Some  of the most common cake-related questions are related to a popular cake icing called rolled fondant. (Most just call it fondant, though there are different kinds. More on that in a later post.) For those of you not yet in the know, rolled fondant is a thick, somewhat stretchy and slightly chewy sheet of icing that produces a smooth surface on a cake. {Check out the gorgeous fondant design by the outrageously talented April Reed.}

In certain cake eating circles, fondant is a dirty word. There are some who will turn up their noses at the mere mention of the “f word”. See, they think it tastes icky. And, unfortunately, their experience with it was probably not that great. Not all fondant has a yuck factor, my friends, as not all pre-made fondants are the same.

We at the DIY Bride Test Kitchen (well, ok, just me at my kitchen counter) decided to do a taste test among the most popular fondant brands.

The contenders, in no particular order:

• Wilton Pure White Rolled Fondant
• Fondarific Buttercream Flavor
• Satin Ice Vanilla Flavor
• Fondx Virgin White

The methodology: cut off a hunk of fondant, eat it, review it, rate it. Real scientific!

The Results

#1 : Fondarific. Of the 4 fondants tasted, Fondarific had the best flavor and texture. Sweet and creamy with melt-in-your mouth consistency, Fondarific, was by far the tastiest and gets the highest recommendation. No cloying aftertaste, ingredients taste fresh, no chemical smell or flavors detected.

#2 : Satin Ice. Many, many cake pros use Satin Ice as their fondant of choice. The SI sample was very mellow in flavor and had a very pleasant consistency. It wasn’t as flavorful or as smooth as Fondarific but it was still very good.

#3 : Fondx: I had a hard time choosing between Satin Ice and Fondx for the #2. Fondx lost out my just the tiniest margin because I thought the more mellow flavor of SI would compliment more cake flavors. That’s not to say that Fondx has a strong flavor at all, it’s just more flavorful than SI. If I were to make  fondant cake today, I’d be torn between Fondx and Fondarific. They’re pretty similar in consistency and texture, both are quite tasty.

#4 : Wilton: This was by leaps and bounds my least favorite fondant of the bunch. Slightly grainy with a chemical aftertaste, Wilton’s fondant was just nasty compared to the others in the bunch. I have to admit that I used Wilton fondant for a project in my upcoming book (cue shameless self-promotion) The Crafty Countdown and it was perfect for non-edible decoration. {Peep a sneak peek at the Owl Cake Topper.}

More Details

1. Wilton is the most widely-available fondant. You can pick it up at craft stores like Michael’s (and Michael’s often offers Wilton cake decorating classes).
2. The price breakdown (please note that most fondants get cheaper when you buy in bulk – over 5 lbs.) Prices below are approximate. Search around for the best deals.

• Satin Ice, $6.49 for 2 lb. ($3.50 per pound)
• Wilton, $6.79 for 1.5 lb. ($4.52 per pound)
• Fondarific, $11.79 for 2 lb. ($5.89 per pound)
• Fondx, $33.00 for 10 lb. ($3.30 per pound)

Part 2

Once you’ve decided that you’d like to explore making your own cake where, oh, where do you begin? Don’t fret, my friends. In this post we’ll discuss the basics of getting started on your journey to cake bliss.

The Big Decisions

It all starts here, with these 4 questions.

1. What type icing do you want?
2. What cake flavor(s) do you want?
3. How many people will you be serving?
4. What design do you want?

Let’s break each of those down and talk about some options. [Read more below the jump.]
1. What type icing do you want?
It sounds kind of odd to chose your icing first, but it’s a key part of the cake decision process. Not only are taste and texture major factors, some icings are much more fragile than others. This is very important because some icings will, quite literally, melt when they’re warm. If you’re having an afternoon outdoor wedding in August butter cream icing may not be your best bet.

Types of Icing

Butter Cream (or Buttercream): One of the most common types of icing, butter cream is made with butter or shortening. The flavor is super sweet but takes on other flavors well. Mainly used for icing the outside of the cake it is also a popular choice for fillings and decorations, too. While it is versatile, buttercream is very sensitive to temperature (especially heat – it’ll melt when it gets warm!)

French Butter Cream: Similar to regular butter cream, French butter cream is made from whole eggs (not just the yolks like in other butter cream) which gives it a higher fat content. This makes a very rich and, surprisingly, light icing BUT it’s very fragile. The shelf-life is shorter than a regular butter cream and it’s more sensitive to temperatures.

Fondant: Fondant is a thick, slightly chewy white sugar substance that is used to cover a cake or to make decorations. There are different types of fondant: rolled, poured and sculpting.

Rolled fondant has a thick, dough-like consistency that’s rolled or draped over the surface of a cake. Fondant is made of sugar, water, and glucose (or corn syrup). There’s also a version made of marshmallow. It has a smooth surface and, in my experience, is a pain to work with. We’ll talk about this later but fondant is not very forgiving as it shows all sorts of flaws. It looks great when done well, though.

Poured fondant a liquid icing. It’s used mostly for small pieces like petits fours or for glazes.

Sculpting fondant is thick and used for molding decorations.

Fondants do take color well and can be flavored with oils or extracts.

Ganache: A mixture of chocolate and heavy cream, ganache is a delightfully decadent icing or filling. Melted, it’s great as a glaze. Chilled, it becomes a deep, dense truffle-like consistency. Ganache takes flavorings well such as liqueurs and coffee. It can have a matte or a glossy appearance.

Marzipan: A coating made of sweetened almond paste and eggs. Marzipan can easily be molded and colored. It tastes great but should be avoided if anyone in your guest list has nut allergies. It’s also pretty expensive and can be harder to find in amounts needed for large cakes.

Meringue – Made from sugar, water, and egg whites, meringue is a light and airy frosting that doesn’t have much flavor on it’s own. It’s a great companion for flavorful cakes that you don’t want masked by heavy frosting.

Rolled Butter Cream: Similar to rolled fondant (below) but softer with a shinier surface.

Royal Icing: Used primarily for decorations and icing cookies, royal icing dries very hard. This is great for intricate decorations and it usually doesn’t need refrigeration. A very hard icing that works well with delicate decorations. It’s easy to make, takes color well, and the taste is … “meh”.

Whipped Cream: Similar to meringue, whipped cream is a great (and uber-light) frosting. However, because it’s whipped cream it needs to be chilled and kept refrigerated so it’s not ideal for wedding cakes.

2. What cake flavor(s) do you want?
This is the fun part of the cake process because you can pretty much have any cake flavors you want in any combination. Chocolate and mint? Thai coffee & cinnamon? Green tea and ginger? Peanut butter and bacon? You bet!

The main considerations here are:

• Any food allergies that you need to watch out for? (Stay away from anything with tree nuts as a general rule — because a lot of people are allergic to them.)
• Will the majority of your guests like the flavors? That peanut butter-bacon combo may be just a little too weird for your friends and family.
• What will YOU absolutely love?
• Do you have access to the recipes and ingredients you need to pull off your masterpiece?

3. How many people will you be serving?
Before you settle on your final design, you’ll need to know your guest list tally. The size of your guest list will determine how much cake you need. And beware here! Wedding cake servings are calculated as much smaller than “normal” cake slices. A common size for a slice of wedding cake is 1” wide by 2” tall.

4. What design do you want?
Ah, the BIG question! What do you want your cake to look like?

• Let’s start with shape. Cake pans can be found in circles, squares, rectangles, hexagons, ovals, and all sorts of novelty shapes.
• Next, how about color. What’s your wedding color scheme or theme?
• Now, decoration. You can do just about anything you want here. Start checking out cake galleries and wedding magazines for inspiration.

Those are the very basics. We’ll be discussing more fun stuff like time lines, budgeting, and recipes in the coming days.

Some  of the most common cake-related questions are related to a popular cake icing called rolled fondant. (Most just call it fondant, though there are different kinds. More on that in a later post.) For those of you not yet in the know, rolled fondant is a thick, somewhat stretchy and slightly chewy sheet of icing that produces a smooth surface on a cake. {Check out the gorgeous fondant design by the outrageously talented April Reed.}

In certain cake eating circles, fondant is a dirty word. There are some who will turn up their noses at the mere mention of the “f word”. See, they think it tastes icky. And, unfortunately, their experience with it was probably not that great. But, my friends, not all fondant has a yuck factor as not all pre-made fondants are the same.

We at the DIY Bride Test Kitchen (well, ok, just me at my kitchen counter) decided to do a taste test among the most popular fondant brands.

