I made these Baby Block Cakes for a baby shower. The expecting mom and dad didn’t know the sex of their little one, so they requested pale green and yellow, with their two initials ‘A’ and ‘V’ to top the blocks. Inside the pale green and yellow fondant is moist yellow cake with strawberry buttercream.
Want to know more about fondant!? Of course you do!
These cakes were inspired by Martha Stewart, and completed without much fuss over the fondant. Martha gives excellent detailed instructions, even for the fondant novice.
Don’t know what fondant is? Fondant is a pliable paste used to embellish and cover cakes. It is most commonly found on wedding cakes, giving them their smooth, polished finish. Fondant is composed of gelatine, water, glycerine and sugar. Fondant is typically rolled to about 1/8- inch thickness and placed over a lightly frosted cake. A cake is frosted with a crumb coat and acts as a glue to adhere the fondant to the cake. Fondant becomes sticky when wet, so a small moist paint brush can be used to adhere fondant pieces to other fondant pieces.
Here are a few fondant tips-
-If fondant is store bought (like Wilton brand) add 2 Tablespoons of vegetable shorting to 1 pound of the paste, and knead it in with your hands. The warmth of your hands will make the fondant more plaible, and the fat from the shortning will help to moisten the paste and keep it from cracking.
-Fondant should never be refrigerated. The temperature change from cold to warm when you take the fondant cake out of the fridge will cause condensation of the cake and make it sticky.
These are just the basics. More later!
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You don’t know how badly I wished I lived within driving distance of you right now. I would so have you make Colby’s 1st birthday cake. Your cakes are gorgeous and in this case adorable. So cute for a baby shower! Great fondant tips. I have avoided it thus far because Im afraid of it. But maybe Ill get the courage to give it a go soon.
Gorgeous cakes! I love how your fondant is smooth all over. Just perfect.
Beautiful cakes, Joy! I bet the mom and dad to be were so proud!
Love the animals, Joy. Elephants are too cute.
And please update more info on fondant. I absolutely hated working with it as an apprentice :(
How about I just come over to your house for a mini-lesson on using fondant? I’ll do all the cleaning up, and I’ll treat you to lunch. These are just spectacular, Joy!
Laurie- I would love to make Colby’s birthday cake!! It’s too bad I’m not closer. Believe me when I say that I spent part of the day on Saturday thinking about whether or not I could safely FedEx you a cake. I’m not sure I could… But I thought hard about it!
Linda- More on fondant. soon. Promise! It’s just no fun if you don’t know how to work with it.
Susan- Come on over! Seriously, if you’re close, you must come!
Your cakes look wonderful, I wish I was talented enough to make them for my soon to be niece or nephew! Maybe I’ll wait till he/she turns one and feel more experienced and confident with baking.
Pixie- I’m totally confident that you can do a fondant cake! Once you learn the basics and a few tricks, it’s as easy as pie. Is pie easy? Hmmm….
Those are adorable!
I was wondering what type of cake you use and if you might impart some tips to get a good foundation for starting the whole fondant process. For example I have noticed when watching Ace of Cakes they usually take their fondant ready cakes out of the fridge. Should the cakes be cold before putting on the base icing for the fondant
Rich- There’s a lot to know about fondant. I’m working on a podcast so I can get you the most answers in a way that makes sense. For now you should know that any relatively firm cake will work with fondant, a genoise or a basic yellow cake will work just fine. The cake, once cooled completely, should be filled with icing (or any other filling) and frosted in a thin layer of frosting before fondant is placed on it. Refrigeration of the lightly frosted cake is important to, because it helps the frosting to set before fondant is placed on. There’s a lot of information and I hope my upcoming podcast explains it all for you!
I love your blog! I’m going to attempt to make this and if it turns out well then I may make it for a shower I’m hosting in 2 weeks. Thanks for all the great photos too.
I love your site! Every item looks absolutely wonderful.
Hey joy these cakes are so cute! I have question though, would you recomend purchasing the fondant or is it ok to make it yourself and if so do you have a recipie?
thank you so much
Josie
definitely buy the fondant and roll a few tablespoons of vegetable shortening into it before rolling it out on powdered sugar… that’s my tip!
Joy,
I’m attempting these cakes for a baby shower this weekend. Did you ever follow-up this post with more tips for fondant icing and how to make these cakes? I can’t seem to find anything on the site.
Thanks!
Ashley
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