Fondant -To Eat or Not to Eat?

Cake designed and decorated by Linda

Fondant is a versatile sugar icing that has been all the rage in America for the last decade. Fondant covered cakes have been popular in Europe, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand for many years. Cake decorators can cover cakes and make ribbons, bows, flowers, sculpture, and many more effects from this sweet confection. Notwithstanding, every cake decorator has heard horror stories of folks picking off the fondant or worse spitting it out, because of the bad taste. The American consumer has become more sophisticated and demands a cake that tastes as good as it looks--icing included. What is a cake designer to do?

Ready-made fondant is tricky. In a recent poll at cakecentral, Wilton ready-made fondant was rated the worst tasting of all ready-made fondant bar none. Even so, it still has its uses: Decorators often catch the sales at Michael's Craft Store and use this fondant for their cake dummies (displays).

Why have your customers feeling like they are washing their mouths out with soap when there are good brands of ready-made on the market? Choco-pan is a delicious fondant to work with, and many an avid cake designer swears by massa grischuna fondant. Satin-ice, for some, also has a nice marshmallow flavor and Supercooks fondant received an honorable mention.

It ultimately may be less costly to make your fondant. For those purists, there are plenty of recipes for homemade fondant. One of the most popular is marshmallow fondant (MMF).