the top and sides because apparently the fondant needs something to stick to. Then - and this was new to me - I put the cake into the fridge to chill it. What a great idea! I think I am even going to do that for regular icing from now on. It was an amazing solution.

Then, I made the fondant. I was so confused by it. Fondant is like a dough, so I went to knead it and the recipe said that if it was sticky, it may need more powdered sugar. I also read that if it cracked, it was too dry. So I went to knead it and it was sticky still, but just a little, so I went to roll it out and it cracked. It was like the fondant had multiple personality disorder!

I rolled it out once and it fell apart. I rolled it out a second time between waxed paper, to make it easier. It rolled out OK, but I was unable to get it on the cake. Then, I rolled it out again, also between waxed paper. This time, I was able to get it on the cake, but it was much thicker than fondant is supposed to be.

I left it, because at that point, I was not going to do it again! However, I have decided that although it tasted good, I am going to keep looking for a recipe so I can try it again and see how much of the frustration was caused by my inexperience and how much by the recipe!

So then the issue was how to decorate it! I was just testing it, so I did not have an occasion that would drive the theme or decorations, but I did not want to leave it plain. I had yellow gel food coloring, so I tinted the rest of the icing (from the middle and crumb coat) with the yellow in a zip-top bag. I ended up making a smiley face, which the kids thought was the Wal-Mart symbol...

Again, it tasted amazing and we are still eating off of it, but it made a coating that was too thick, so I am going to try it again.

No comments: