All right so this is the first cake I've made with fondant. For the most part, before this cake, I've only baked out of the box. .. but I think I found a new hobby!

There were a few trial and error moments when I was making this.. haha. I tested a fondant recipe I found online that used shortening rather than marshmellow which seems to be most commonly used and it came out extremely greasey and cracking. It was pretty odd to me that it could possess both of those traits at the same time! I did a marshmellow fondant and things worked out much better. Other than having a ball of hot marshmellow literally stuck to my hands for about twenty minutes, [forgot to grease up] rolling and coloring went pretty smoothly.

I also did a test run of the gumpaste I used for the flowers. I found it to be extremely similar to clay and had very few problems actually forming the shapes of the roses. The issue at hand was instead mixing the gumpaste! I bought the Wilton brand "Just add water!" kind and when I added the water, it simply melted in an extremely sticky mass which, again, was stuck to my hand for a very long time.. Can anyone troubleshoot for me what possibly could have gone wrong? I ended up running out due to the wasted material I had stuck to my hands, the counters and just about anything else I touched and instead went with the premixed kind. Both kinds tasted really foul. Is there a way to add some type of flavoring without making the mixture to runny?

I had the text printed on a sheet of sugar paper at the local grocery store [after going to six other places]and attached it to the cake with a really thin layer of butter cream. I tried some piping for the first time as well.. I need a lot of practice with that haha.

Well anyway, let me know what you guys think! I feel like I iced the cake a bit too heavily and it made the fondant kind of lumpy on the sides. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Wow this is your first cake! It turned out great. Keep at it, I can't wait to see what you do next

Wow
This turned out very nice.

WOW! That was my first thought too! First cake!?!?! Simply amazing! I love the design and hope to get inspiration from it in the future

As for the fondant, I always use marshmallow fondant. Even tried the "True Black MMF" on this website and it was phenomenal!

As for the gumpaste, I've used both the ready made and powder kind. I've had success with the one you add water too, more so than the ready made. Double check the amount of water you add and start by adding a little water at a time and work it in, much like making MMF. I also grease up my hands when working with gumpaste as well. Keeps the gumpaste from drying out too quickly and from sticking to my hands. The ready made gumpaste sometimes has hard chunks at the top of the bag, so I end up tossing some.

Not sure about adding any flavor to the gumpaste. Maybe someone has done that, but I would imagine you would need to decrease your water amount.

HTH! Once again, fantastic cake

Mirjana

It's a beautiful cake, very elegant.

People don't usually flavor gumpaste because they don't eat it. It dries too hard to be edible. It's not going to kill you to taste it, and if some kid eats a piece it won't hurt them (provided they don't chip a tooth), but there's no need to flavor it.

I use Nicholas Lodge's gumpaste recipe. It's a lot easier to make and to work with than the Wilton recipe that I've tried in the past.

Firslty, Welcome to CC .... this will be the begining of a long and addictive relationship between you, your cakes and your computer!!!

Great cake, excellent work for a first go - don't be so hard on yourself - you should be proud of what you have done - it looks great!..

Keep up the good work

Welcome to CC!!! Your cake is beautiful, never would have guessed that was your first cake, very impressive. Have fun!!! Also, try Michelle Fosters Fondant recipe on this site. I had been using MMF, but once I tried MFF I haven't switched back. I can't wait to see what you make next.

I use premade fondant and gumpaste, Satin Ice brand for both. GSA carries Satin Ice brand. And, as a PP stated, gumpaste dries too hard to be eaten, so the taste is not really of concern.