What’s the deal with fondant?
There are SO many options…how do you know which one to choose?? That’s how I felt in the beginning!! I totally had analysis-paralysis and was too cheap to spend money on fondant unless I knew I was going to love it!!! haha!
Well, hopefully after today’s post, you’ll have some knowledge to guide you in selecting the right fondant for you!! :) Honestly, the reason there are so many options is because there are SO many places to live all over the world and we all have different climates, different needs and are in different economic situations. BUT, what’s great…is there is a fondant for you. You just might have to try a few out. What works for me, might not work for you!
Let’s first talk about homemade fondant. I’m a HUGE fan of homemade fondant and that’s for two reasons. The first and primary one is because I live and work at home. I’m a mom who doesn’t have a business and I make cakes for fun and for the LOVE of making cakes! So…because I don’t charge for my cakes and re-coupe the cost of ingredients, I need to be wise about the money I spend and how I spend it. My husband is cheering in the corner!! haha!!
Homemade fondant is significantly less expensive than store bought! – so, I make it. Secondly, I LOVE how it feels and how it covers a cake. Yes, there are probably “better” fondant out there, but price is an issue in the absence of value…and for me, there is a LOT of value in the fondant I make because I love how it performs. I get a beautiful finish and don’t break the bank…a win-win!! – again I hear applause from my husband! Silly boy!
Now, there are three great recipes that I know of and have used for homemade fondant. Let me explain the pros/cons of each and hopefully shine some light on your options.
Homemade Option #1: My home made fondant recipe found HERE.
It’s my go-to fondant and I teach how to make it in my “Clean & Simple Cake Design” class on Craftsy.
- Pros: Simple ingredients that are readily available, 3lbs of fondant costs only around $3, can be easily colored in the melted marshmallow stage to save hands/back from kneading, very elastic, no tearing/elephant skin, quick to make (takes about 20min start to finish), I can get beautiful sharp edges on my cakes!
- Cons: Messy! – yes…it can be very messy! :) It can also be hard for some people to knead for so long…it’s a work out. It doesn’t have a long shelf life (perhaps only a month) until it starts to dry out and needs a little corn syrup to re-hydrate it. It can be pretty sticky and very sensitive to hot/humid climates. However, I live in a very cool climate, so for me, that’s why I love it!
Homemade Option #2: Liz Marek’s LMF Fondant Recipe. This is a fantastic recipe!! It’s a beautiful combo of both commercial and home made fondant yet without the high costs. I use this recipe from time to time when I have a Joann or Micheal’s coupon and can get the Wilton fondant on sale. It’s similar to my recipe above, but adds in the Wilton commercial fondant which gives you great added bonuses!!
- Pros: She still uses simple ingredients and readily available fondant from hobby stores that carry Wilton products. Costs are still less than using full store bought fondant and are around $8 for 4.5 pounds if you don’t get the fondant on sale and closer to $5-$6 for 4.5 pounds if you have a coupon for 50% off. MUCH cheaper than full store bought. It makes beautiful fondant that has a longer shelf life than standard homemade fondant, doesn’t stretch or tear, is very elastic and not as sticky and sensitive to humidity…although, still more than straight commercial brands. It also makes more fondant in the same amount of time as making a 3lb batch of my marshmallow fondant.
- Cons: Slightly more expensive than standard home made fondant and you need to buy Wilton fondant to have on hand, still requires the mess of making fondant by hand and again…the work out!
Important tips on marshmallow based fondant!!
I know a lot of you would love to use homemade marshmallow based fondant because of it’s cost factor and ease of use…but you tell me all the time, “My climate is just too hot/humid!” I totally understand and when we have a wave of humidity here in Oregon (which doesn’t happen very often) it can get sticky. So, here’s a few tips that will help if you want to mess with it and find a way for it to work with you.
1. When it gets sticky, it needs a bit more powdered sugar. Don’t just go by the recipe, go by feel.
2. Use corn starch (not powdered sugar) when rolling it out. Powdered sugar just absorbs right in, but corn starch doesn’t as fast and creates a great barrier to the stickiness.
