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 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 do ...

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 ...

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 ...

, vegetable fat or shortening, and

glycerol 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 does not have the texture of most icings; rolled fondant is akin to stiff clay, while poured fondant is a thick liquid. The word, in French, means 'melting,' coming from the same root as '' fondue'' and ''

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

.''

Types of rolled fondant

''Rolled fondant,'' ''fondant icing,'' or ''pettinice,'' which is not the same material as poured fondant, is commonly used to decorate wedding cakes. Although wedding cakes are traditionally made with

marzipan Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of sugar, honey, and almond meal (ground almonds), sometimes augmented with almond oil or extract. It is often made into sweets; common uses are chocolate-covered marzipan and small marzipan imit ...

and

royal icing Royal icing is a hard white icing, made from softly beaten egg whites, icing sugar (powdered sugar), and sometimes lemon or lime juice. It is used to decorate Christmas cakes, wedding cakes, gingerbread houses, cookies and many other cakes an ...

, fondant is increasingly common due to nut allergies, as it does not require

almond meal Almond meal, almond flour or ground almond is made from ground sweet almonds. Almond flour is usually made with blanched almonds (no skin), whereas almond meal can be made with whole or blanched almonds. The consistency is more like corn meal tha ...

. Rolled fondant includes

(or

agar Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from ogonori (''Gracilaria'') and "tengusa" (''Gelidiaceae''). As found in nature, agar i ...

in vegetarian recipes) and food-grade glycerine, which keeps the sugar pliable and creates a

dough Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavenin ...

-like consistency. Rolled fondant is rolled out like a pie crust and used to cover the cake. Commercial shelf-stable rolled fondant often consists principally of sugar and

hydrogenated oil Fat hydrogenation is the process of combining fat – typically liquid vegetable oils – with hydrogen, to convert some or all of the unsaturated fat into saturated fat, resulting in a solid or semi-solid fat. Changing the degree of saturation ...

. However, different formulations for commercial shelf-stable fondant are available and include other ingredients, such as sugar,

cellulose gum Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) or cellulose gum is a cellulose derivative with carboxymethyl groups (-CH2-COOH) bound to some of the hydroxyl groups of the glucopyranose monomers that make up the cellulose backbone. It is often used as its sodiu ...

, and water. ''

Marshmallow Marshmallow (, ) is a type of confectionery that is typically made from sugar, water and gelatin whipped to a solid-but-soft consistency. It is used as a filling in baking or normally molded into shapes and coated with corn starch. The sugar c ...

fondant'' is a form of rolled fondant often made and used by home bakers and hobbyists. Marshmallow fondant is made by combining melted shelf-stable marshmallows, water, powdered sugar, and solid vegetable shortening. Home bakers use this recipe for homemade fondant due to the readily available access to required ingredients. ''Sculpting fondant'' is similar to rolled fondant but with a stiffer consistency, which makes it a good sculpting material. '' Sugar paste'' or ''gum paste'' is similar to rolled fondant, but hardens completely—and therefore is used for bigger cake decorations, such as bride and groom figures, bigger flowers, etc. Sugar paste is made mainly of egg whites, powdered sugar, and

shortening Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and used to make crumbly pastry and other food products. Although butter is solid at room temperature and is frequently used in making pastry, the term ''shortening'' seldom refers to b ...

. Tylose can be added to make gum paste more pliable for detailed work.

Physical chemistry of poured fondant

Poured fondant is formed by supersaturating water with

sucrose Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refine ...

. More than twice as much sugar dissolves in water at the

boiling point The boiling point of a substance is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of a liquid equals the pressure surrounding the liquid and the liquid changes into a vapor. The boiling point of a liquid varies depending upon the surrounding env ...

than at room temperature. After the sucrose dissolves, if the solution is left to cool undisturbed, the sugar remains dissolved in a supersaturated solution until

nucleation In thermodynamics, nucleation is the first step in the formation of either a new thermodynamic phase or structure via self-assembly or self-organization within a substance or mixture. Nucleation is typically defined to be the process that deter ...

occurs. While the solution is supersaturated, if a cook puts a

seed crystal A seed crystal is a small piece of single crystal or polycrystal material from which a large crystal of typically the same material is grown in a laboratory. Used to replicate material, the use of seed crystal to promote growth avoids the other ...

(undissolved sucrose) into the mix, or agitates the solution, the dissolved sucrose

crystallizes Crystallization is the process by which solid forms, where the atoms or molecules are highly organized into a structure known as a crystal. Some ways by which crystals form are precipitating from a solution, freezing, or more rarely de ...

to form large, crunchy crystals (which is how

rock candy Rock candy or sugar candy, also called rock sugar, or crystal sugar, is a type of confection composed of relatively large sugar crystals. This candy is formed by allowing a supersaturated solution of sugar and water to crystallize onto a su ...

is made). However, if the cook lets the solution cool undisturbed and then stirs it vigorously, it forms many tiny crystals, resulting in a smooth-textured fondant.

Gallery

File:Cake with rose 2.jpg, Cake covered with chocolate rolled fondant File:Fondant-covered cake sewing kit.jpg, A fondant-covered cake depicting a sewing kit File:Birthday cake for one-year old.jpg, The

appliqué Appliqué is ornamental needlework in which pieces or patches of fabric in different shapes and patterns are sewn or stuck onto a larger piece to form a picture or pattern. It is commonly used as decoration, especially on garments. The technique ...

method uses one or more layers of cutout rolled fondant pieces to provide color and depth. File:Fondant Cake decorated with flowers.jpg, Fondant-covered cake with flowers File:Sao Valentim 2013 (5).jpg, Red fondant on a

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, thr ...

cake File:Egg nest cake (4479538484).jpg, Fondant in the shape of eggs File:Operation cake.jpg, "''

Operation Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

'' cake made of fondant

References

{{Reflist Food paste Sugar confectionery Cake decorating

Types of rolled fondant

Physical chemistry of poured fondant

Gallery

See also

References