My First Fondant Cake

by Mildred
(Naples, Florida)

My First Fondant Cake I love to bake, have done so for years. I especially like to bake cakes and have a small specialty cake business from home. I have always been fascinated with Fondant cakes and am determined to learn to work with this yummy, sugary, and versatile product. Here is my first creation!

This is a vanilla cake that I have been baking for years, old family recipe. I used the cake decorating tips I learned from this website (thank you Lorelie).

I baked 2-12 inch round cakes for bottom tier and 2 8 inch round cakes for the top tier. After the cakes cooled in the fridge, I filled the cakes with buttercream frosting and put them back in the fridge to make sure the cakes were cold and firm before applying crumb coating with the same buttercream.

I let the cakes sit overnight in the fridge, proceeded to level the cakes, getting rid of excess with a serrated knife. I then re coated the cakes with more buttercream and made it as smooth as possible. I made my own fondant with an old recipe I have and colored it.

Fondant TIP:The key to fondant is to make sure it does not dry out, keep it in a plastic bag and close tightly.

I also made my own modeling chocolate and made the flowers as rustic, free form. I used a silicone mold for the rose borders on the large tier and silicone mold for the leafs that run along the border of top tier.

I have to say, I had a lot of fun working on this cake. I hope I can inspire those of you who have never worked with fondant to try it. It is not as difficult as it seems. Have fun and create!

Comments

A lovely cake!
by: madeitwithlove
Your cake is lovely, so simple and yet so elegant. As you rightly say it's not a difficult medium to work with. I find the American way of decorating with butter cream is much more difficult, time consuming and a great deal more skillful than just slapping on a piece of fondant!

Have to take my hat off to all of you for your patience. Fondant icing is becoming less favourable here in England amongst the young as it is considered old fashioned. Marzipan is even less popular with buttercream, modeling chocolate and ganache being the most desired cake coverings.

Beautiful First Fondant
by: Anonymous
Your cake is beautiful> i enjoy making baking and I was wondering if you would share your recipe for your vanilla cake and fondant. Keep up the beautiful work.

Vanilla Cake Recipe
by: Mildred

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter
4 eggs
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Vanilla Cake Recipe correction
by: Mildred
Sorry guys! I forgot the milk. This recipe calls for 1 cup of milk. I have also used a combination of 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt. The yogurt gives it a slight tangy flavor.
BAKING TIP: Make sure that all your ingredients are at room temperature for baking.

Thanks Lorelei.


Your Welcome :-)
by: Lorelie
I love the yogurt idea. I use that in pancakes sometimes, and it makes a great substitute for sour cream as well. Thanks for the tips too Mildred!

Zebra Cake With Fondant Flowers

by Mildred
(Naples, Fl)

I made this zebra cake with pink flowers for a 9 year old girl who loves pink and zebra print.

This is a 2 layer vanilla cake with chocolate pudding filling. I made the chocolate pudding and let it set overnight before I filled the cake to make sure it would not end up running out on the sides of the cake.

The cake was baked and cooled in the refrigerator and filled with pudding that was chilled overnight.

After crumb coating with buttercream, I put the cake in the freezer for a few hours. This made it easier to cover with the fondant and decorations.

I made marshmallow fondant and flavored it with clear vanilla extract. The border and flowers were made with this beautiful hot pink I had left over from another cake.

I imprinted the happy birthday on the top of the cake with a cool little tool that Wilton sells. It is plastic and 3D looking. The box cost me about $6 at the craft store and it comes with several phrases such as happy birthday, happy anniversary, etc.

I used pink shimmer dust to cover the happy birthday and used a plain old toothpick to add her name right under it.

The random black zebra like pattern I made using black fondant.

I enjoyed very much decorating this cake. I had my 9 year old daughter help and we had a blast. Funny coincidence was that when mom came to pick up the cake she was actually dressed with the theme of the cake, zebra pattern and all!

Hi Mildred, Thanks for sharing your beautifully decorated Zebra and Fondant Flowers cake. And for telling us your story along with some cake decorating tips.

~Lorelie~

Daisies in Bloom

by Mildred
(Naples, Fl)

This cake was a request from a co worker of mine. No special occasion, just wanted to eat some good cake! This is a 2 layer vanilla rum cake with fondant covering and daisy flower details. She is a young, fun, and very delicate girl. She enjoyed this cake very much.

This simple vanilla cake is really transformed and kicked up a notch (as Emeril would say) by this rum syrup.

Rum Syrup
1 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup Bacardi light rum

Cook the sugar and water until it reaches syrup consistency. Turn off the heat and add the rum. Let it sit for a few minutes for some of the alcohol to cook off. You can also use flavored rum such as vanilla, coconut, pineapple, etc. Baste your cake layers with a pastry brush on top and sides. This will make your cake moist, gives it sort of a background flavor that is unique and everyone will love.