The contenders, in no particular order:

• Wilton Pure White Rolled Fondant
• Fondarific Buttercream Flavor
• Satin Ice Vanilla Flavor
• Fondx Virgin White

The methodology: cut off a hunk of fondant, eat it, review it, rate it. Real scientific!

The Results

#1 : Fondarific. Of the 4 fondants tasted, Fondarific had the best flavor and texture. Sweet and creamy with melt-in-your mouth consistency, Fondarific, was by far the tastiest and gets the highest recommendation. No cloying aftertaste, ingredients taste fresh, no chemical smell or flavors detected.

#2 : Satin Ice. Many, many cake pros use Satin Ice as their fondant of choice. The SI sample was very mellow in flavor and had a very pleasant consistency. It wasn’t as flavorful or as smooth as Fondarific but it was still very good.

#3 : Fondx: I had a hard time choosing between Satin Ice and Fondx for the #2. Fondx lost out my just the tiniest margin because I thought the more mellow flavor of SI would compliment more cake flavors. That’s not to say that Fondx has a strong flavor at all, it’s just more flavorful than SI. If I were to make  fondant cake today, I’d be torn between Fondx and Fondarific. They’re pretty similar in consistency and texture, both are quite tasty.

#4 : Wilton: This was by leaps and bounds my least favorite fondant of the bunch. Slightly grainy with a chemical aftertaste, Wilton’s fondant was just nasty compared to the others in the bunch. I have to admit that I used Wilton fondant for a project in my upcoming book (cue shameless self-promotion) The Crafty Countdown and it was perfect for non-edible decoration. {Peep a sneak peek at the Owl Cake Topper.}

More Details

1. Wilton is the most widely-available fondant. You can pick it up at craft stores like Michael’s (and Michael’s often offers Wilton cake decorating classes).
2. The price breakdown (please note that most fondants get cheaper when you buy in bulk – over 5 lbs.) Prices below are approximate. Search around for the best deals.

• Satin Ice, $6.49 for 2 lb. ($3.50 per pound)
• Wilton, $6.79 for 1.5 lb. ($4.52 per pound)
• Fondarific, $11.79 for 2 lb. ($5.89 per pound)
• Fondx, $33.00 for 10 lb. ($3.30 per pound)

There are few debates as heated in the cake world as the use of boxed mix versus scratch cakes. While I am a strong advocate of the latter, I do want to give a fair look at both sides to help you discover which option is best for your needs.

Box Mix Pros:

• Convenient, pre-mixed packages mean little measuring and no guesswork with ingredients yielding a pretty consistent result from cake-to-cake.
• Packages can be purchased way ahead of time and stored until needed.
• Box mixes are inexpensive, especially when purchased on sale.
• Most people are very familiar with box mix flavors and have fond associations of those kinds of cakes (reminds them of childhood, for example).

Pros of Scratch Mixes:

• Unlimited flavor options. If you can dream it, there’s likely a perfect cake flavor waiting for you to discover it.
• You control the ingredients and can add to or modify recipes to suit your needs. Wheat allergies? Vegan? Organic ingredients only? Carrot cake without nuts? No trans fats? Diabetic options? No problem!
• Freshness. Made-from-scratch cakes don’t need chemical stabilizers or preservatives. (Take a look at the ingredients on a box mix cake.)
• Pride. There’s definitely a satisfaction that one gets from making something that takes creativity, patience and skill that can’t be experienced with shortcuts.

Many box cake devotees argue that box mixes are faster. Over at Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn, they proved that wrong. [Do check out their other article about scratch cakes as healthier than boxed mixes.]

As for cake mix being less expensive than scratch, you may be surprised at what we found in the DIY Bride Test Kitchen. That’s another post, though.

My best advice is for you to do a taste and bake test with scratch cakes and box cakes to find the ones that fit the taste, texture, and budget that you’re aiming for. (Check back for the DIY Bride Test Kitchen results.)

Remember: a wedding cake needs to taste great, no matter how clever or fancy it looks.

The Big Decisions

It all starts here, with these 4 questions.

1. What type icing do you want?
2. What cake flavor(s) do you want?
3. How many people will you be serving?
4. What design do you want?

Let’s break each of those down and talk about some options. [Read more below the jump.]

