You can't have any, though. I didn't make it for you!
One of my varied abilities is cake decorating. I won't say I'm a pro! I'm very definitely an amateur. But I can do it reasonably well, so I'm often asked if I will do it.
A young woman from our small rural community is getting married in the near future, and traditonally, the folks of our area throw a shower for any locally-raised bride-to-be. Part of this tradition is the special bride's cake, in the bride's colours, for the wedding party to enjoy at their own soirée later. I've made the cakes for the last few of these events!
I baked the cake yesterday, actually, a dense, moist, chocolate oatmeal cake. I find it stands up better to the weight of heavier frosting and fondant decorations.
Now for the fondant! I make a homemade marshmallow fondant. There are lots of great recipes available online. I don't like to eat marshmallows all that much, but they work great for this.
I start by melting them over very low heat with a tablespoon or so of water.
Very low heat is the key. It can be done in short bursts in the microwave too, but I don't have one. A double boiler is also recommended, but I also don't have one of those. So it's just very very low heat and lots of stirring! Don't want that fondant to taste scorched.
Getting there!
When the marshies are fully melted, it's a good time to add any colouring. I wanted an antique white shade, rather a bright white, so a little dab of brown icing dye got blended in.
Then it's time for icing sugar! I'm not much for measuring, I just dump and stir until it's right.
Once it is a big sticky blobby thing entirely attached to the spoon (I did not take a picture of this moment), pour a liberal amount of cornstarch onto a clean countertop.
Dump your blob onto this pile, then thoroughly grease your hands. VERY THOROUGHLY. Shortening, butter, margarine, or coconut oil are recommended, as lard tends to leave a strange flavour behind. If you skip the greasing, your hands will be cemented into the marshmallow ball until someone rescues you.
Then start kneading in that starch! The lumpy sticky marshmallow blob will become smooth and uniform in a surprisingly short time!
Tada!
So that part is done. I also made a small bit of a darker brown fondant. This colour was acheived by using some cocoa powder in place of the icing sugar rather than a large amount of icing dye.
I whipped up some plain buttercream frosting to assemble the cake with. Here it is, filled and frosted, ready for fondant.
Fondant gets rolled out like pie dough on a well-greased countertop...
Then picked up carefully and laid over the cake. I couldn't get pictures of that part! But here is the fondant applied and trimmed. There are visible seams at the corners which I will hide with later decorations! A gentle massage with the palm of the hand smoothes the fondant into the bed of buttercream and gives a nice shape to the cake.
Then some of the darker fondant, rolled and cut to shape with my incredible expensive cutting tool.
Add some burgundy lace...
More lace, more fondant borders, and some little fondant roses...
The roses really came out well, they don't always co-operate with me.
And that's my excitement for today. A fancy cake that I don't get to eat, and neither do you. But thanks for coming anyway!
it is fancy indeed you did a fantastic job looks so professional
Thanks Jay! It's fiddly stuff sometimes but it's also a lot like Play-Doh for grown-ups, that doesn't taste like the bottom of a pirate's foot. So it is also kinda fun!
Lol at your description that cracked me up
My sister and a friend did cake decorating for fun for a while I remember watching them was so cool
Dang that was close to or over 40 years ago when I think about it
Fantastic looking cake. Welcome back to tbe blockchain.
Thanks! Its good to be back :)
Very beautiful! How did you get into cake decorating?
I suppose it started with my grandmother. She decorated cakes for weddings as a source of side income on occassion, the big old-fashioned tiered and pillared things with plastic swans and cherubs and bride-and-groom statues and three cubic feet of royal icing. She made the cakes for all eight of her children when they got married (four sons, four daughters). My mother was one if the "middle children" and often got to help, so she knew a lot if the skills too, and passed them on to me. So I would get creative with birthday cakes and with cookies at Christmas and that sort of thing just for fun. When my brother was getting married just over 5 years ago, he and his wife were trying to keep a small budget and asked if I would be willing to try to make a cake for them, and that was my first foray into the realm of fondant! I just gave it a whirl and it went great, so now I keep on doing it! I have yet to get paid for a cake at this point, but I've only ever done cakes that I would consider to be a "gift" anyways.
That makes for great memories, and maybe you can pass the skills down to your girls too! It’s nice of you to gift all those cakes! But I’m sure you enjoy the work :)
Beautiful work! I am not a huge fan of fondant, but my husband could eat it all day. thanks for sharing.
