Fun with Fondant and a Giveaway
You know those big beautiful cakes that you see on all those reality baking shows? With all the different shapes and colors of fondant? I’ve honestly never had ambitions to make anything like that. But I’ve also never given it a shot. When Megan from Delicious Dishings and I were talking about our latest baking date, the idea was thrown out there to play with fondant. We figured it would be a fun first to tackle together.
And, to sweeten the deal, the lovely people at King Arthur Flour offered to send us each a tub of their white fondant to play with. In preparations for our fun with fondant day, I baked up a couple cake layers for each of us (we also decorated some cupcakes, that post will be coming later).
Megan decided to make a fall themed cake, while I decided to make a pink ribbon cake. I had great great ambitions in my mind of what this cake would look like. I wanted a big fat pink swirled ribbon draped over the entirety of my cake. But let me back up a minute.
First, we frosted our cakes with some buttercream. We let the cakes chill in the fridge for a bit while we each rolled out some fondant. To coat the cake, we rolled the fondant fairly thin, about 1/8″ thick. To get the rolled out fondant onto my cake, I folded my fondant in quarters, laid it on top of the cake and unfolded it. This was my first mistake of the day. When I unfolded the fondant, it had little seams in it from the fold. I had hoped to be able to smooth them out, but wasn’t able to. Next time, I’d roll the fondant onto the rolling pin and unroll onto the cake.
The next step was to press down the fondant on the sides of the cake. Megan ended up cutting part of her fondant out and I went with the approach of just continuing to press it down and try to smooth it out. Both strategies ended up working, although we both had some uneven fondant on our cakes.
Next cake the decorations. We both took a small portion of fondant and put a few drops of gel food coloring into it. With our hands, we kneaded the fondant until the color was dispersed. Then we played around with the marbling. I’m sure Megan has some intermediate pictures, but I didn’t get any that day. I basically took a small ball of dark pink and a small ball of light pink. I divided each ball in half and rolled them into a long snake. Then I basically laid the ropes out and twisted them together. Then I just rolled the colors together and flipped and kept rolling and flipping until I got a swirl in my fondant. I rolled out a very large piece and just cut out the pink ribbon with a knife.
I draped the pink ribbon over the cake and I loved it instantly! That’s when I discovered my second mistake (or maybe it was my first in reality). You see, my cake layers were frozen at the beginning of the day. They were defrosting while the plain white fondant sat on the cake. This resulted in my white fondant sweating as the cake layers cooled. This was great in the fact that the pink ribbon stuck to the white fondant without any additional aid.
I then decided that the cake felt a little naked. So I mixed my swirled pink fondant with some white fondant to make more swirls. Then I made the dots to decorate the rest of the cake. I think it turned out pretty nicely for my first fondant cake. I’m not sure I’ll be making any big masterpieces in the near future, but it sure was fun to try something new with a friend.
And NOW, after all of that, comes the good part. The giveaway. King Arthur Flour has generously offered one lucky reader of mine and Megan’s the chance to try playing with fondant themselves. I will choose one entry at random to win one tub of white fondant.
Rules for Giveaway:
– Be sure to follow King Arthur Flour either on Facebook, Twitter, or by subscribing to their newsletter (check the lower right hand corner of their website)
– Leave a comment by 11:59PM (EST) on Friday October 7th answering this question – What do you think about fondant? Love it? Hate it? Peel it off before digging in? Eat it all up?
– Only one entry per person
– US or Canada shipping addresses only
Don’t worry, I’ll post more about the inside of this cake shortly. This post is long enough already…
Don’t forget about my Power of Pink Challenge – make something PINK by the end of the month to raise Breast Cancer Awareness!
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
PB&J for sure!
I loved bread and butter with a glass of cold chocolate milk
Definitely peanut butter cookies and milk!
My son loves chocolate chip cookies and milk!
My mom always had a piece of cake waiting for us after the first day of school. She was usually a real health nut about our snacks…so cake in the middle of the day…and it wasn’t anyone’s birthday? AWESOME, mom, thanks!
chocolate chip cookies
Chocolate chip cookies!!
I grew up snacking on (multiple) Little Debbies after school…loved them, but I never learned to appreciate healthful food. My daughter loves “stringy” mozzarella cheese, yogurt or fruit…and of course cookies as a “sometimes” food. 😉
I loved the Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies!
Mini grilled cheese sandwiches (using cocktail bread) were a favorite at my house growing up.
I give Cameron the same thing. Delicious!
My favorite snack was a bowl of Cocoa Krispies…nothing better than sitting in front of the TV watching Saved by the Bell and having cereal 🙂
My Mom would let us have 2 chocolate chip cookies after school sometimes. My kids aren’t as lucky as I usuually give them pretzel sticks or goldfish crackers.
