I have never decorated any cake before. This will be my first attempt.
I have looked up videos and read up a bit too but a little bit confused here.
I need to get an oval shape cake. What is the better option, have a large rectangle cake and cut oval shape out of it.
Or have a round cake and then cut it like the attached image.http://
I plan on making fondant from marshmellows. I read that store bought fondant is easier to work with. Is home made fondant too difficult to work with ?
Anyone has any tested recipe for marshmellow fondant. Most of the recipes on web are same with slight differences.
Also what option is better, add color to the fondant itself or use white fondant and then color it to make the design.
I have never worked with fondant but I would imagine that working with store bought material would prove to be easier since there is less likelihood of error in the recipe than when you would make it at home.
I am not actually sure if store bought fondant will have gelatin. I know marshmallows have gelatin but I read that whole foods has some kosher marshmallows. Oh well I will search for fondant ingredients. I have so much searching to do !!
Another question: gel based colors have gelatin ? probably but I cannot find ingredient anywhere.
What is another way of getting rich color. I read that icing color will not get bright rich color. I need to get bright red color. Regular food color will make fondant difficult to work with.
Ok, I got one gel color tube and read the ingredients. It does not have gelatin in it.
Will be trying the fondant at home as I am not sure of store made fondant ingredients. If it does not come out good, I am only going to decorate with icing
^thanks
I went through the entire baking thread, have downloaded recipes.
Husband did not like the butter cream icing I got on a cake last time. He thought it was too sweet so he did not eat the cake at all after one bite.
I did not mind as I finished all the left over cake
He prefers the whip cream. I have seen some recipes for whip cream icings as well. Will whip cream icing get the color and hold the shape or would it be more difficult to work with it ? Any idea
Looking at all the pictures and videos, for some reason I think fondant will be easier to work with than icing. May be I have got it all wrong.
Thanks for the recipe. Do I have to use vanilla extract. The one I saw at whole foods had some alcohol in the ingredients. Can anything else be substituted ? The baking thread mentioned some vanilla powder but I did not see it in any store.
Also all the recipes for fondant say knead. Do I have to knead with hands or can I use stand mixer ? I use stand mixer all the time to knead my ‘aata’ for rotis and it is kneaded perfectly.
Fondant is harder to work with than icing. It needs to be rolled out, the right temperature, make sure it doesnt get dried out, and it also doesnt taste as good as butter cream, and also, when you put it in a cake, it needs to be placed and draped carefully so it doesnt rip. It is actually a lot sweeter than icing, and most people dont like the taste of it.
Im not trying to discourage you at all, but just wanted to let you know how it works. Also, the fondant sold in stores usually doesnt have gelatin in it (you need to read the ingredients though, cause different brands have different ingredients). The gelatin in marshmellows is put there to hold that particular shape, but fondant is molded and kneaded, and doesnt need to hold a particular shape.
Its best to knead by hands, so that the fondant warms up and is easier to work with and mold.
Oh.
Since everyone is saying fondant is difficult, I am sure it must be. I did not know there were so many things to consider with fondant. I thought its just like aata or play doh and since I can make rotis/parathas from aata and also things from play doh, I thought fondant must be easier.
I dont know, it looks so difficult to get a smooth look from icing.
I am going to try the icing then. Will the icing get rich and dark color with the gel colors. I dont want red to come out as pink.
I am planning on baking 2 cakes so if the one I experiment with turns out to be a disaster, I will still have my second cake.
Thanks for all the help.
Also my husband does not like butter cream so butter cream icing is not my option. I was going to use whip cream icing. I found a couple recipes that say heavy whip cream will not run (hopefully)
hi sarad, the fresh cream/whipped cream icing is the best for eating. you may not be able to make it as fancy as a fondant cake is, but its waaay better to eat. Put icing sugar into the cream when whipping, this will make it not run.
so i baked 2 8" cakes, also made fondant. Hubby said to give it a try since i already had bought marshmallows and had told him that it should take 10 to 15 mins but oh man was I wrong. In all the videos I had checked out, it said knead about 8 to 10 mins and a little more if it is still sticky or breaking. It took me an hour !!!
I was trying not to use too much sugar, may be thats why ??? I dont know
since my cake was very small, I think I was able to roll out the fondant easily and put it on the cake. Anyways it was not that bad but a lot of work.
Whip cream frosting tasted very good but again I found it so hard to get a smooth look on the cake, most probably because I do not have a cake stand may be. It was also much less work than fondant.
