Cake Hell - Day 3

Today was fondant coloring / flower making day.

It was also send my children to daycare day, because if I have to hear "It was an ACCIDENT!" or "WHHHHHHYYYYY???" or "She/He TOUCHED meeeee" or "Can I say poopy? Can I say bottom? Can I say pee-pee?" ONE.MORE.TIME. I am going to shove fondant in someone's ears. So to daycare they went. It was for their own safety, people. Even stay at home moms need a day off.

Below is what the fondant looks like. One is packaged and one is unwrapped. Fondant is a soft sugar coating that gives cakes an incredibly smooth finish.

Working with fondant is kind of like rolling out and cutting play-doh (though MUCH stiffer...my arms are sore). You ice your cake, then lay the rolled out fondant over the cake. It is perfectly edible, but a lot of people just take it off because they don't like the taste or texture (me included).

And some people have asked how I got into making cakes. Well, I spent many days at my Granny's house watching her decorate cakes for family, and poring over her old Wilton catalogs. Then, when I was pregnant with Garrett, I decided to take "Cake Decorating I" at the local craft store. It taught the basics, which I'd really already learned from Granny. Shortly thereafter, I signed up for "Cake Decorating II", which taught simple flowers. And the other class I took was "Fondant I".

And then people starting asking me to make cakes, and I started charging for them. I have exactly $79.62 in my cake account to date. Ha. Hahahaha! Such a LUCRATIVE business I'm running here.

Anyway, the fondant:

Below is the fondant mid-kneading. I knead it to soften it up, then add paste food coloring and work it in until it's the color I desire. This one will be purple. You have to keep everything (counter, fondant, hands, rolling pin) dusted with powdered sugar because it is very sticky. It also dries out very quickly.


The next picture is all of the finished fondant, about seven pounds of it, to be exact. I have labeled each bag to remind me what I'm doing with each color / amount.


These are the blossoms that will decorate the cake. They are made of fondant and are drying in flower formers, which are just curved plastic that give your flowers a more natural, curved shape (instead of being totally flat). They will dry hard and I will attach them to the cake with buttercream icing.


The last picture is the rest of the embellishments for the Mad Hatter cake: two sizes of leaves, pink, blue, and purple fondant roses, and a fondant bumblebee and his wings. You can't tell, but the bee and the wings are sparkly...I wet the fondant a little and sprinkled edible shimmer dust on top. The bee's head is held on with a toothpick, and the wings also are attached to toothpicks. Hope no one bites into those.

Good grief. I am tired and my feet HURRRRRT. I'm going to go take a bath with a fizzy aromatherapy bath ball.

Also, I'm sorry if I usually read and comment on your blog everyday...I haven't even had time to check my bloglines today. I swear I'll get caught up soon!

Up next: The hard part: Icing, carving, stacking, and putting the fondant covering on each cake tier. I will also be baking the baby shower cakes and the "Herbie" cakes tomorrow.

No margaritas have been necessary yet. But they may be needed tomorrow. Tonight, DoubleStuf Oreos and anti-anxiety meds will suffice.