My favorite was m&m’s and mini pretzels. I’m not sure how I discovered this combo, but to this day when I eat the 2 together, I still put my m&m’s in the pretzel holes.
I always liked having those handi-snacks after school. Either the ones with the crackers and cheese of those little breadsticks with cheese. I remember liking the breadsticks one better though. 🙂
my fave was kit kat bars!
Double stuffed Oreos! My eight-year old self thought they were the greatest thing ever
Mmm… Little Debbie Swiss cake rolls. Yum!
I loved the lil debbir zebra cakes – YUM!!!
Celery and peanut butter, its still a favorite and I give it to my kids now!
Handisnacks! Well the cheese anyway.
Chocolate chip cookies, of course!
For me as a kid it was cookies of any kind.
My kids love to get a baked treat–brownies, cookies, cupcakes, muffin…yum!
Karen
karen0801@aol.com
One time my mom had warm apple fritters dusted with powdered sugar waiting for us after school. It was a one-off but my favorite snack ever!
My favorite after school snack was graham crackers with peanut butter and banana. It still is one of my favorites!
For some reason, I loved to make my own snack. My favorite was a “Big Cheese,” essentially a cheese quesadilla.
I had Little Debbie Snacks. Don’t really buy them any more!
Anything from Little Debbie. Especially Fudge Rounds
We liked graham crackers with chocolate frosting. But now that you posted chocolate chips, I can’t get chocolate chip cookies out of my head!
Bread with peanut butter or cookies and milk!
ohhh, I liked chips ahoy cookies… warmed up in the microwave!
seriously, it was nestle toll house cookies.
sliced apples with peanut butter.
Pizza bagels were the most fun afterschool snack, because I would make them with my sisters before our mom got home!
A smear of peanut butter on a tortilla, sometimes with a few chocolate chips 😉
I loved having my moms home ade frosted sugar cookies when I got home from school
Favorite after school snack was definitely celery w/ peanut butter!
Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies. I know there’s pretty much not one real ingredient in them, but they’re so good.
my daughter loves chocolate chip cookies!
Kraft Mac and Cheese! 🙂
This is weird, but…. saltine crackers and sliced apples. My mom had me convinced it tasted *just* like apple pie so I happily ate it after school every day for many years. Haha.
Cute kit! My favorite afterschool snack was homemade chocolate chip cookies and milk.
I think that my favorite after school snack was when my mom would make a m&m sugar cookies. I absolutely loved chocolate and sugar cookies combined!! yum!! 🙂
My mom would make hot dogs in a crescent roll. We’d dip them in ketchup and they were soo good! I make them for my kiddos now and they love ’em too!
cookies of course!
It wasn’t an every day thing, but sometimes my neighbor’s Mom that watched me after school would make home made caramel apples and I LOVED them! The second I walked in the house, the smell overwhelmed me with excitement 🙂
We always had granola bars as an afterschool snack. Now for my son I always try to fix something different. No cookies tho, those are for dessert 😀 But his current favorite that he is always asking for are fresh bhajis, and Indian veggie fritter.
my favorite after school snack was a bowl of boo berry cereal. I loved it when the milk turned blue, my favorite part of the snack! 🙂
I loved a bowl of cereal when I got home from school.
I loved a chocolate chip cookie with milk!
Kraft mac and cheese
My favorite after school snack was a tortilla with butter. Or pieces of bologna. Weird, I know.
My favorite after school snack was peanut butter on crackers!
i had 2 favorite snacks. 1) Nature Valley granola bars with peanut butter 2)snyders pretzels dipped in ketchup
Bananas covered in peanut butter and marshmallows pushed into the peanut butter 🙂 yum
My mom made me “apple smiles”! Apple slices with peanut butter spread on them and mini marshmallow “teeth”!
Little Debbie snack cakes…those were awesome!!
A bowl of cereal, Labne(lebanese strained yogurt chees) w/ pita, or fruit.
I give my son pretty much the same things, he really likes string cheese and real fruit snack size popsicles too.
milk and homemade cookies
My mom used to make us the best banana chocolate chip bread with milk for the first day of school every year. I still make it, its so delicious!
We didn’t necessarily have a real snack after school, but my mom used to let us have ice pops or other frozen treats!
Chef Boyardee, cold, straight out of the can. It was weird, but delicious!
I always ate a toasted Pb & J with a tall glass of milk! Mmm… I think I might go get one right now.
After school, I remember coming home to my regular bench at the kitchen counter and my mom inviting me to relax, drink some juice and have something small like a yogurt, or crackers. What I ate doesn’t stand out, but what I will remember is how she always wanted me to be comfortable.