3. Don’t chill your cakes! When you take a cold cake out and put it in a warm/humid environment it’s going to condensate. Marshmallows/sugar LOVE moisture and will get sticky. I only use ganache as a crumb coat because I don’t have to chill my cakes and can cover a cake at room temp which is HUGE with marshmallow fondant. If you live in a humid environment, and you want to use marshmallow fondant, use ganache! – simple!!
4. Move! – just pick up your house or bakery and move it to a cooler/dryer climate!! – it’ll solve all your problems!! LOL!!
Homemade Option #3: Michele Foster Fondant (from Cake Central) – gelatin based (not marshmallow based)
I’ve used this recipe several times and love it! – I probably love it a bit more than my standard marshmallow recipe and it is probably more similar to Liz’s recipe in feel/texture.
- Pros: Beautiful consistency when made correctly, shelf stable, not as sticky as home made fondant (more similar to Liz’s recipe), doesn’t require having marshmallows on hand, not as sensitive to humidly as regular marshmallow fondant.
- Cons: Hard to make…it’s a labor of love compared to the marshmallow fondant. More time consuming and just as messy!
All in all, home made fondant is a fantastic choice and depending upon where you live and what ingredients you have access to, these are three great options for you! Post a comment and let me know which one you’ve used and what you think!! It’ll help our friends make educated choices!
Let’s move on to commercial fondant brands…
I’m not going to spend a ton of time here because Lesley with Royal Bakery did a fantastic write up on Craftsy comparing a lot of fondant brands and honestly I agree with everything she wrote!! :) My favorite fondant from her list is Fondx! You can find the article HERE. Something to note though is shipping costs. Unless you have a local supplier of your favorite fondant, shipping costs can add a lot to the overall costs. Another reason I make my own!! LOL!! :) BUT, here are a few things I want to mention/add to what Lesley wrote about commercial fondant…
The best: I haven’t tried Carma Massa Ticino Tropic but according to Lesley and several others I’ve chatted with who’ve tried it, it’s hands down THE best!! – and you get what you pay for because it’s SUPER spendy and hard to find. But, you use a TINY bit because you can roll it so thin, and if you have a business you can re-coupe your costs. It’s also amazing in humid/hot climates and the best for those environments. So, if you can, try it!! I have chosen not to try it because I KNOW I’ll love it and then my husband will have to re-configure the family budget to allow for me to buy it…and I might not get to buy any toilet paper that month!! haha!! So, I dream of it…but don’t buy it.
A new one by Pastry Portal: ifigourmet Rolled Fondant is a newer fondant on the market by Pastry Portal. They also have THE best chocolate…so, go check the Casa Luker chocolate out too if you head over there. The ifigourmet fondant is SO easy to use and is very very cost effective!! One 10lb bucket is less than $30 making it similarly priced to Fondx. It has a wonderful flavor, nice and elastic, easy to roll out and goes on beautiful!! It only comes in white, so that’s the only bummer…you have to mix your own color. BUT, for the price, it’s amazing! It has a similar feel to Liz’s fondant because it’s slightly less sticky than standard marshmallow and obviously has a much longer shelf life than any homemade fondant. So it’s my other top commercial brand to buy for those reason…cost and use! If I’m not making fondant myself, I’m using this brand or the Fondx that Lesley compares in her article.
*Edited (10/22/2014) to add: Pastry Portal got wind I put this post up on their fondant and has offered 20% off today through the weekend for anyone who wants to try it!! SO COOL!!! So, follow the link above to their site, add the fondant to your shopping cart and at check out, type in “JESSICAKES20” into the discount area. So fun!! It’ll help offset some shipping costs that way!!
An Australian favorite: Bakels Pettinice. This is a hard to find fondant because it’s not readily available everywhere, but it’s a great fondant and I’ve enjoyed working with it on two occasions. One thing I noticed is how it’s not very sensitive to humidity…at least compared to my marshmallow fondant. It was really easy to work with and didn’t give me a lot of condensation grief. I also liked the flavor and texture. The texture was different than the marshmallow…it almost had a “chalk” like hollow feel to it when I kneaded it…it was very “lightweight”. I can’t describe it very well…but it wasn’t sticky at all and went on so smoothly to the cake.
