Blondie's Cake Tip #2: Flat Out Fondant

Today marks part two of our little cake decorating series, and it's all about flattening out that crazy stuff people love to order and see on their cakes: 

fondant.

I've made and worked with more than my fair share of fondant. My favorite type to eat is the homemade marshmallow fondant - but my favorite type to work with is... well... that expensive store-bought stuff. It may not taste as good, but it saves brain cells, okay? 

Before I roll out the fondant, I usually add in some shades with icing color (usually the gel stuff from Wilton), and then fold in the color until it's uniform throughout. Then, I try to roll them out using my rolling pin and cornstarch (not powdered sugar). This gets the fondant pretty flat, but I like that polished look. So if I'm going for a shape that's less than 6 inches wide, I use something my mother-in-law probably never intended for it's use... 

her beautiful pasta maker from Italy. 

Yes, I've used it to make pasta before, but more often these days I use it for rolling out fondant. There's three settings: one for spaghetti, one for fettuccine, and then there's just one all-out-flat section. That's the money-maker.

For fondant ribbons, I usually roll out the fondant in an oval with my roller, fold it over a couple times, and then slide it right through the pasta maker/machine. Then I trim it to whatever size I want. Works like a charm, and is pretty easy to manage (which is usually not the case with that devilish fondant). 

Any fondant I don't use, I save in an air-tight ziploc bag for later (usually for practicing flowers). 

Make sure to tune in on Thursday to see how to make these darling little polka dots on the side of your tiered cakes without each of them looking like hershey kisses!

xo, 
blondie