Fondant?!

Fondant is awesome!

Ok - that brand from the kraft store that you don't want to mention is great for learning. It is also good for covering dummy cakes for cake shows. But when you are comfortable you need to move up to Satin Ice and then if you love it you can go to Karma.

You can get Satin Ice at a good price from global sugar art online.

I make mine

When you want flavor, as well as a nice look, I make a Marshmellow fondant and a whie modeling chocolate and combine the two. The flavor profile is very good and you can also add lor ann oil to modify the flavor as well.
www.cakecentral.com is a great site for the recipe (MMF) as well as plenty of advice.

Joan

Satin ice is ok. It tends to sweat thoguh.
Massa Ticino is good, works well also. I dont like modeling chocolate fondants like Mass Grischuna. tends to be too sticky also.
Really you shouldn't be eating the Fondant anyway. If you going for taste use a buttercream made with regular fondant and not rolled. It's pretty good.
Robert
:)

I really love home made boiled fondant. It adds that chewy texture to cakes and pastries that is so appealing. I don;t know how easily it rolls, but I don;t see why it wouldn;t. You can flavor with real vanilla, and it would be good, but i like it as it is.

It's also magical how it turns from transparent sugar syrup to finely crystallized fondant as you scrape it. I put the excess in a jar with a piece of damp paper towel on top and it lasts forever.

Siduri- Would you mind sharing your recipe for your boiled fondant? I'd love to try it.

Thanks, Emily

Hi Penguin,
Ok, here it is.
boil 1 cup water in a heavy pot
stir in 3 cups sugar and stir till dissolved
add a small pinch cream of tartar or 1 tb corn syrup and stir (watch it doesn;t make it boil over)
boil, covered, so the steam washes down the sides of the pot - or you can wash the crystals of sugar off the sides with a very wet brush
cook uncovered, and don;t stir any more at all (you may introduce crystals) until 238-249 degrees (soft ball)
Pour directly onto a marble slab and let it cool. Start scraping with a bench scraper, a flat spatula or egg turner or other flat scraping thing (big flat knife) - scrape it up towards the center, continuing on and on until it starts to turn from transparent to opaque. (What's happening here, i think, is that the molecules of sugar in the water have become amorphous and lost their specific pattern of being lined up in squares, but when it begins to dry, some crystals form on the marble, but instead of being large ones like in the original sugar, they're very tiny. The presence of patterns of crystals in the syrup begins to make the other molecules align with them - like when you put marbles in a dish, and they end up making triangular formations. Eventually it will be completely white and kind of crumbly. Then begin kneading it, until it's all smooth.
Wrap very well in plastic, and let it ripen half a day or more.
You roll it out like dough on waxed paper or on a greased surface, just like pie dough. it lifts up and can be carried around the rolling pin to the cake. (If you use it on a cake you should put a layer of frosting of some kind underneath or a layer of marzapan, brushed with jam, to make it stick)
You can also heat the fondant in a double boiler, with about two or three tbsp of liquid- water, vanilla, coffee, liqueur, and then pour it over the cake.
It gives a nice chewy consistency that is a great foil to certain cakes, and is also what they put on napoleons and, mixed with chocolate, what frosts eclairs.

Thanks for the recipe. I wish someone could also help me find a good chocolate mold process.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can't wait to try this.

Eventually it will be completely white and kind of crumbly. Then begin kneading it, until it's all smooth.
How long does it usually take you to knead until smooth? 5 minutes? 30 minutes?

Wrap very well in plastic, and let it ripen half a day or more.
Should I ripen on the counter or in the fridge?

It gives a nice chewy consistency that is a great foil to certain cakes, and is also what they put on napoleons and, mixed with chocolate, what frosts eclairs.
Eclairs are a favorite of mine to make, if I top eclairs with the fondant, do I just drizzle it over the tops of them? Or do you have a better method?

Thank you again,
Emily

i haven't done it in a while. i usually do it for five minutes or so and if it's not leaving any crystals (whitish stuff) on the marble (i have dark granite, so they show) then i wait a little more, then try some more. ten minutes? not really sure


i think it can stay out. If you want to hold it for days, then put a piece of very well squeezed out damp cloth over it, and in a jar or tupperware. Otherwise it gets hard. If hard, you can put over double boiler and it might soften

to tell you the truth, i never tried. i think you mix melted semisweet or bitter chocolate with the fondant, and then heat over double boiler, adn spoon and spread on top.

Thank you!

I've made two attempts with this recipe and both have had the same outcome:

As I'm kneading the mixture, its soft and pliable. It's transparent and slowly gets streaks of white ribbons in it. It's still firm but very workable and soft. Then after kneading it for 10 minutes, the entire mixture turns a solid white, then bursts into little pebbles and crumbles.

It's all a crumbly mess that is impossible to work with as it's hard as a rock . . .

Any ideas on what's happening? One minute it's still transparent and looking beautiful, the next minute it's ruined. . .

ok, maybe you've brought it to too high a temperature in the soft ball stage? that's my first thought. It's also true that when it's crumbly you do have to keep kneading it with your hands. Try this, put the crumbly mess in a double boilerand warm it up with a very small sprinkling of water (maybe a tsp, to try). I think there are books with suggestions on this, and maybe you can find some online. I believe i read this once. let it get warm and knead again. see if that works. If not, try more water. Maybe someone with more experience can help us out here - i never had the problem of it getting too hard to knead.

Thanks Siduri, I appreciate the feedback. I took it off the heat right at the softball stage, but maybe I need to move quicker to get it out of the hot pan. I'll make another attempt soon. Thanks!

perhaps also don;t let it cool completely before starting to scrape it. I never have the patience to wait so long! maybe that's why it worked? Of course, be sure not to touch hot syrup! Anyway, one book i have says wait till it cools, another says to let it cool till if you press the top it sort of wrinkles up, then it's ready to scrape.

Good tip, thank you.

very cool! thanks for those!

Yes, the craft store product is not so good but if you want to use it, it is suggested to add your own flavoring to it. I personally use either Satinice or Pettinice. I have heard wonderful things about Massa Ticino but it is rather expensive. I prefer the Satinice as it also comes in different premixed colors such as red and black which can be hard to acheive on your own.