1. What type icing do you want?
It sounds kind of odd to chose your icing first, but it’s a key part of the cake decision process. Not only are taste and texture major factors, some icings are much more fragile than others. This is very important
because some icings will, quite literally, melt when they’re warm. If you’re having an afternoon outdoor wedding in August butter cream icing may not be your best bet.

Types of Icing

Butter Cream (or Buttercream): One of the most common types of icing, butter cream is made with butter or shortening. The flavor is super sweet but takes on other flavors well. Mainly used for icing the outside of the cake it is also a popular choice for fillings and decorations, too. While it is versatile, buttercream is very sensitive to temperature (especially heat – it’ll melt when it gets warm!)

French Butter Cream: Similar to regular butter cream, French butter cream is made from whole eggs (not just the yolks like in other butter cream) which gives it a higher fat content. This makes a very rich and, surprisingly, light icing BUT it’s very fragile. The shelf-life is shorter than a regular butter cream and it’s more sensative to temperatures.

Fondant: Fondant is a thick, slightly chewey white sugar substance that is used to cover a cake or to make decorations. There are different types of fondant: rolled, poured and sculpting.

Rolled fondant has a thick, dough-like consistency that’s rolled or draped over the surface of a cake. Fondant is made of sugar, water, and glucose (or corn syrup). There’s also a version made of marshmallow. It has a smooth surface and, in my experience, is a pain to work with. We’ll talk about this later but fondant is not very forgiving as it shows all sorts of flaws. It looks great when done well, though.

Poured fondant a liquid icing. It’s used mostly for small pieces like petits fours or for glazes.

Sculpting fondant is thick and used for molding decorations.

Fondants do take color well and can be flavored with oils or extracts.

Ganache: A mixture of chocolate and heavy cream, ganache is a delightfully decadent icing or filling. Melted, it’s great as a glaze. Chilled, it becomes a deep, dense truffle-like consistency. Ganache takes flavorings well such as liqueurs and coffee. It can have a matte or a glossy appearance.

Marzipan:  A coating made of sweetened almond paste and eggs. Marzipan can easily be molded and colored. It tastes great but should be avoided if anyone in your guest list has nut allergies. It’s also pretty expensive and can be harder to find in amounts needed for large cakes.

Meringue – Made from sugar, water, and egg whites, meringue is a light and airy frosting that doesn’t have much flavor on it’s own. It’s a great companion for flavorful cakes that you don’t want masked by heavy frosting.

Rolled Butter Cream: Similar to rolled fondant (below) but softer with a shinier surface.

Royal Icing: Used primarily for decorations and icing cookies, royal icing dries very hard. This is great for intricate decorations and it usually doesn’t need refrigerations. A very hard icing that works well with delicate decorations. It’s easy to make, takes color well, and the taste is … “meh”.

Whipped Cream: Similar to meringue, whipped cream is a great (and uber light) frosting. However, because it’s whipped cream it needs to be chilled and kept refrigerated so it’s not ideal for wedding cakes.

2. What cake flavor(s) do you want?
This is the fun part of the cake process because you can pretty much have any cake flavors you want in any combination. Chocolate and mint? Thai coffee & cinnamon? Green tea and ginger? Peanut butter and bacon? You bet!

The main considerations here are:
* Any food allergies that you need to watch out for? (Stay away from anything with tree nuts is my general rule — because I’m allergic to them and lots of other people are, too.)
* Will the majority of your guests like the flavors? That peanut butter-bacon combo may be just a little too weird for your friends and family.
* What will YOU absolutely love?

3. How many people will you be serving?
Before you settle on your final design, you’ll need to know your guest list tally. The size of your guest list will determine how much cake you need. And beware here! Wedding cake servings are calculated as much smaller than “normal” cake slices. A common size for a slice of wedding cake is 1” wide by 2” tall.

4. What design do you want?
Ah, the BIG question! What do you want your cake to look like?

Let’s start with shape. Cake pans can be found in circles, squares, rectangles, hexagons, ovals, and all sorts of novelty shapes.
Next, how about color. What’s your wedding color scheme or theme?
Now, decoration. You can do just about anything you want here. Start checking out cake galleries and wedding magazines for inspiration.

Those are the very basics. We’ll be discussing more fun stuff like timelines, budgeting, and recipes in the coming days.