So there is no real connection between web design and technology to the alchemy and work involved in baking cakes, but there is the overwhelming power of Google and the ability to scour for information on topics you wouldn’t normally think about.

I recently had adopted the challenge of my one-year old’s first birthday cake and while I’m normally an organic/hormone-free/free-range health-food nut, this kind of exercise always serves as carte-blanche for getting dirty with food-coloring, pounds and pounds of sugar, and lots of butter.  I write to echo some of my findings from a great wealth of resources and elaborate beyond the space of a comment box on most of the blogs and websites that I found so much information.

Everyone needs a little fondant

It’s amazing what many have managed to mold out of sugar, water, and a little bit of gelatin.  The fondant recipe at TheCookDuke.com produced the most consistent and reliable base white fondant that was perfect to play and mold with.  I’ve pasted it below BUT because of personal preferences I removed the vegetable shortening and replaced it with pure coconut oil.  The key to the coconut oil is that it is solid at room temperature. This gives the fondant the ideal composition of being pliable but firm and not sticky like moist pizza dough.

Three important tips before we move to the actual “how to make fondant” instructions and the fondant recipe:

1. When you make fondant, both the dough and the icing, make sure to make it in room temperature – Too cold or too warm room will hurt the dough
2. When you calculate the quantity of fondant icing required, it’s better to have too much fondant icing rather than too little, as leftover icing can be stored and used at a later date, or used for extra decorations
3. Make sure you make fondant on a clean and smooth working surface. Jewelry on your fingers or wrists or fluffy clothing could hurt the fondant’s surface.

Ingredients required to make the fondant recipe:

• 1 Tbsp of unflavored gelatin
• 1/4 cup of cold water1 tsp of almond extract
• 1/2 cup of light corn syrup (If a corn syrup is not available, you can substitute it with a sugar syrup made with 1-1/4 cups sugar and 1/3 cup water, boiled together until syrupy)
• 1 Tbsp of glycerin (some recipes say it’s optional, believe me, it’s a must)
• 2 lbs 10X confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 tsp of white vegetable shortening coconut oil

Directions how to make the fondant recipe:

1. Sprinkle the gelatin over cold water in a small bowl and let it rest for 2 minutes to soften
2. Place the bowl in a microwave for 30 seconds on High, until the gelatin dissolves
3. Add the Almond extract
4. Add the corn syrup and the glycerin and stir until the mixture is smooth and clear (if the mixture is not turning smooth and clear, microwave it for an additional 15 to 20 seconds on high and stir again)
5. Sift 1 1/2 pounds of the sugar into a large bowl
6. Make a hole in the sugar and pour the liquid mixture to it
7. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes sticky
8. Sift some of the remaining 1/2 pound of sugar onto a smooth work surface and add as much of the remaining sugar as the mixture will takeKnead the fondant, adding a little more sugar if necessary, to form a smooth, pliable mass
9. Rub the vegetable shortening on your thumbs and knead it into the fondant
10. Wrap the fondant in plastic wrap and place it in a tightly sealed container to prevent it from drying out
11. If the icing dries out and harden it can often be revived by popping it into a microwave oven for a few seconds and then kneading it back to life

To color the fondant, plan on using your typical and somewhat unhealthy artificial food coloring that’s available at most supermarkets.  If you do want to go the healthy alternative route, you can find plant-based natural food coloring on Amazon.com.

The cake foundation

Last but not least, you’ll likely need a firm basic cake to lay our fondant masterpiece on, especially if you’re stacking layers.  I used the Basic Yellow Cake recipe from Wilton.com as the foundation for the giraffe “masterpiece” you see above.  Per the comments of several other reviewers of that recipe, my version also came out strangely similar to corn bread but once I added cream cheese frosting and did a version using lighter cake flour, it came out as good as I would hope for on my second cake.  I hope this helps all would-be one-year-old-birthday-cake bakers out there.