Yeah I don't love the taste that much either, too cloyingly sweet. I always take a middle piece from the cake so theres just the small square on the top XD I see you are new on Steemit so welcome aboard!
Thanks! My husband tried to get me onboard about a year ago as @kelseyslayton, but I had a hard time with the blog format. I’m an Instagram type girl and can’t wait to use steepshot!
Nicely done! I was a pro cake decorator many years ago and I have to say you did a great job. I love the hand-made touch. I also appreciate your homespun traditions and hand-me-down knowledge. Lucky you!
Thanks! The local traditions here have always been special. I used to be so confused when I moved off into the wider world for a few years as a young adult and learned that these traditions were not repeated everywhere! Naive of me, I guess, but being so fortunate to grow up in a warm, welcoming, supportive community made some of the other places I lived seem cold and sad indeed!
Glad you were passing through!
Absolutely Wonderful, Delightful and so Brilliantly done! Baking is an Art, a passion and full of fun and creativity! The whole world is in your hands and you can shape it up as desired!!! & Let the creative juices flow !!! :)
Kudos for such a remarkable job!!! Must be so very Yum Yum !!! :) Enjoy !!!
Thanks so much for the compliments :) maybe it's foolish to go to all the trouble to make something so beautiful when its just going to be eaten later, but I think the beauty makes it taste better :D
What I believe is...more the efforts, more the beauty and more the taste !!! :) & hence More to Relish!!!
Cheers!
Wow ! That's incredibly well done !
When did you start decorating cakes ? I know you probably haven't been doing it steady since you first tried, but I'm curious as to how much practice it took you to get as skilled as you are.
Or were you just born anatural cake artist ? :p
I tell the history of my cake decorating skills in a reply to @hebrewhousewife's similar question...
As far as practice though, you know, I guess I really don't practice at all? But I have spent hours and hours and hours practicing my artistic skills, drawing and painting and so on, which I'm sure gives me a huge boost. I've never tried sculpting much, but I know I can visualize things in a three-dimensional space quite well too. Add to that the manual dexterity that a decade of music lessons can give you, and it just all seems to come together!!
So, maybe I was born with some raw talent, but a lot of other factors have helped me to be good at it :)
This is really creative of you and so beautiful. Looks delicious to 😉😋 thank you for sharing. Happy Sunday!
Thank YOU for saying so!
My pleasure dear 😉 amazing cake 😋
mmm... marshmellow fondant! beautiful cake!
It's not too bad tasting, that's for sure! Thanks for stopping in :)
Wow, this is really a great one. Well done. Looks like you have a lot of practice.
Thanks so much for saying so!
You did a fantastic job! It's beautiful.
Thanks! It's one I'm definitely proud of.
Wow that's really lovely! I like to do cakes for people here and there but I do everything with piping/frosting. I actually did one today, that I'll post soon! I've made fondant once, for a cake I made my hubby for his bday, and it turned out alright, but it took so much longer because I'm not used to it, I think. And of course it was lumpy and bumpy. Haha Do you always make your own or have you used the store bought stuff too?
I have used store bought once, when i needed a black fondant for my brother's wedding cake. I didn't think i could possibly get a nice true black colour on my own! But otherwise yes, I have been naking my own fondant whenever I need!
My grandmother and mother did all the piping style decorations, and I can do a bit of that, but I think I'm better at fondant hahahaha
Oh, yes, good call! Black frosting is bad enough, I can only imagine how much dye you'd need for fondant... and then the consistency would probably be thrown way off... and then your arms would fall off from all the kneading. hahaha
They're really very different techniques, so of course you're going to be more comfortable with what you're used to. I may attempt some fondant again soon, just for fun. But it'll have to be for my hubby or just some random cake that I make "just because" so that I don't have to feel bad if it turns out like my 5yo's play-doh creations. 😜
Very beautiful. I have started making cakes too! Im not as neat yet but getting there.
Thanks! Id love to see pictures sometime :D
Possibly a post or two in the future! Was the marshmallow fondant tasty?
Its alright, yes! Mostly just really sweet, its basically pure sugar, haha. I find it almost too sweet, but ive never heard anyone complain about it tasting bad anyways.
Thats an improvement alot of people dont like fondant
You should look up chocolate clay also. My mother has done some neat stuff with chocolate clay made on colored coating caps.