HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016 to the lovely members of the Daring Kitchen. Hope you have a year of complete Baking and Culinary bliss! Let 2016 unleash your unbound creativity and raise the bar of this platform. This month’s challenge is hosted by Shillpa Bhaambri from Cakeline the Journey, a Baker and Cake designer living in Mumbai, India. She runs a cakery, aptly called Cakeline that specializes in customized cakes and desserts. Cake designing is an extension of baking. It is a surging craft, hobby or profession in today’s times. Making plain cakes look visually stunning has become a unique artistry and a professional baker who specializes in making and decorating cakes is called a cake artist.
In this challenge Shillpa explains in detail about some edible mediums used in cake decoration, including “edible clays” like Fondant; Modeling paste, Gum paste and Modeling chocolate. They are used by cake designers to recreate mind blowing concepts and themes on cakes. Fondant in cake designing context, refers to rolled fondant or sugar paste, which is primarily used to cover cakes and boards. This is soft sugar dough that cuts through instantly with a knife. It easily rolls out and is quite malleable. Fondant stays fairly soft, even after it has been shaped. Designing cakes with it gives them a smooth and polished finish, and it can be colored or flavored to taste.
FONDANT/SUGAR PASTE
Ingredients:
800g / 6 2/5 cups icing sugar, unsifted
100g / 7 tablespoons white butter or shortening
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin or agar agar
30ml / 2 tablespoons cold water
100g / 1/3 cup liquid glucose
15ml / 1 tablespoon glycerin
Large pinch of kitchen salt
5ml / 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
7g / 1/2 tablespoon white butter or shortening
Method:
- Measure all the ingredients and set aside. Sieve the icing sugar and keep 300gms / 2 2/5 cups of it aside.
- Soak the gelatin in the cold water and melt it in a microwave or double boiler. Melt the butter/shortening.
- Mix butter/shortening into gelatin. Add liquid glucose and glycerin and mix well. Warm it for 20 seconds.
- You can do this in a microwave oven. Add clear vanilla extract and salt. Take 500gm icing sugar in a bowl.
- Stir in the liquid mixture, a little at a time. Keep blending and adding the liquid, slowly to the icing sugar.
- To make colored fondant, add the required amount of edible gel color to warmed gelatin glucose liquid.
- Move mixture onto a smooth kitchen counter. Keep kneading gently and adding the reserved icing sugar.
- Add as much icing sugar the dough can take in to make a pliable texture. It should not stick to your hands.
- Lastly smear 7g / 1/2 tablespoon butter or shortening onto the counter. Knead gently to absorb all the fat.
- Roll and shape the fondant into an oblong. Wrap fondant tightly with cling film. Makes about 1kg fondant.
Fondant Icing from Scratch
7 comments
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January 27, 2016 at 4:39 pm
kouky
Ton gâteau est superbe!! j’adore les couleurs délicates des perles!!
January 28, 2016 at 9:35 pm
prerrnamirchi
thanks kouky! ur Barbie cake is also very nice 🙂
February 15, 2016 at 1:50 pm
Sameenah
Hello. Can you tell me more about white butter? Is it ‘normal butter’ like flora etc? Where can i obtain glycerine and glucose plz?
February 16, 2016 at 3:41 pm
prerrnamirchi
Hi Sameenah I used President unsalted butter as it was the whitest I could find here. Flora is margarine NOT butter!! The glycerine is available in pharmacy whereas the liquid glucose can be bought in supermarkets like Monoprix or SikYuen but you will find it in large tubs. I substituted the glucose by pure golden syrup which worked well.
February 19, 2016 at 7:35 am
sameenah
Thx u
May 20, 2016 at 9:28 am
Audrey
Salut, ton blog est super! Par contre en ce qui concerne la glycerin et la glucose liquide, où est-ce que je peux m’en procurer?
May 29, 2016 at 4:09 pm
prerrnamirchi
Hello Audrey! You can find glycerine in pharmacies and liquid glucose in supermarkets like Monoprix or Sik Yuen Way. The liquid glucose however comes in a large container of 1.5kg so I usually replace it with golden syrup which works fine in most recipes 🙂