Piece Of Cake

With fondant icing, it isn't hard to create edible works of art.

Planning a spring celebration with friends and family? Let them eat cake.

Pie has its place, and so do ice cream, mousse, puddings and cobblers. But for versatility and appeal, nothing beats a cake.

And with the abundance of decorating classes, books and gadgets, it isn't hard to make one that will impress your guests.

One step toward making spectacular cakes is to learn the art of working with rolled fondant. If you recall your experiences with Play-Doh, you can decorate with the stiff icing that's frequently found these days on wedding and novelty cakes.

Made from confectioners' sugar, gelatin, glycerin and corn syrup, fondant can be sculpted into figures, cut into shapes and draped over cakes to create an impeccably smooth finish.

Fondant has long been popular in Europe and has been gaining popularity in this country in recent years with over-the-top artworks like those of cake designer Colette Peters. The New York baker creates cakes that resemble pillows, statuary, even teapots, often displayed in a topsy-turvy fashion.

"I like the more whimsical designs," says Peters, who has created cakes for Hillary and Bill Clinton, Bette Midler and other celebrities, and has a new book out this spring, Cakes to Dream On (Wiley, 2005, $40).

Peters, a former designer for Tiffany & Co., began baking cakes for friends, then became a professional cake decorator in 1989. She came upon fondant icing while still an amateur.

"I used to do a lot of buttercream," she said. "I learned about [fondant] through the grapevine. I kind of latched onto it."

She now covers all of her cakes in fondant before adding wiggles, swirls and squiggles.

At Sugar Bakers in Catonsville, fondant covers the Easter cakes shaped like Easter eggs and is used to make decorative flowers.

"If you want big roses, you can't make them with French buttercream," says Dana Briley, a baker at the store and cake-decorating instructor for the Community College of Baltimore County.

Margaret Veter, a cake-decorating instructor from Ellicott City, likes to make novelty cakes with fondant, using it to sculpt figures resembling people and even furniture.

There are many kinds of fondant. The kind used to cover candies, such as petits fours, is cooked and poured. But rolled fondant is stiff and must be kneaded to become pliant before putting it on a cake.

Peters says when she began decorating with fondant, she had to make it from scratch. These days she buys it ready-made, and it is widely available in cake stores and on the Internet.

But as beautiful as fondant is, some people do not like its chewy texture or its taste.

"It's sweet but it doesn't have a lot of flavor," says Veter.

Homemade fondant, which is made without preservatives, may taste better than fondant sold in the stores, but most professionals say it isn't worth the trouble. Peters advises bakers to try ready-made fondant from different companies to find one they like.

While fondant may not have the decadent taste of buttercream, for ease and versatility, it's hard to beat.

"The brides love the look of it," says Diane Gibbs, an Elkridge cake decorator who has worked with fondant for many years. "It's so gorgeous."

"I find if you put buttercream under it, they feel better about it," Briley says.

Rolled Fondant

Makes 2 pounds, enough to cover a two-layer, 9-inch cake

2 pounds sifted confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup cold water

1 tablespoon unflavored granulated gelatin

1/2 cup glucose (found in cake-decorating stores) or light corn syrup

1 1/2 tablespoons glycerin (found in cake-decorating stores)

vegetable shortening

Sift confectioners' sugar into a large bowl and make well in the center. Place water in a small saucepan. Sprinkle gelatin evenly on top of water. Let gelatin soften for about 5 minutes or until it turns translucent. Slowly begin to heat water, stirring until gelatin is dissolved and clear. Don't let mixture boil; it should be hot and almost at a simmer.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the glucose or corn syrup and glycerin, stirring until well blended. Pour the liquid into the well of the sugar and start to mix with your hands to blend.

When the mixture is solid enough, transfer it to a clean surface and knead it like bread dough until all sugar is incorporated. The fondant should not be too sticky or too stiff at this point.

Form the fondant into a ball and rub it with a thin coating of vegetable shortening. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, place in an airtight container and let sit at room temperature overnight.

If you are not going to use the icing for a while, you can refrigerate it, but the fondant will become very hard and will have to be brought to room temperature before it will be soft enough to roll.

- "Cakes to Dream On," by Colette Peters (Wiley, 2005, $40)

Steps toward making grand cake designs