Cookies and milk, for sure. 🙂
Spaghettios and popcorn. Weird combination, but they went together as far as I was concerned.
Granny smith apples & pop corn. Sweet & Tart. That is what I had as a kid- and now that is what I pass on to my kid.
Cookies and milk!
Junk food all the way! Doritoes…or any other kind of chip.
I am not making this up, my favorite snack was chocolate chip cookies. My mom was a baker. (that’s where I learned it!) She was always whipping up some cookies or pies for us. On the other hand, I try to have at least one veggie snack on hand for my kids, like sliced peppers or carrots. They get plenty of sweets too, though!
I’m kind of embarrassed to say, that my parents would get me us hot dogs from the street vendor everyday after school. I wouldn’t eat it now…but we ate it all the time.
Occaisonally, my mom made home-made granola bars…as soon as I read your question, that was the first thing I thought of!
No bake cookies were my favorite because I could make them myself. I have such fond memories of whipping these puppies up with my brothers!
We liked homemade popsicles!!
A bowl of cereal.
If I ever had a snack after school it was always fruit.
definitely pb&j. yummo!!!
I know it’s strange, but I used to eat a bowl of black-eyed peas every single day when I got home from school. I was a strange kid haha. I just wish I still craved healthy foods over sweets!
peanut butter on vanilla wafers!! Still like them today
(jrklturner@yahoo.com)
apples and peanut butter!!!
Cookies and milk.
Peanut butter and jelly, but the peanut butter had to be extra crunchy!
Chocolate Chip cookies and milk!
mmm definitely oreos dipped in milk!
We enjoy making our own snack mix or baking something yummy- muffins or cookies.
This is embarrassing but I looooved Swiss Cake Rolls dipped in milk…oh they were SO good!
I always used to eat fruit-grapes, apples or whatever was in season.
Home made choc chip cookies! The best.
Cheese and Crackers! 🙂
Some kind of ice cream treat or Cracker & Cheddar Combos.
the.k.krew(at)gmail(dot)com
PB&J with the crusts cut off!
Graham crackers with vanilla frosting!
Chocolate Chip Cookies!! =)
PB & J!
As a kid and now with my kids…Chocolate Chip Cookies.
I grew up, for the first 11 years of my life, just over one mile from the Original Toll House in Whitman, MA. I always blame my love for them because “it was in the air”.
I am known for my Chocolate Chip Cookies, because I have literally made thousands of batches:)
Little Debbie brownies, or peanut butter and honey celery. 🙂
I loved celery with cream cheese or peanut butter. I also really loved triscuts with cheese.
What a generous giveaway! My favorite back to school snack as a kid was bologna and peanut butter… I would not touch it now, and it’s so funny to me that I liked that at one point but it was my favorite snack at the time! 🙂
Would love to win this giveaway. Nestle Toll House cookies are my favorite. My fiance and I are on a budget saving for our wedding and our first home so we aren’t able to splurge on things like this at the store. Winning would be so fun!
Seasidesmitten@aol.com
Well I do not have kids but I’m a nanny for a very lovely 9 year old little girl 🙂 My favorite sweet snack after school was graham crackers with frosting…delicious! The little one I watch is a huge fan of cookies. No matter the type she eats them all 🙂
I always loved coming home to peanut butter on crackers!
I don’t remember a favorite snack. But my mom had an at-home daycare and I remember loving to drink Kool-Aid.
Hi!
My favorite thing was to ride the bus home with a friend to their house, because they always had the BETTER snacks! My mom didn’t buy anything that was considered “unhealthy,” so when I did go to a friend’s house, I would savor a pop-tart or a rice crispy treat.
Thanks to my mom’s good – albeit disappointing when I was 6 – example, I pretty much eat healthy now (I’m 30 now), but I will probably always love those! 🙂
My brothers and I would always snack on ice cream sandwiches after school – I miss those days! : )
I think it must have been pb&j. Or cookies with milk! Nestle was always my favorite growing up. I know my little sister would absolutely love this kit! I’d have to keep it at my house and she could come make cookies on the weekends! I love it 🙂
I’m not just saying this…it was definately chocolate chip cookies!!!
My favorite to give my kids is cookies because it is so rare, so to see their faves light up when they see the warm, chewy cookies…so fun for me!
I loved fruit snacks as a kid, and I still do!
My favorite school snack was home-made rice crispie treats!
I think it was probably just a homemade quesadilla. Just a plain flour tortilla with cheddar cheese sliced melted in the microwave!
This is really gross. I would eat raw hotdogs. I would never do that now.
I used to eat Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls for a snack. Surprisingly I was super skinny too.
Green apple slices with peanut butter. Yum!
Mini pizzas made from english muffin slices, prego sauce, and mozzarella cheese. Mmm.