I am very interested in learning how to use fondant. I am fairly new to cake decorating. Took the 1st two wilton classes years ago and never did anything with it. Now I am very interested to get back into it and it seems everyone does fondant and gum paste. What's the best way to get started into fondant?

Wilton has a class on fondant and gumpaste. I took it a year ago and I would strongly recommend it to teach you the basics. That will get you started. After that it is just practice by working with it.

I've just taught myself by coming on Cake Central everyday and looking at other people's cakes (alot of times if you read the descriptions on people's pictures they will tell how they did a certain technique or you can ask how someone does a certain technique), reading forums, watching tutorials, reading magazines and books and experimenting.

Every cake or cupcake I make I try to do something different to see what can be done! The Wilton class taught covering a cake, making flowers, bows, how to make gumpaste glue, how to stick fondant to fondant and many other things.

Hope this helps.

I agree with the PP. I am completely self-taught from reading as much as I can online, including CC. Youtube has a number of great tutorials. Just dive in, read as much as you can and practice, practice, practice! Have fun!

I still do most of my cakes in buttercream because that's what people are accustomed to. They like the looks of fondant but many think they don't like the taste and some don't like the texture.

When I took the Wilton courses a few years ago, their fondant didn't taste good at all. I tried the Marshmallow fondant but could never get it to work very well for me. Then I tried Michelle Foster's recipe on this website and had better success.

My husband bought me a book by Toba Garrett and I tried her recipe and like it better. Then my husband discovered a website called Carrie's Cakes and I ordered her DVDs. Her recipe uses Creme Bouquet as the flavoring. It is easy to make and delicious.

I recently ordered a DVD from Jennifer Dontz at Sugar Delites and she tells how to add white chocolate to Pettinice fondant. I added it to my homemade fondant and it worked well and tasted wonderful. I sent a shirt and tie and stethoscope cake to work with my husband and they ate it right up, fondant and all!

Like the others said, just read and practice and invest in a few DVDs that you can watch time and time again, or it you have time, search the internet for free tutorials.

I still primarily use fondant and gumpaste for accents and flowers but now I do feel more comfortable with covering an entire cake after doing the 11-15 one.

Thanks! I am really looking forward to getting into fondant. I might look into some dvd's too.

I too have never taken a class on fondant, gumpaste, etc. I am completely self taught by books, web, video's. I highly recommend Sharon Zambitos video's (sugarshack). She is an amazing decorator and teacher.

Here is her website.
http://www.sugaredproductions.com/

I only use buttercream! I use fondant and gum paste for the decor only. There really isn't much you can do to fondant that you can't do with buttercream...including paint on it--which I did with a leopard print. And my customers love the buttercream frosting more than fondant. Good luck to you though!

I do like buttercream but it seems like a lot more is done in fondant so I'm curious to see what I can do with it.

i watch youtube videos almost daily, im a beginner but i have learned so much from them and from this site! i never took the wilton fondant class (and dont even plan on it!).... gluck

I use buttercream on all of my cakes and just use fondant for the accent pieces. That way people that don't like fondant can just peel off the fondant before they eat the cake.

99.9% buttercream gal here! As mentioned above, most of my brides/clients preferred BC. They liked the look of fondant but prefer BC.

After doing BC for so many decades, I found fondant to be super easy to work with (once I got the first one done, I mean! ). Seriously, my reaction to fondant was, "We get to charge extra for this? COOL!!! "

Thanks! Good to know I'm not the only one who used only buttercream. I can't wait to get more and more into cake decorating. I have 5 kids and they are already all putting in requests. lol