Decorating Your First Fondant Cake - Tips to Get the Best Results

Have you ever thought about trying to decorate a fancy cake and wanted to experiment with fondant to do so? I'll admit I'm a beginner with this edible craft and before I started everyone told me not to do it, it is too difficult and frustrating but I want to all of you out there that are debating on trying it, try it. Fondant isn't the easiest material to work with but it is also far from the hardest and the beautiful look it gives your cake is worth the effort.

Some people think fondant is a waste because you usually take it off of the cake before you eat it but I've found a recipe that has a marshmallow base and tastes great so you can leave it on and enjoy your work. For this recipe you will need

16 ounces of miniature marshmallows

2 tablespoons of water

2 teaspoons flavoring (I usually use vanilla to keep it simple)

2 cups of powdered sugar

Shortening

Take a large microwavable bowl and generously coat the insides with shortening. Place the marshmallows, water, and flavoring in the bowl and microwave for one minute. Stir and return to microwave in 30 second intervals until you have a very smooth mixture.

Grease another large bowl with shortening and place approximately ½ of the powdered sugar in.

Pour the marshmallow mixture into the powdered sugar and mix well. Gradually add more powdered sugar until you have a thick dough-like bowl on fondant. You should add enough sugar so that it isn't too sticky.

Wrap your fondant in plastic wrap and make sure it is air tight. Let it sit for at least an hour to cool since the marshmallow mixture was warm.

The rest is up to your creativity, roll the fondant out to cover your cake and save some for decorations. Feel free to use food coloring to make different colors or use edible markers to add fine details.

Although working with this fondant isn't as hard as some people make it seem, here are a few tips to remember. First of all, make sure you use plenty of cornstarch on the surface you're working on. When you roll the fondant out make sure the surface is covered as well as the rolling pin you are using. There is nothing worse than going to lift your fondant onto the cake and realize it is stuck to the surface so you have to re-roll it.

My second tip is one that I had to learn the hard way. I had short notice for a cake and didn't have any powdered sugar so I thought I would save myself a trip to the grocery store and make my own powdered sugar, which I've done for several recipes in the past by placing granulated sugar in the blender until it is powdered. Don't do that with this recipe unless you know the exact consistency of powdered sugar. If you don't have it powdered enough, the fondant will not set up properly and will be too soft to work with.

My last tip is for those of you who plan on decorating your cake with smaller pieces of fondant. When you want to get fondant to stick to fondant a lot of people may automatically think a dab of water is the best way to do so but that is a mistake as water will change the consistency and create a gooey mess. Instead, as strange as this will sound, use a dab of clear alcohol such as vodka. The reaction it has with the fondant acts like a glue but dries much smoother than water would. You can also use icing to hold pieces together but I typically use the vodka so you don't have to worry about any icing spreading out under the piece.

If this is your first attempt at making a cake decorated with fondant, good luck and don't forget to have fun, it will be a much better experience if you don't worry about being perfect the first few tries and just experimenting and learning as you go.