fondantastic

I don't watch TV much, but when I do turn it on during lunch or dinner, the first channel I usually check is the the Food Network. I do not watch Rachel Ray or Emeril or anyone who is trying to tell me how to cook. No, I only stay on the channel for cakes. Massive, complicated, $10,000-winning cakes.

And I have learned something from these master bakers. Fondant. I had no idea what this was when I first started watching these shows. I was severely disappointed that the wonderful cakes were not decorated with the butter cream icing I hold so dear. I wondered, what was this bland-looking blanket with which they covered their cakes to gracefully? It couldn't taste good. Oh, I was wrong. Fondant is melted sugar in the soft-ball stage, which means it is the consistency of playdough or taffy or something stretchy like that. And it is tasty.

Last night, Deb and I experimented with this stuff and found it to be quite pleasing, both in ease of preparation and fun in decoration. We started off easy, with plain white and a little cookie cutter, but then went wild with food coloring and shaping. Here are our creations. Compare these to the Food Network, and you will only be slightly disappointed.



The frog was purely Deb's creation, but the caterpillar/dragon was a combination of both of our efforts. The others were the warm-ups.