I love fondant, personally. It looks beautiful and it's, like, dough made from sugar...how can that be wrong? That being said I don't remember what was on my cake, but it was delicious and gorgeous. Also, whatever our local bakery (every party I've been to uses them) uses is beautiful and smooth and not chewy or hard to cut. So maybe there are different grades of fondant OR icing has come a long way.
I suggest going to the bakery and looking at and tasting everything.
Fondant is gross to eat, but it's so pretty. So most people just peel it off their slice of cake, enjoy the cake and filling and leave the nasty curl of rubbery sugar on the plate.
Also if it coloured fondant it taste bitter with the food colouring.
I had almond fondant on my graduation cake and it was stupid delicious. It had a slightly grainy texture, like marzipan, so up close you could see that it wasn't plasticy smooth.
Anyway, here's my cake. I have a choice of icing or fondant, but obviously the one in the photo is going to have the fondant cuz it's soooo pretty.
So, it's not colored. It doesn't have intricate little designs or pictures on it that would need high-tech fondant surface to keep it from looking like a mess. I feel like it would look just as good with icing. Mmmm... buttercream... I think I'm making up my own mind already.
As yummy as icing? What if you were a big fan of icing, so much to the point that sometimes that's all you eat and you throw the dry cake part away when you're done (or you just eat the tops off of cupcakes). Would one miss the icing in that case if they had fondant instead?
Holy shit, Lady Shea, what's involved in making homemade fondant? I've only worked with the 5 lb pail of ready fondant that you warm up and knead out, putting colour in is challenging too, I used a heavy duty mixer.
It was like powdered sugar, butter, condensed milk and corn syrup made into a dough. It was easy, and it was fun to work with. We made it when we made cherry cordials.
This may not be exactly what they use on professional cakes, but it was a rollable, pliable dough so I could see using it on a cake.
OMG, get the fondant! That stuff is awesome and hilarious! It makes cakes look like molded plastic!
Is that a good thing? I mean, other than its being hilarious?
Yes, it's good. It looks really cool. I wasn't being sarcastic this time.
Also, I think, from watching the cake shows, that they usually have icing under the fondant, to stick it on with. So you'd still get icing.
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I don't get what's "classy" about it not looking like food. I keep looking at a picture of it on the website, and it looks like a sculpture of a cake.
How long has this shit been around? I've just seen it recently. Is it a fad or a for-real thing?
It's been around for a pretty long time, but I think it was usually just a wedding cake thing and most people probably didn't give it any thought, but all the new cake shows are making it so guys on some dumb internet forum are all like, "I HAVE STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT FONDANT, MOTHERFUCKER!"
I think this is the recipe we used (wrapped it around maraschino cherries, dipped in chocolate). After reading this I thought I'd try it again and make some petit fours or something. Just looked it up and fondant is the traditional petit four covering...I am sure it has been around for centuries
In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, corn syrup, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and sugar. Knead to desired consistency. If it gets too soft just refrigerate it a bit