Ready-made fondant can be found in most stores. Make sure to check the date on your fondant, when it’s not fresh, the fondant can be really hard to work with. My first time purchasing fondant, I bought a fairly stiff box of the stuff and thought that’s just how it was supposed to be like. I tried all the softening tips that I found on the internet but it was still really hard to work with. I gave up on using fondant for a while. I tried again one day and got a really fresh box of fondant which was a real pleasure to use. These instructions are for a basic bow decoration.
Fondant can be fairly easy to work with and like the saying goes practice makes perfect.
Scroll to the very bottom to see some of my recent fondant creations.
*Royal Icing is used to glue together the bow pieces, it will dry very stiff
Royal Icing:
1 cup icing sugar
¾ tablespoon Meringue Powder
1-2 tablespoons water
Make this icing very stiff. This should be enough to use as a paste for gluing the bows.
Simple buttercream icing:
(Enough to crumb-coat a 6” cake)3 cups icing (powdered) sugar
1/3 cup butter softened,(room temperature)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
24 ounce package of fondant. Can be found at your local cake decorating supply stores or a bulk food store.
Rolling out the fondant
Covering the cake:
Coat your cooled cake with a thin layer of butter cream icing. This is called a crumb coat. Professional cake designers use a crumb coat to smooth the outside of a cake to achieve a smother look before decorating with icing or fondant. A rough cake will show lumps through the thin fondant covering.
Take enough fondant out of the package to roll out your circle, keep the rest covered.
Measure your cake up the side, over the top and back down the other side, to determine how big to roll out your circle of fondant. For a one layer 6” cake you should need a diameter of 14”. Roll out your fondant with a little cornstarch to help prevent sticking. Roll out from the middle and carefully turn over often. A thickness of 1/8” is ideal. Lift rolled out fondant with rolling pin and drape over cake. Smooth with hands or cake smoother.
Making the bow
Roll out fondant roughly a 12” square. Keep the rest of the fondant covered until you need it.
Cut strips 6” to 8” long or according to the size of bow you’re making. Lightly press the 2 ends together of each strip with a drop of royal icing. Set the loops on their side on parchment paper to dry in a cool place, but not in the fridge. This may take a day until the loops can be assembled without collapsing. When assembling, put a blob of royal icing sugar on parchment or the finished cake and assemble the bow.
**TIP: Make the loops for the bow a day or so before adding them to the cake. Keep in a cool dry spot (not the fridge) The bow loops need to harden a bit so they don’t fall apart while handling.
Below are pictures on how to assemble the bow.
Fondant flowers
Roll out small balls of fondant and start wrapping each flattened piece around each other until the flower is the size you want. Use the recipe for Royal Icing to help secure the flower to the cake.
