I have done small birthday cakes and such all my life, but recently I have been wanting to get into 3 tier cakes using fondant and get away from all the pre made icing and making a cake with "store" stuff. I'm wanting to try something detailed with fondant, but as a beginner I have no clue where to start at or what kind of design would be easy for me to try. I wanted to see if anyone had any beginner ideas and tips to help me get started. Any suggestiong would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

Well it all starts with learning to cover a two layer cake with fondant. I started that way. You will need to make homemade buttercream icing, ice the cake smooth. And then make marshmallow fondant, and place over the cake and smooth it and trim it. Once you do well with one cake, you cover 2 - 3 cakes and stack them. For practice you might want to try Fondant ribbon roses and a colored fondant ribbon along the bottom of your cake.

All the recipes and examples of pictures can be found by searching recipes and galleries.

Good luck and post your pictures.

Dee in AZ

Start by finding a good cake recipe and and good buttercream recipe and just get started! Look for a simple sample cake to get ideas from and try to re-create it. I started by experimenting with cake recipes and buttercream recipes to see what I liked or what worked better for me in smoothness. If you aren't sure about how to begin you can go to Youtube and watch the videos there. I watched Edna De LaCruz videos on how to make buttercream, how to smooth it, how to decorate with flowers. I learned so much from YouTube! I also bought several books and researched so much about whatever I was interested in learning. I also looked at several fondant recipes and a couple worked for me. As a beginner I bought Wilton fondant because it's sturdy and even when it dries it can be brought back to life! There's so much information out there! Good Luck!

I agree with searching galleries on here..... thats what i did, pick something you want to make and then research! Everything is possible but there are so many different techniques. Once you have a focus, people can give you tips relevant to your project

I also think aztomcat is right when they say practise covering first... this comes with alot of practice/patience.

Also, buy cake dummies, a great way to practise and not have to bake over and over... wouldnt give mine up for anything
HTH sam xx

Thank you all so much this is some great advice I am looking forward to giving this a try in a few weeks! I have always wanted to give this a try and I think its about time I do I appreciate you all taking the time to give me some advice. I will difinitely post some pictures....even if it looks awful haha!

"As a beginner I bought Wilton fondant because it's sturdy and even when it dries it can be brought back to life!"

knlcox, please tell me how you do this!

It could be where I live because it's very humid here. If I leave Wilton fondant out and it dries I put it in the microwave for a few seconds and then knead shortening into it. It doesn't become as soft as when it's first from the package but it's definitely useable!

Where do you all buy the Wilton fondant? I was going to try and make my own or make the marshmellow but that may be easier for my first time. Can you buy it at like walmart or is their a online store you would recommend buying it from....buying all cake supplies to be specific I have the basics but I have no clue where to buy all these decorative things and stuff like that.

The nice thing is, we were ALL beginners at one time.

Jump in there... you can do it!!

Very true! Thank you I'm very excited to get started Hopefully it wont fall over haha!

I was not so long ago in your very shoes, so I created a blog for this very reason. I wanted to share the stuff I picked up along the way with others. Put it all in one place, so to speak. I am new to this as well and only do it as a hobby, but I am sure you can find most of the basic info you need there. The blog address is list below in my signature if you would like to check it out.

Hello, I find that youtube is also a good resource for learning techinques. Also CabeCakes, I checked out your blog and found it useful and starting following it, can't wait for next installment.

It doesn't seem to matter how long I've been doing this because I always learn something new or learn how to do something easier than before. Cabecakes I do like your blog! I have learned a few things I would never have known! I've got to try the tea towel leveling technique!

Watch the three videos in this series http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IhibizyrtU&feature=youtube_gdata_player (hope that works, copied the link from my cell but am at work so cant check if it works). Its a wonderful video which is fairly explanatory from start to finish, and he gives the recipes in the description so its great from start to finish

He is also a beginner, so he makes a few mistakes (I would recommend learning another technique for crumb coating, he seems to wipe it on) but thats what makes it such a nice video. It shows you can mess up and still end up with a great cake

He covers baking, crumb coating, MMF, and stacking

Have fun!

Cabecakes: thanks for the information I sent you a request on facebook thanks for giving me the links.
cownsj: Thanks a bunch that helps a lot. I'm a huge coupon person and I would have never thought to look for them with A.C Moore. Now I know
Ellentwn: I agree I have been glued to youtube to learn all the technices and new stuff and I agree it has taught me so much!
Tails: Thanks for the link it worked perfectly, and I do agree a better techniqe for crumb coating should be used. I had found another one on youtube that was very helpful.

Thank you all so much I have some money saving to do before I can get started but hopefully within a few weeks I'll have one done and will post pictures for anyone interested to see how it turned out. I appreciate you all taking the time to give me some pointers God Bless!