I Knew You Were Coming, So I Baked a Cake

You can't have any, though. I didn't make it for you!

One of my varied abilities is cake decorating. I won't say I'm a pro! I'm very definitely an amateur. But I can do it reasonably well, so I'm often asked if I will do it.

A young woman from our small rural community is getting married in the near future, and traditonally, the folks of our area throw a shower for any locally-raised bride-to-be. Part of this tradition is the special bride's cake, in the bride's colours, for the wedding party to enjoy at their own soirée later. I've made the cakes for the last few of these events!

I baked the cake yesterday, actually, a dense, moist, chocolate oatmeal cake. I find it stands up better to the weight of heavier frosting and fondant decorations.

Now for the fondant! I make a homemade marshmallow fondant. There are lots of great recipes available online. I don't like to eat marshmallows all that much, but they work great for this.

I start by melting them over very low heat with a tablespoon or so of water.

Very low heat is the key. It can be done in short bursts in the microwave too, but I don't have one. A double boiler is also recommended, but I also don't have one of those. So it's just very very low heat and lots of stirring! Don't want that fondant to taste scorched.

Getting there!

When the marshies are fully melted, it's a good time to add any colouring. I wanted an antique white shade, rather a bright white, so a little dab of brown icing dye got blended in.

Then it's time for icing sugar! I'm not much for measuring, I just dump and stir until it's right.

Once it is a big sticky blobby thing entirely attached to the spoon (I did not take a picture of this moment), pour a liberal amount of cornstarch onto a clean countertop.

Dump your blob onto this pile, then thoroughly grease your hands. VERY THOROUGHLY. Shortening, butter, margarine, or coconut oil are recommended, as lard tends to leave a strange flavour behind. If you skip the greasing, your hands will be cemented into the marshmallow ball until someone rescues you.

Then start kneading in that starch! The lumpy sticky marshmallow blob will become smooth and uniform in a surprisingly short time!

Tada!

So that part is done. I also made a small bit of a darker brown fondant. This colour was acheived by using some cocoa powder in place of the icing sugar rather than a large amount of icing dye.

I whipped up some plain buttercream frosting to assemble the cake with. Here it is, filled and frosted, ready for fondant.

Fondant gets rolled out like pie dough on a well-greased countertop...

Then picked up carefully and laid over the cake. I couldn't get pictures of that part! But here is the fondant applied and trimmed. There are visible seams at the corners which I will hide with later decorations! A gentle massage with the palm of the hand smoothes the fondant into the bed of buttercream and gives a nice shape to the cake.