Memorial Day Fondant Cakes

So, I have definitely gotten the bug for making fondant cakes. Our Young Women in our ward were doing a fundraiser for Girl’s Camp and asked for some of us to make baked goods to sell. So, I thought that would be a good excuse to make a cake, or two, or three!

Making the cakes:

I made three cakes. From the way that I learned from my fabulous sister-in-law, Emily, I made a cake mix with a packet of pudding and an extra egg. Because these were 6” cakes, I used two cake mixes for all three. Then, after they cooked, I let them cool and put them in the fridge overnight. I put each of my cakes on an 8” circle that was covered with wax paper or aluminum foil. You can use just a piece of cardboard from your house if you want cut into a circle.

Frosting them:

Then, the next day I cut them in half and frost them with buttercream icing mix (I bought Wilton’s brand in the cake decorating area at the store-mmmm…) You have to make sure that it is as even and smooth as you can possibly make it, so the fondant goes on smoothly. Then, back in the fridge it goes.

Then comes the fun part. Decorating.

Coloring your fondant:

I bought my fondant. If you feel ambitious, you can make your own. To color your fondant, you need put the food coloring in the fondant and then pull it like you would taffy. Stretch it out, back together, and then pull it the other way. The more you play with it, the stickier it will be. I would recommend wearing gloves for this part, unless you don’t mind that your hands get all colored. Keep adding colors and mixing it up until your fondant it the color you want. Make sure that if you aren’t using it right away that you put it into a plastic bag and seal it with little air.

Rolling out your fondant:

Now, because each cake was 6” wide and 4” tall (Two 2” cakes on top of each other), I needed to roll the fondant out with a circumference of 14” (4+6+4=14). It makes it much easier when you have a fondant rolling mat, which I borrowed from Emily. Fondant rolling pins are nice to have too. A lot of places will recommend using cornstarch to roll out your fondant onto, but Emily learned the nifty trick of using shortening. If you use shortening, your fondant won’t go bad.

Fondant onto the cake:

Now, carefully roll some of the fondant onto your fondant roller and place it so that it centered onto your cake. It won’t lie evenly onto your cake, so you will have to carefully pull it out and smooth it down with your other hand to the side of the cake (if that makes any sense). You may have to look up a YouTube video about that one. Sorry.

Use a cookie cutter or knife to cut the leftover fondant from the bottom of the cake so that it only comes to the bottom of the cake.

Then cut and color your fondant however you want to decorate the rest of the cake. To make the fondant stick together, use a dab of water and let it dry. If you leave your fondant out for too long, it will dry out and you can’t use it anymore. However, if you are trying to make a model of something (ie bow on top, flowers, little person), you should let it dry out in the shape you want it.

My first cake I wanted to make was going to be a watermelon. I used an edible marker to draw the little seeds on top.

The second cake was a BBQ. I used shish-ka-bob sticks covered with aluminum foil for the grill. The little hot dogs and cheeseburger are made out of fondant. I used the edible marker to make the marks on the hot dogs.

My last cake was a swimming pool. OF COURSE! I made the little man and had to let him dry out over night so that he wouldn't topple apart, but I love his little feetsies stinking out of the pool. So fun!

What a fun day. I could really get used to this! Maybe a 4^th of July cake? We’ll see.