Before I ran into the ifigourmet fondant, the Bakels was my favorite…but again, expensive and hard to find. Now that I have the ifigourmet, I don’t use it anymore…but it’s worthy of a mention because I DID love working with it!! – especially compared to Satin Ice and Fondarific which I’ve found are the hardest to work with.
A Few Videos:
Before I close up, I want to mention a couple fabulous little videos over on youtube where Ann with “How To Cook That” compares fondant brands, which are better for lettering and also shows a “Sag Test” for various kinds of fondant. Click HERE for the comparison, click HERE for the lettering and click HERE for the sag test.
I hope that makes things clear as mud for ya!!! Hehe!! There are a lot of choices, but I would love to encourage you to try homemade fondant. It has some huge advantages and tastes INCREDIBLE compared to most all the commercial brands I’ve tried. Also, you can flavor homemade fondant any way you’d like so it can blend with any cake flavor you’re making.
Blessings!!!
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This is great Jessica!! Thank you solo much for sharing your knowledge!
As a newbie (experienced cupcaker, not so much with cakes!) who has only used fondant literally one time because I’m scared of it- this is a great place to start! Trying to find a way to experiment and learn more skills without breaking the bank
Thanks!
I just started your Clean and Simple Cake Design class last night, and it is wonderful! I’ve been using FondX brand fondant lately, and I love it. Highly recommend giving it a try if you can.
I actually LOVE Fondx too!! It reminds me a lot of Pastry Portal’s fondant!! It’s my top three for sure!! So glad you’re ejoying the class!!! YAY!
Hi , Jessica. I love your page and your work. About the fondant , I’m in Puerto Rico and is hot and humid. Carma Massa fondant have tragacanh that is an amazing aditive for this climate. I make my own and its very cheap and easy to use. Vivian
SO great to know that!! I wonder if adding the gum tragacanth into the marshmallow fondant would help!! What recipe are you using? – do you mind sharing? I’d love to know what works in humid climates that is homemade. I have so many students who really struggle with that!! Blessings to you!!
Hello Jessica!
I love your work and your designs. I just wish my cakes would have that sharp edges and look and clean as yours! I am working on that! I love your MMF recipe but i feel is so soft and seems kind of wet after i cover my cakes. Does that mean that it needs more sugar because of the climate? I live in Texas, where can be really hot and humid one day and the next cold and dry. So i was wondering the same, if I add tragacanth to mine if it would help. I have a recipe that I love that uses it, but it is glucose based and that is hard to find here. Anyways if I add it when would it be good to do so? When kneading the last part of the sugar?
Hi Yeidie!
Unfortunately my MMF recipe is one of the most sensative fondants out there…and in humid/hot climates it can be a bear to work with UNLESS you are using ganache as the crumb coat and can cover your cake at room temp. YES, the recipe also needs to be modified a bit and you do need more powdered sugar in humid climates…so, add a bit more so it’s not super soft/sticky. Also, use corn starch to roll it out. It makes a HUGE difference when working with the MMF. Adding the tragacanth does help a bit and it’s worth trying! – I’ve heard good things about it and yes you’ll need it in towards the end, then wrap it up and let it rest a bit…overnight if possible. But…again, anytime you chill your cake and try to cover it in fondant, you’re going to have issues! Have you tried buying the Carma Massa Tropica fondant?? You might consider it if you have a business!! – I’ve heard you’ll be completely changed by it!
One major factor that you’ve left out of this article is the TASTE! I love using your MMF recipe not only because its cheap to make and I don’t have to buy fondant (which living in the sticks can be a challenge), but I like the texture, its not too chewy to eat, and it tastes pretty good. I don’t want to buy a new commercial fondant without knowing how its going to taste.
You are totally right I didn’t touch on it heavily!! Although the ones I talk about do taste good!! – but honestly I love mine the best too!! It tastes the most pure!
I do know that most companies will send you samples!!! So, give Pastry Portal, Carma Massa and Fondx a call.
Blessings!!
Hi Jessica, I love your work! This post was really helpful for me living in Singapore. I have a question though.. You mentioned that you “only use ganache as a crumb coat because I don’t have to chill my cakes and can cover a cake at room temp”. Don’t you have to chill the cakes after the ganache crumb coat? Or am I missing something? Thanks!
