Fondant doesn't "bug" me anymore - my very first fondant cake!

Fondant fears be gone!!!! Yep, you are reading this right - I did it, I finally faced my fondant fears head on and made my very first official fondant cake this weekend. Let me tell you at first I was ready to throw in the towel and go back to what I know best - butter cream BUT I knew that in my heart of hearts IF I ever in my wildest dreams want to open any type of baking business that I MUST start to work with fondant. So that is just what I did!

I didn't want to buy that pre-rolled type, as I've read that it pretty much tastes like the package that it comes in (yeah that good huh?), so I decided if I was going to do it, I was going to go all in or nothing and I made homemade marshmallow fondant myself. I found a recipe and quick tutorial here. I was pretty surprised how quickly it all came together and that the clean up wasn't as horrific as I once thought. As for working with the fondant, lesson learned is that you can read and read and read about it BUT you don't really know a darn thing until you actually try to do it yourself. I had a few moments where regardless of using a huge about of both cornstarch and powdered sugar it was STILL sticking to my counter (que the "I HATE THIS!, I'M GOING BACK TO ICING!" moment). I quickly learned that it works better if during the “rolling it out” process you roll it out a bit in one direction, flip it, sprinkle your counter again and begin rolling out the other side. Once I actually had the cakes covered I fell in love with fondant. Decorating it and seeing it all come to life was so cute! I would love to have the "professionals" give me their opinions of the cake and what I could have done to make it even better. Here are the questions that I have for the fondant pros:

How do you make sure that they are no flaws in the fondant - no creases, no dimples, no stray finger nail marks as you smooth it out and what do you do if you happen to have one once it is already on the cake?

How do you use enough icing base under the fondant but yet make sure it doesn't come out under the fondant when you are smoothing the fondant onto the cake?

When you are putting the cake together, do you torte the cake (even if it is a small cake) so that there is plenty of icing along with the marshmallow fondant?

Is there a way to get the fondant to look shiny after you have it all in place? I just used a pastry brush to brush off all of the excess powdered sugar after the entire cake was finished.

Any other tips or suggestions? (I am sure I will think of more once I post this and if so I will come back and edit)

Without further ado I introduce you to the finished product. Drum roll please........



I used a regular 13x9 cake for the base and the Wilton Sports Ball pan set for the lady bugs (instead of putting the pans together to form a ball, I kept them separate). I used various fondant cutters and flower cutters for the shapes and leaves as well as using Wilton decorating tips to create various looks on the lady bugs. But my favorite part was using the fondant to make these little bees. I mean seriously how cute are they????



Thanks for looking and I appreciate any and all feedback that you can provide to me!

Enjoy!