Liquid Fondant Baby Blue Cupcakes

My friend gave birth to a beautiful baby boy last Sunday so i was inspired to make some baby blue cupcakes for the happy family.

The Dad is well known for liking fondant. However, i wanted to try something different. I discovered a technique in the Peggy Porchen book where fondant is melted to a liquid consistency and the cupcakes dipped in to decorate. This really appealed to me as eliminated the rolling, cutting and ganaching aspects of the Planet Cake method.

So, I brought a box of Orchard fondant and put 250g in a bowl in the microwave for 10 second intervals. I added a little water and stirred in-between bursts in the microwave. After some vigorous stirring the lumps disappear and you're left with some smooth liquid fondant.

I then added a little Wilton sky blue colour gel.

I had made the Planet Cake vanilla cupcakes and covered in sugar syrup to keep them moist and to prevent crumbs from falling off into the fondant.

I then dipped each cupcake one by one in the bowl of fondant. By the time i reached the last cupcake the first had dried and so i dipped for a second time. I then placed a sugar rose in the center of each cupcake.

Those cupcakes that didn't have too tall a dome shape did get fondant on the paper case. However i used the Coles paper & foil cases so, once the fondant had dried i removed the foil case to give a better presentation.

I had wanted to pipe dots of royal icing around the flower but i had never made it before and my piping is terrible so my FH pointed out that less is more and that they looked beautiful as they were.

I was very pleased with the end result and i'm sure the tired mum and dad will be too!:-)

My 3rd fondant cake

This is my 3rd attempt at a fondant cake and a practice for my engagement party cake which will be a 2 tier choc mud and carrot cake.

I was very happy with the result though things did go wrong. The ganache wasn't as smooth as it should be meaning the fondant didn't have a smooth surface so no sharp edges.

When i rolled out the main colour i didn't have enough fondant and had to start again and it was a real effort to reach the circumference of 38cm with my wooden rolling pin!

But the errors i made on my previous cakes i corrected this time round. The explosion rip in the middle should have pink segments on the inside but my fondant didn't stick too well. However, thanks to the planet cake forum i have a great tip to try next time - baking paper and more sugar syrup!

I'm still nervous to do the 2 tier and still need to practice the mud recipe to it doesn't sink in the middle. Next time i'll be using home-made baking stips!

But i will have to be organised as my parents will be visiting and i do not want to spend hours in the kitchen sweating away when they are here. i'll just have to do it when they are asleep! This cake afterall did take me 9hours.....

But practice makes perfect! Dave and i now have a whole 8inch chocolate mud cake with chocolate ganache to eat....

My first attempted at fondant.....

Terrible! My first attempt at using fondant icing! I was planning on doing my wedding cake but after this attempt i think i'll have to re-consider....

I made the Planet Cake carrot cake - turned out perfectly. Then i made a white chocolate gananche and layered the cake with this and covered the entire cake so it was smooth.

I used Orchard's white fondant icing. I coloured it pale pink, the Cavey Cakes colour and started to knead it. Turned out pretty good! I had to have a couple attempts at rolling it out due to it sticking and ripping, and maybe I should have measured it as, it didn't quite cover the cake.

But once it was on i did a patch up job and it didn't look too bad. If i'd had a smoother i could have made the finishing a bit smoother so my finger prints weren't obvious! I experimented with writing pens my mother sent over from the UK and did a really lame flower.

But it is still delicious to eat and Dave and I will be eating cake every night this week. I'll just put it down to good practice...