Fondant is a mixture of sugar and water used as a confection, filling, or icing. Sometimes
gelatin
Gelatin or gelatine (from la, gelatus meaning "stiff" or "frozen") is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also ...
and
glycerine
Glycerol (), also called glycerine in British English and glycerin in American English, is a simple triol compound. It is a colorless, odorless, viscous liquid that is sweet-tasting and non-toxic. The glycerol backbone is found in lipids known ...
are used as softeners or stabilizers.
There are numerous varieties of fondant, with the most basic being poured fondant. Others include
fondant icing
Fondant icing, also commonly referred to simply as fondant (, from the ), is an icing used to decorate or sculpt cakes and pastries. It is made from sugar, water, gelatin, vegetable fat or shortening, and glycerol. It does not have the textur ...
,
chocolate fondant
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civi ...
, and
honey fondant
Creamed honey is honey that has been processed to control crystallization. Also known as honey fondant, it has a smooth, spreadable consistency and lighter color than liquid honey of the same floral type. A method for producing creamed honey was ...
.
Poured fondant
''Poured fondant'' is a creamy confection used as a filling or coating for
cakes
Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, ...
,
pastries
Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" suggests ma ...
, and
candies or
sweets
Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies (Australian English, New Zealand English), is a confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, called '' sugar confectionery'', encompasses any sweet confection, i ...
.
In its simplest form, it is
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
and
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...
. Sometimes it is stabilized with
gelatin
Gelatin or gelatine (from la, gelatus meaning "stiff" or "frozen") is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also ...
and
glycerine
Glycerol (), also called glycerine in British English and glycerin in American English, is a simple triol compound. It is a colorless, odorless, viscous liquid that is sweet-tasting and non-toxic. The glycerol backbone is found in lipids known ...
. It is cooked to the
soft-ball stage, cooled slightly, and stirred or beaten to incorporate air, until it is an opaque mass with a creamy consistency. Sometimes lemon or vanilla is added to the mixture for taste. Other flavorings are used as well, as are various colorings. An example of its use is the
Cadbury Creme Egg
A Cadbury Creme Egg is a chocolate confection produced in the shape of an egg (food), egg, originating from the British chocolatier J. S. Fry & Sons, Fry's in 1963 before being renamed by Cadbury in 1971. The product consists of a thick chocola ...
, the filling of which is
inverted sugar syrup
Inverted sugar syrup, also called invert syrup, invert sugar, simple syrup, sugar syrup, sugar water, bar syrup, syrup USP, or sucrose inversion, is a syrup mixture of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose, that is made by hydrolytic sa ...
, produced by processing fondant with
invertase
Invertase is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis (breakdown) of sucrose (table sugar) into fructose and glucose. Alternative names for invertase include , saccharase, glucosucrase, beta-h-fructosidase, beta-fructosidase, invertin, sucrase, ma ...
.
Fondant fancies are a type of cake typically coated in poured fondant.
See also
*
Marzipan
Marzipan is a confectionery, confection consisting primarily of sugar, honey, and almond meal (ground almonds), sometimes augmented with almond oil or extract.
It is often made into Confectionery, sweets; common uses are chocolate-covered marzi ...
*
Pastry cream
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency from ...
*
Sugar paste
Sugar paste icing is a sweet, edible sugar dough, typically made from sucrose and glucose. It is sometimes referred to as sugar gum or gum paste.
Though the two are both used in cake decorating, sugar paste differs from fondant icing
Fond ...
References
{{wiktionary, fondant
Confectionery