How to Work With Fondant Frosting

Professional bakers use fondant, but it's available for home cooks.

Fondant sold in cake-supply stores for icing cakes is not the same as the fondant cream found in chocolate bon bons. For decorating cakes, fondant may be labeled as ready-to-roll icing, fondant icing, sugar paste or rolled fondant. It's a thick paste that requires a "glue" to hold it to the cake and a careful application to ensure a smooth finish (buttercream icing serves as the the edible glue). Properly applied, a cake covered with fondant will have the satiny smooth appearance of a dessert prepared by a professional baker. Does this Spark an idea?

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Baked and cooled cake
Buttercream icing
Spatula
Powdered sugar
Rolling pin
Knife
Cookie cutters
Clean artist's paintbrush

Instructions

- 1
  
  Brush off excess crumbs from the cake with your hand.
- 2
  
  Spread, using the spatula, a thin layer of buttercream icing over the sides and top of the cake.
- 3
  
  Sprinkle a work surface with powdered sugar. Roll the fondant until it's 1/16 of an inch thick and 2 inches larger than the surface area, including the sides, of the cake.
- 4
  
  Drape the fondant over the rolling pin and hold it above the cake. Roll the fondant off the pin onto the cake.
- 5
  
  Press down on the fondant and smooth it with your hands. The oils in your hands will add sheen to the fondant.
- 6
  
  Run the knife around the base of the cake to trim off any extra fondant.
- 7
  
  Roll the fondant trimmings to 1/16 of an inch thick.
- 8
  
  Press the cookie cutters into the rolled fondant to cut out decorative shapes.
- 9
  
  Dip a clean artist's paintbrush into water and dab it to the back of the fondant cutout.
- 10
  
  Press the water-covered side of the fondant cutout onto the cake. Repeat with the remaining cutouts.

"Cake Decorating for Dummies"; Joe LoCicero; 2007
"Carol Deacon's Party Cakes for Children: Over 20 Fun Cakes"; Carol Deacon; 2007
"The Cake Bible"; Rose Levy Beranbaum; 1988