What Is Fondant? Here Is Everything You Should Know

Everybody likes cake, and it takes no time to order a cake or less in comparison to making one. Cakes are the first that comes to everybody’s minds, whether it’s a birthday, anniversary, wedding, or any other occasion. And the only thing that attracts is the beauty of the cake. You must have seen that the outer layer of the cake is decorated with pretty flowers or shapes to make them more beautiful. This outer covering of the cake is called fondant. Now the question is what is fondant cake? Fondant is a form of icing used for the decoration and shapes the cakes and pastries. They can be flavored, rolled, imprinted in different shapes depending on your preference. Fondants are generally made of sugar, vegetable fat, gelatin, and glycerol. The basic ingredient for fondant is gelatin, which is a translucent, colorless, and flavorless food ingredient that makes it much more usable in fondant. Fondant cake is kept in the fridge and can be used for days and they need to be kept at room temperature before serving and needs special care.

Making of fondant

Making fondant is not easy; however, with proper steps, you can easily make them. First of all, supersaturate the water with sugar. Prefer heating the water to the boiling temperature as the water after boiling can hold over twice as much sugar as compared to the room temperature water. Now, boil water and sugar to form soft sugar balls. Use stabilizers most preferably tartar, and you can also use corn syrup to thin it out. Using glycerine is also fine as it keeps the sugar pliable and also creates a dough-like consistency to your fondant.

Types of fondant

1-Poured Fondant

Poured fondant is a thick liquid and is generally used to pour into cakes and pastries. Mostly they are homemade and are made up of sugar, water, and corn syrup. Poured fondant creates a layer on the cake that’s shiny and enhances the beauty of any cake. It dries to a semi-hard smooth surface after being poured and is reusable as you can reheat and use it again.

2-Rolled fondant

Rolled fondants are used to make colorful and pretty bows or flowers on the cakes. They make the cake look smooth and iced, adding extra beauty to the cake. They can be made at home or bought from the market, and are also used to give flair to the cakes and pastries. These fondants form a dough-like structure when they are rolled before being applied to the cakes; the best part is they can last for two months if kept in an airtight container. When the fondant becomes stiff, you can leave it at room temperature and use it again when it becomes soft.

Making rolled fondant

You can buy fondant from stores, but you can also save some bucks by making them at home. Coloring, flavoring, rolling, imprinting, and cutting are some of the basic steps involved in the making process.

a-Coloring

After shaping the fondant, roll it into tube shapes for getting more surface to color. Use a clean brush to apply color and spread the color evenly on the surface. You should keep rolling until the color is evenly distributed. For better coloring, try using liquid colors, as they dissolve easily with white fondant. You must focus on choosing the right colors as some don’t look pretty, and some just aren’t that good in taste.

b-Flavoring

Something that makes the fondant more special is the extra added flavors. You can add flavors like lemon, rose water, orange, vanilla extract, almond, and many more to make your fondant more pretty and yummy. You just need to find the right extracts that have fewer chemicals and suit your taste. Moreover, you can add flavored powdered sugar and dry fruit powder as well as buttercream for extra flavors.

c-Rolling Fondant

Rolling is one crucial step while making fondant. When rolling, make sure that you are working on a flat surface and remove any jewelry, and add icing sugar to stop the working surface and fondant from sticking. Kneading with hands is the best way to add colors and do it for about eight minutes to make the color consistent. Just in case your cake is not prepared yet, cover your fondant with a thin layer of silver paper or a cover to prevent it from drying.

If you want to make characters or flowers or three-dimensional designs, roll it to ½ an inch thick to make it finer, if it’s very thick, it will easily tear while transferring to the cake. You can use a rolling pin or a smooth knife to trim off the extra bits to make the cake look neat. After making the fondant, you can use other tools to decorate with.

d-Imprinting and Cutting

Imprinting is the very last step when you are making fondant. It includes adding texture and enhance the cake design. You can use different materials for texturing, such as plastic silicon, that has various designs that can be directly imprinted onto the fondant. Then go for stencils and cutters to punch the desired shapes.

Fondant is something that makes the cake and pastries look much better and enhances beauty. You can make or order fondant birthday cakes and fondant anniversary cakes for the occasions. Adding colorful fondants in different shapes according to your preferences will definitely make your cake more appealing and will add flavor to special occasions. But make sure that you use the right way when you decide to make a fondant.

If you want to decorate the cake on your own at home like a professional then read about cake decorating tools.