Well I did it; made my first fondant-covered cake all by myself at home. All from scratch--the cake, buttercream, and fondant--put the whole dang thing together, came up with my own design, and, voila, here it is! A beginner's cake, nothing fancy, just fondant cut-outs, but it's a start! Yet what a harrowing experience along the way--just ask my husband. It was a flight I won't ever forget, but then we learn best from our mistakes--and I sure learned a lot.
My take-off was very bumpy. I started in the morning, figuring I'd whip up a cake and be ready to move on to the next step in no time at all. Well, my cakes didn't rise enough and I ended up with two feeble layers that would not be worthy of a layer of fondant. So I took a deep breath and began again. I checked the baking powder first to be sure it wasn't out-dated--it wasn't--then put a pinch in some hot water to see if it would bubble--it did, so I know knew it wasn't the baking powder. I followed the steps of my recipe carefully and this time came up with a much smoother batter. Who knows why? These rose a bit more than the others, so I now had four layers to work with. I wrapped them in saran wrap and put them in the fridge as instructed. (John recommends at least three hours or more.)
Mid-Flight Turbulence!
Next I moved on to the fondant, and at this point my flight seemed to be going quite smoothly. To my surprise, making my fondant was not that difficult, just gelatin and water and corn syrup and lots of 10X (powdered sugar). It formed a nice ball in the mixer, so I turned it out on my counter to knead. I was so pleased with the ease of my fondant--until the turbulence began! I looked down to see little brown specks all through my nice white dough! Disgusting flecks from the grout between the tiles! Yes, I wanted to cry, but again, I steadied myself, took a deep breath, and reached for another bag of 10X to begin again. This time when finished, I did the kneading on a silicone mat that I bought for the purpose of rolling out my fondant and should have been using from the start. Won't make that mistake again!
A Few Bumps
So now I turned to the buttercream, and here I came quite close to putting the plane on automatic pilot for the whole process worked beautifully, from boiling the sugar, to tempering it into the eggs, to whisking it cool, adding the butter and vanilla--ah, a lovely, light, creamy buttercream emerged. A few minor bumps when I attempted to ice the cake, some crumbs and crumbling layers, but it had been a long day and I knew I was almost home, so I finished and put it in the fridge to set.
Now for the landing!
As I approached my destination--a nicely covered and decorated cake--I knew this would take some skill. I carefully rolled the fondant, gently placed it on the cake and then began to smooth it over the top and around the sides--then one tear, then another! There was no way I was going to pull up at this point--no way. So I just pressed and secured it the best I could, figuring I could cover my mistakes with my decorations--which is exactly what I did. I won't go into the mess of trying to color the fondant, or that I think my flowers should be thinner, or that the cake looks bumpy. I won't point out the flaws and cracks that I see when I look at it. What's important is I created and completed my first cake. It was not the smoothest of flights, but I made it and learned quite a bit in the process.
We haven't tasted it yet. I'm not quite ready to cut into it. Maybe later tonight or tomorrow. And anyway, we've been too busy eating what was left of the layers after leveling the cake and some extra chocolate ganache that was in the fridge!
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