I only started baking about 5 years ago and had never heard of fondant until then. I am aware that it's been around for years but was wondering if anyone knows the history of it. Also, an acquaintance of mine swears that fondant only became popular because of the "Ace of Cakes" show. I don't agree. Am sure the Food Network TV shows have helped promote it but don't feel they're the main reason for it's current popularity. What are your opinions? One more thing. . . does anyone have any buttercream cakes that would pass as fondant? I know there's been lots of cakes in the gallery that have fooled me and I'd like to prove to this acquaintance that talented people can do amazing things with buttercream. TIA!

I think your friend is misinformed. As far as I know fondant has been used in Europe for a good hundred years or more. I think it is used over there the way we use buttercream in the US.

If you get really good at smoothing buttercream, you can hardly tell the difference between it and fondant on a cake. Also, there are pans you can buy with rounded edges that mimick the look of fondant when you ice a cake.

IMO buttercream tastes much better, and where I live I couldn't give a fondant cake away...

Fondant is old news!...

Edna

That person is way misinformed. As for taste, if I use store fondant, I tell people, (i only bake as a hobby) not to eat the fondant. But if I use MMF, eat away!! That stuff is tasty!

Now i'm from the UK and here we use fondant for the majority of cakes. It tastes much nicer than buttercream which I find sickly.

I always do my cakes in fondant.

Fondants been around way before Ace of Cakes....

I personally LOVE it, love the look, love the taste, love the performance!!!!

Chocolate fondant all the way for this gal!

Jen

I agree with everyone here. Fondant has been used for years in England. And in fact is mostly what they use. They don't particularly care for the sweets as much as we do! Hence their adversion to buttercream- TOO SWEET!

I like both BC and MMF. I would rather use MMF just because it's more durable when it comes to moving and transporting your cakes. I am a nervous wreck when I have to take a BC cake somewhere!!!

We've used fondant here in Australia for many,many years too - I love it !!

Well, I can't tell for the history but here in France people don't like buttercream, so I stopped using it as a frosting under fondant.
I do my own fondants so they taste good - I started working on fondant with Wilton's - to see what it was like but the taste is disgusting.

Not only I bake my cakes from scratch but I also do my own fondant.
My problem is that buttercream is perfect for covering the cake, covering imperfections and making fondant stick and so far, I have not found anything that effective. Ganache is too thin and often you can see the dark colour appear under fondant, specially if it is white.

I might try cream cheese next time. Any ideas os substitutes are welcome!

oilili,
Would you be so kind as to share your fondant recipe with us?

I am always looking for a few good recipes where fondant is concerned.

oilili,

Have you tried using white chocolate ganache under your fondant? I use a sour-cream version as the sour-cream's tang cuts through the sweet richness of white chocolate nicely. PM me if you would like the recipe.

If you can get your hands on some old Wilton books. From the 1960's & earlier fondant is in there. So is gumpaste. When I go to ICES shows I always buy old books. Friends give me old books from Wilton. When I saw fondant in a 1960's book I was surprised. I thought it was new too (that was a few years ago) Fondant has been around a long, long time! It has started to get more popular since Foodtv shows but it's been around quit awhile.

Mommakristin, my recipe was certainly taken from this site but I can't really type it here because I now put the ingredients in "with the eye" - I no longer measure. Impossible for me to say how much sugar or flavouring I put in. Not sure this is a good method because I always end up with more sugarpaste than needed or the fondant never comes out exactly the same each time.

Lekoli, this is a good idea - but is your ganache quite thick so as to hide cake imperfections? Perhaps you crumble coat the cake with the ganache once, put it in the fridge and add another coat of ganache?

The thing is, it is very humid here and the last time I did a ganache it melted under the cake so the fondant begun to sink on the sides...

I do make the ganache quite thick, a lot more chocolate than sour cream. I use it to fill and only do a crumb coat on my cakes. I do refrigerate for a an hour at least before applying the fondant. Generally though, I make, fill and crumb coat the cake a day or two in advance and keep in the fridge, well wrapped. Have two small children and a high-stress executive job so my cakes are mostly done in stages over a few days

Totally understand the humidity thing, as anyone in Sydney will tell you, it's pretty bad here.

How do you wrap it without the ganache sticking to the wrap?
Yes, please PM me your recipe. Thanks!

I place the plastic wrap right on the ganache after icing and then put in the fridge. The wrap comes off cleanly without pulling up the ganache every time.

Thank you.

Anyone I know would not like fondant either. Buttercream all the way for me.