I recently had a chance to tour the Wilton offices in Chicago's suburbs lately, and got to test out some of their new products, including their new Decorator Preferred Fondant. Have you ever tried to use fondant? It can be tough to work with sometimes- and it often doesn't taste great. But I have to tell you- after trying out the new Decorator Preferred Fondant- I am hooked! I wanted to share How To Add Fondant With a Cake using Wilton's new fondant (which can be found at Joann Fabric and Craft Stores- so glad I got to meet up with them on the Wilton trip!) so you can add fondant to cakes easily, too!
First off, I have to share some of the AMAZING cake creations I saw while at Wilton. Aren't these incredible? And many of them can be easily made at home- really! The one in the middle was a part of a competition other bloggers and I were in- Mandy from Sugar Bee Crafts, Steph from Girl Inspired and Jilian from Michael's blog helped me create our little purple and pink cake in just under 20 minutes so we could test out some new buttercream and fondant skills!
Aren't all of those amazing? Obviously some take a ton of time and talent- but there are quite a few that can be made by anyone, especially when you know how to use fondant.
So let's get started- and see just how easy it is to cover a cake in fondant! The cake below took under 10 minutes to be covered and smooth. This is the perfect base for any fun and creative cake you'd like to make!
First off, we need a crumb coat. Add a generous amount of buttercream to your cake, and with an offset spatula, cover the cake. You don't have to worry too much about perfect buttercream- you can slap it on. However- if your cake will need to be super smooth, try to make it all the same thickness and fairly even.
When your cake has a solid buttercream crumb coat, roll out a handful of fondant onto the fondant measuring mat. I didn't know if I'd really need to buy the measuring mat- but it does make everything SO much easier! It has circle rounds printed on the mat so you can measure to see how much fondant you need to roll out.
When you have a large enough circle to cover your cake, carefully drape it on top of your cake.
Using a fondant smoothing tool (another thing I didn't think was necessary- but let me tell you, it makes the process SO much easier!!!) run over the cake and slowly smooth out all of the lumps and bumps.
I like to smooth downward so that I can simply trim off excess fondant overhand and tuck it under the cake for a smooth, seamless base.
Continue smoothing as much as you need- and you're done!
You'll notice that I was using a smaller base to hold my cake up. This is actually just an upside down ramekin. I personally like to use a thinner base than my cake to prop it up for smoothing fondant- that way I can get under the bottom edges of the cake and make sure they are smooth. If you want to make your own setup like this, be sure to get something sturdy and just a bit smaller than your cake so it doesnt fall on its own weight. It needs to be supportive and big enough to keep the cake in one piece- but just a little smaller so you can get under the cake to get clean, smooth lines.
That's it! Can you believe how easy this is? Of course, having the right fondant makes it so much better. I've had lots of problems with fondant cracking, crumbling or being hard to smooth- but the new Wilton Decorator Preferred Fondant is incredibly easy to work with, and actually tastes pretty good!