Thank you Valerie!
You don’t have to chill your cakes with a ganache crumb coat as long as the filling isn’t perishable either. Ganache is fine at room temp up to 5 days or so. It’s the filling you have to worry about. If it’s a standard American buttercream or a standard vanilla Swiss-meringue buttercream, those are fine for a few days at room temp. Blessings!!
Jessica, your cakes (and blog) are great. I am trying to make black and red colors but they loose a lot of consistency specially black. Do you havd any advice to make it more pliable?
Thank you Adriana!
Yes…those colors can be hard. I actually add a few ounces of dark chocolate and cocoa powder to my melted marshmallows when I make black so I don’t have to add a ton of coloring. I also use Americolor Super Black and Super Red for those colors. It helps a lot to use the more intense colors. If you need to make the fondant a bit more elastic, just add in a tablespoon or two of corn syrup and that helps SO much!! I wish you the best!!
lovely write up, thanks for the mention Jessica
oh,i love this post!!this is so helpful!! thanks a lot Jessica!!
i m struggling sooo much with tropical weather!!! i ve tried all of those recipes,and i agree with everything you say in this article;
i love the taste of MMF,but it doesnt like tropical weather and it gets condensation,after chilling!!
LMF is great for the texture,but i don t really like the taste,compared to MMF.
i don t have a big experience with storebought fondant because i can t find any on my island!! i ve bought some wilton during a trip in the states,and let s say the taste is not really good!
the better option for me would be Michelle Foster fondant,that i made several times:you say “it s a labor of love”,i agree with you,but,please,tell me what s the secret to get it right!!
because i m struggling with this recipe:i ve tried all tips i could find in blogs and cake forums,but mine gets soggy and weird!! and there s no way to roll it all in one:it separates in pieces..!!
I would love to make it right because the few times i succed in making it,it behaved so well with the fridge,and the weather,and the taste was really good in my opinion.
Can you help,please?
Thanks again for your help,
Vahiné island
Hi Vahine!
I’m so sorry you’ve had such trouble on your isleand with fondant. Yes…you are so limited to what you can do. Honestly it’s been a few years since I’ve made the Michele Foster Fondant. I know it took me one or two times to get it right. SO much of it has to do with temperature of the liquid before you continue. SO, check that again. For now, perhaps you can get really good at working with buttercream and ganache for the finishes on your cake. Have you tried Sugar Ed Production’s buttercream recipe? It’s amazing for hot/humid weather and she shows you how to get beautiful, perfect finishes with buttercream so it looks like fondant. Then you don’t have to mess with fondant!! Might be worth a try due to your climate/area. Here’s a link to her recipe: http://www.sugaredproductions.com/blog/buttercream-and-cake-recipes/. It’s very different in flavor than my Swiss meringue buttercream, but does perform well in hot climates. I wish you the best!
thank you very much for your answer,Jessica,you re so generous about sharing your experience!! i think i m gonna consider your option of using buttercream,it seems i need to slow down my nerves,otherwise i could give up decorating cakes!!
anyway,thanks a lot for the link,i m gonna check this very seriously!!
happy decorating,and congratulations for all your pieces of edible art,you re a true inspiration for all of us!!
vahiné island
Hi jessica ur MMf runs out wondrfull thx u were so helpful,my girl birthday next week how can i store my MMf,thanks again for ur help.
Yay! You can store the fondant wrapped in several layers of plastic wrap then placed into a zip lock bag. Keep at room temp for a good month. If you use it after that, you might need to heat it in the microwave 10-15 seconds, and knead in another tablespoon of corn syrup to re-hydrate it. Blessings!
Thanks so much, Jessica! I wasn’t the biggest fan of home made (probably cause of the mess!) and loved Bakels RTR. I think it is *da bomb* and when bought in 7 kg tub, it is pretty cost effective. Thanks again
Hi Jessica, i already knew how to make MMF from your class :), so i set the challenge of making one from scratch (Foster recipe) and i love it and made it all by hand no mixer nothing, like you said labor of love but the flavor Yummy !! thanks for sharing
Hi….I have some left over marshmallow fondants which has been ayear.so it safe to use?