Fondant Bow Cake

Two weeks back, Rohit and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary. I wanted to make a special cake for the small party we threw. I have always wanted to make a fondant cake, and so decided to give it a try. On this post, you will find links to many tutorials, as I had to learn most of the stuff involved in icing and decorating this cake. As there is so much stuff available on net, it can get overwhelming sometimes. So this post is my way of documenting everything I learnt along the way, with links to the tutorials I felt helped me the most.

Flavour of the Cake

Decided to make Devil's Chocolate cake as I had got rave reviews when I made it last time for Kabir's teachers at day-care, for Teachers' Appreciation week.

Icing

For icing, I chose crusting Buttercream Icing to get that smooth look. To make buttercream crust, it needs tons of sugar, so I don't specifically like it. I did not exactly put the amount of sugar that recipe called for, but enough to give it a somewhat smooth look, as I was anyway planning to cover my cake with fondant. I used the below recipe from Edna De La Cruz's, except, for the amount of sugar(original recipe called for 4 cups of sugar). Last time, I tried with 2 cups, and my icing did not crust. So I found that 3 is the minimum required for below amounts of butter & shortening.

• 1/2 cup solid high ratio shortening(with trans fat). I used Walmart brand as Crisco has stopped using transfat in the shortening
• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1 tablespoon of meringue powder
• 1 teaspoon(or extract of choice)I used vanilla.
• 3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk

First sift meringue powder with sugar. In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla and milk. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating on a slow speed. Add water 1 tsp at a time if icing gets too thick. This recipe yields 3 cups. Please see this link if you want to learn to ice the cake.

Instructions

Step 1: Making of Bow

If you are planning to make some fondant/gum paste decorations for the cake, that should be the first step, as it takes time, sometimes days for these to dry. I made the bow out of fondant which takes the most time to dry. But I added 1 tsp of Gum-Tex to big blob of fondant to help it dry faster. My bow dried out completely overnight, which made me very happy.

Stuff you would need:

• Fondant (I used Satin Ice fondant as it tastes so much better than other fondants available.)
• Gum-Tex
• Rolling Pin
• Scale/Ruler
• Sharp Knife or Pizza roller
• Wax paper( As I did not have any wax paper handy, I used the one from an empty cereal box. Just turn it inside out, and you have a free wax paper).

I used this tutorial to make the bow.

Step 2: Getting the Cake ready

Make the desired cake in two 9 '' round pans. When the cake is ready and cooled off, remove from the pan and level the 2 cakes with sharp or serrated knife. Levelling is important as we are going to layer the cake.

Step 3: Crumb coat Icing

Now comes the Icing. Once the icing is ready, place the first layer of cake on cake board*. Apply thin layer of icing, cover it with other layer of cake. Now apply crumb coat of icing on top and on all sides. Then leave it on shelf for couple of hours(I did not refrigerate it). Crumb coat is nothing but a very thin layer of icing done before the actual icing. It helps stop the cake crumbs mixing in with final coat of icing. It is preferred to have a little thin version of above icing for crumb coat(couple of extra tbsp of water), but I used it as is.

* I made the cake board by cutting the side of a cardboard box in round shape(exactly the size of cake as I do not like my base showing from under the cake), and covering it with aluminium foil.

Step 4: Final coat of Icing

After couple of hours apply a thick layer(1/4'') of icing all over the cake and smooth it as much as possible. Let the icing crust for couple of minutes. You know the icing has crusted when you touch it and it does not stick to the finger. Now smooth the cake using paper towel technique and fondant smoother. I used a regular Bounty paper towel instead of Viva(which has no pattern) as I did not care for the pattern on paper towel. Gently press the paper towel with the fondant smoother on top and on sides. Leave it overnight out on shelf. Cover it lightly with paper towel as icing needs air to crust.

Step 5: Rolling the Fondant

Now comes the best part of covering it with fondant for that 'oh so smooth' look. Knead the fondant on a clean surface and add desired gel color with a toothpick, little at a time. Continue to knead until all the color is evenly mixed. Start rolling the fondant with rolling pin, till its 1/4'' thick. Keep using powdered sugar frequently to prevent fondant from sticking to the surface. The diameter of final rolled fondant should be the diameter of cake + length of both sides + some extra.

Step 6: Fondant on Cake

Spray little water on the cake to help fondant stick to it. Place the cake(along with cakeboard) on the turn table or some box to give it height. I used my shortening box. Slowly place the fondant on cake, and gently press it on all sides so it sticks with cake. Cut the extra from all sides using pizza roller or sharp knife. Smooth the fondant with fondant smoother. Here is a video for kneading and placing the fondant on cake: I omitted the piping gel and cooking spray from it.

Step 7: Fondant beads

To make the beads, you can buy Bead makers. But I did not want to spend money on something I wouldn't use very often. Rolling each bead with hand was not giving a bead of same size each time. So I took the biggest icing tip, and used the back of it to cut circles, and rolled these to make beads. This ensured all my beads were of same size.

Step 8: Finale

Place the bow or any decorations on cake now. Stuff like bows which are prepared in advance, need candy melt to stick to cake. Any fresh cutouts can be attached to cake with just water. The beads of fondant around the base of cake have been attached with little bit of water, as soon as I rolled it.

Happy Baking!