How pretty Mildred, Thank you for sharing this beautiful "no special occasion cake" LOL. It's pretty awesome! The daisies are very sweet and I love the colors and the braided border.

Emeril's rum syrup recipe looks good too. Thank you Mildred for an outstanding submission to the Cake Decorating pictures page.

Dinosour Land Cake

by Mildred
(Naples, Fl)

This cake is my first square fondant creation. A co worker ordered it for her son's 4th birthday. He loves dinosaurs and it will be a beautiful surprise for him.

The cake is a 2 layer vanilla with fresh strawberry filling. The dinosaurs are all made from fondant. The volcano and the tree are made of rice crispy cereal covered with chocolate fondant for the brown and regular fondant for the tree leaves and for the red lava descending from the volcano.

I was a bit nervous about covering a square cake and had to roll out the fondant a few times before I got it to the correct size and thickness. Had lots of fun making this Dinosaur land!

Thanks Mildred for adding your adorable dinosaur land cake to the website.

Click here to post comments. Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Cake Decorating Pictures. Basketball Theme Cake by Mildred (Naples, Fl) I made this cake as a request for a 12 year old birthday boy who is completely obsessed with basketball and loves guava. Jordan and his family are from Puerto Rico where they make a traditional guava cake for special occasions. Jordan is a loyal fan of the Miami Heat basketball team. This is a 2 layer Guava cake with cream cheese and guava marmalade filling. I coated the cake with buttercream to adhere the fondant. I covered the sides of the cake with black fondant and later covered the black with hand painted basketballs. The top of the cake is covered with white fondant and a large red basketball to give the idea that it is on fire and orange flames that are descending from the ball. The flames were cut outs with the small leaf cutter. I finished with a red border on the bottom and on the top sides of the cake. These are the team colors for the Miami Heat, therefore, I tried my best to incorporate them in the cake. Jordan's mom picked up the cake just yesterday afternoon and was very happy with the outcome. I hope Jordan loves this cake. Tip for black fondant: Never color white fondant into black, always start with brown base like chocolate fondant. I found this out the hard way! You need a lot of black gel to get the desired shade and In the end, the fondant becomes very dry and un manageable. Hi Mildred, Thank you for adding your Basketball cake to The All Occasion Cakes Page. Great tip about coloring black fondant too. I am sure that Jordan loved his cake. Sounds really yummy too. Very interesting combination. ~Lorelie~ Here is a link to the fondant pages that may be helpful to folks seeing this post, and the icing recipes on this website. Click here to post comments. Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Cake Decorating Pictures. Spilled Paint Buttercream Cake by Mildred (Naples, Florida) I made this cake for my neighbor Jessica. It was for her boss's birthday. Her request was for the cake to look like we spilled paint over it, just like his company business card. She did not want fondant decorations, only buttercream. After I agreed to make the cake, I wondered how to actually achieve this look. This is my basic 2 layer vanilla cake smothered in vanilla syrup with chocolate pudding filling. I made this cake on a short notice, the night before going out of town for a few days. I was kind of nervous because I like to make my cakes a few days in advance before I decorate them. But the cake turned out to be better than I expected! My recipe for basic buttercream is as follows: 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1/2 cup Crisco shortening 4 cups of sifted powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 to 4 tablespoons of milk or any other liquid flavoring you wish I covered the cake with buttercream and let it set for a few minutes. I then used a very neat trick I learned. I used a paper towel and placed it on the top and sides of the cake, gently pressing and stroking the cake for on minute intervals until you reach the smoothness you like on the buttercream. This really works! I achieved the spilled paint look by covering different areas of the cake at random with colored buttercream in blue, red, yellow, and black. To make the colored patches smooth I used the same paper towel trick. I love this cake! and the customer was mesmerized to see I was actually able to make the cake look just like the business card. Mildred, Thank you for adding your spilled paint cake to the cake decorating pictures page. Great tips too. I have yet to try this buttercream smoothing method. I have heard it is called the Viva method. I Love the creativeness of your cake and it sounds very delicious. Click here to post comments. Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Cake Decorating Pictures. Fondant Birthday Cake Flower Theme by Mildred (Naples, Fl) I am very proud of this, my second fondant cake! This cake was a request for a girl's 8th birthday. It is a 2 layer 9 inch vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream filling. I used vanilla buttercream frosting for crumb coating on the outside of the cake before applying fondant. The flowers are made of colored marshmallow fondant. This was a lot of fun with the flower cutters. I used pearl dust to give the flowers a little shine. Although it is not visible in this picture, the shine gave the cake a more upscale look. Mom and girl loved the cake and placed orders for 2 upcoming birthdays. Thanks Mildred for adding your flower themed fondant cake along with some tips. Very beautifully done. Comments Smoothe by: Barbara Very pretty Click here to post comments. Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Cake Decorating Pictures. Learn How You Can Make Money From Home Sharing Your Passion! SBI!