After our last meeting at Shari’s house, I came home with goodies from Shari glucose, glycerin, fondant mat (returning), recipes, & lots of ideas. I was going to try to make her wedding cake again, hopefully with different results… lol.
I decided to make a French vanilla cake (since Dale bought me two boxes of that particular cake mix) and was trying to decide what to use for a filling. Shari went to great lengths to create fillings & icings & wonderful tasting cakes when we did our last tasting, so I felt that I had to come up with something & not just plain frosting for all layers.
I browsed the internet & looked in the pantry & found some dried peaches & apricots (bought to make some Lara bars with). I made apricot/peach Peach Schnapps puree with the fruit. Next time I do it, I will either make a syrup to go with it or buy preserves. I really wanted something that would kind of soak into the cake. You can barely see the puree for the spatula in the container.
I made the cakes, split & leveled them & froze them to await their shiny coat of fondant. Of course, I had to put on a crumb coat before the icing & before the fondant but I am getting ahead of myself.
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This was the first cake that all the fondant was homemade! Shari sent me home with a fondant recipe for Marshmallow Fondant with a variation for a white chocolate one. The recipe can be found here http://www.thebakingbeauties.com/2010/10/homemade-fondant-that-tastes-like-buttercream.html
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I sifted the powdered sugar again because sometimes lumps are created during packaging & shipping of the sugar.
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I melted the white chocolate, then melted the marshmallows in a bowl, with some water, in the microwave.
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I added the melted white chocolate & then poured the liquids over the powdered sugar as the mixer (with dough hook attached) started the process of mixing the ingredients together.
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(My fondant work station – the kitchen table).
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When the powdered sugar was nearly incorporated into the fondant, it was time to start working it by hand.
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I had some trying times working the fondant & realize that I probably OVERWORKED (or worried) it. I have discovered that if I am still kneading it after a couple of hours, it’s time to stop, let it rest, call it a day, and revisit it tomorrow!!! I didn’t get any pictures of covering either of the cakes, but here is the bottom layer all covered & it was so beautiful, I almost cried!!!!!
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HINT: I did find that if I stuck the fondant into the microwave & set the timer for 10 seconds, the fondant was MUCH easier to work with.
After I put the cakes on top of each other, then I started the process of decorating the cake. It actually helps if you read the directions in the book (which I didn’t have last time!) on how to assemble the cakes. The two layers (8 & 10″) were split in half & puree was layered in between each layer of the cake and frosting around the outside to await the fondant.
After the fondant, and before the final decorations, I had to put pearls around the bottom of each layer. Now, pearls have NEVER been my strong suit-but I found that I can either make them the way most cake decorators do (lay the decorator’s bag @ 45 degrees & squeeze out frosting & drag it off the side – this doesn’t leave a little tip on the pearl) or I could do them still at a 45 degree angle but not drag them to the side. All I had to do was come back after the icing hardened a bit & lightly smash the point. Guess which one I did?
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I really think they came out pretty good this time-more like pearls & not little disaster areas!!!
The final decorations consist of placing two stripes of icing down with some fondant ribbon mixed in. The photos above show how I marked the cake to get ready for the placement of the icing & ribbons.
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Shari, if I can’t figure out how to have a steadier hand, we may have to have silver cord & burgundy ribbon.
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All kidding aside, I have really had a blast learning to work with fondant. Jennifer even gets in the action by researching things like – how to get air bubbles out of fondant, where to buy icing colors & what kind to buy. I had a really good time even with all the imperfections of the cake – it tasted PRETTY GOOD! I will be taking half of the cake to Shari’s for our next sister’s week! Wish you could join us!!!