More Fun with Fondant

I've used fondant, gum paste, and candy clay in the past for cake decorations, but I had never covered a cake in fondant before. When a friend requested an Angry Birds cake, particularly the black bird, I knew fondant would be the best choice. It is difficult to dye buttercream a true black, and it would be a mess on little hands and mouths. I baked a three-layered cake, iced it with vanilla buttercream, and watched a few YouTube tutorials on how to roll out fondant. 

It wasn't flawless, but I think it turned out okay considering I lacked the "necessary" tools. I just used what I had on hand: wax paper, a large rolling pin, and a knife. 

After covering the cake with black fondant, I traced the circumference of the cake pan on wax paper. I used various fondant and sugar sheets to build the bird's face on my wax paper model. 

I was pleased with the final cake and went to bed. The next morning, Jackson took it upon himself to peel parts of the fondant off and eat it! I managed to recover most of the damage, but not all of it! Here's the final cake:

The fondant made the cake harder to slice. It still turned out fine.

I was worried that the cake wouldn't feed enough people so I also made a dozen cupcakes. This is the same chocolate icing that I ended up eating in excess. So, so good, yet oh so bad.

All in all, a fun cake to make and a very fun party!

Fun with Fondant

A friend requested a construction-themed cake for a baby shower. I knew the best medium for the construction signs would be fondant. Since I could get away with the signs all being one color, I cheated and purchased pre-made fondant. Creating the signs was tedious but easy. Here are the simple steps I took to make the main decoration:

Step 1: Roll fondant between two sheets of wax paper. It takes a bit of work to get the fondant to the same thickness.

Step 2: I happened to have a square cookie cutter and was able to use the bottom of my large icing tip (for sides of cake) to make a perfect circle. It took less than a minute to punch out my signs.

Step 3: I used an edible marker to outline the edges of each shape to make it resemble a road sign.

Step 4: I had fun coming up with cheesy baby-related "construction signs".

Step 5: I placed the completed signs on my iced cake.
(I had made a two tiered strawberry cake with cream cheese icing. I used black sugar sheet and very thinly rolled fondant to make the road. The "dirt" was made from chocolate cookies ground in the food processor. And my friend supplied the construction vehicles.)

I used the round signs for cupcakes.

I love making cakes that look more complex than they really were to decorate. Hopefully the guests enjoyed it, too.