Ecstasy Homemade Kreation

Version: 0.01

Table of Contents

A TO Z OF FONDANT.........................................................................................................................2

WHAT IS FONDANT?..............................................................................................................................2
HOMEMADE VS READYMADE FONDANT....................................................................................................2
WHICH BRAND OF FONDANT SHOULD BE USED?.........................................................................................3
DIFFERENT KIND OF PASTE USED FOR CAKE DECORATION..............................................................................3
FONDANT-................................................................................................................................................3
GUM PASTE /FLORAL PASTE-........................................................................................................................3
HOMEMADE VS READYMADE GUMPASTE:........................................................................................................3
MODELLING PASTE.....................................................................................................................................3
HOMEMADE VS READYMADE MODELLING PASTE...............................................................................................3
WHAT KIND OF FROSTING PAIRS UP WELL WITH FONDANT?..........................................................................4
--WHIPPED CREAM-....................................................................................................................................4
--MERINGUE BUTTERCREAMS (WITH EGG WHITE).............................................................................................4
--AMERICAN BUTTERCREAM –......................................................................................................................4
-- GANACHE—..........................................................................................................................................5
WHAT KIND OF CAKE SPONGE SHOULD BE USED FOR A FONDANT DRAPED CAKE?................................................5
CAN WE USE SUGAR SYRUP TO MOISTEN THE CAKE SPONGES?.......................................................................6
CAN WE USE ALL KIND OF FILLINGS IN THE CAKE?.......................................................................................6
CAN WE USE LIQUID COLOUR WITH FONDANT?..........................................................................................6
POPULAR BRANDS THAT PRODUCE TOOLS USED FOR FONDANT......................................................................6
CAN WE USE WIRES IN THE TOPPERS/FLOWERS OR OTHER ELEMENTS?.............................................................6
HOW CAN WE DRY FLOWERS/DESIGN ELEMENTS IN HUMID SEASON?..............................................................6
FONDANT ELEMENTS VS HUMIDITY.........................................................................................................7
SHOULD WE KEEP THE READY FONDANT CAKE IN FRIDGE UNTIL ITS CONSUMED?................................................7

THINGS THAT SHOULD BE KEPT READY FOR THE MAKE ALONG CLASS.............................................7

RECIPES............................................................................................................................................9

EGGLESS BUTTER CAKE...........................................................................................................................9

VANILLA POUND CAKE (WITH EGG).....................................................................................................10
GANACHE........................................................................................................................................10
TRUFFLE..........................................................................................................................................11
EASY EGG FREE BUTTERCREAM.............................................................................................................11
SIMPLE SYRUP..................................................................................................................................11
GUMPASTE......................................................................................................................................12
SOURCES.........................................................................................................................................12
 A Z to of Fondant

For Beginners

What is fondant?

-Fondant is just another kind of frosting like buttercream, whipped cream etc, that we use to
cover cakes to make it look more attractive and tasteful. Unlike other frosting, fondant is
used on cake mainly for the appearance rather than taste. Since its nothing more than a
dough made out of icing sugar added with ingredients like gelatine, vegetable fat, liquid
glucose, glycerine, CMC or Tylose; its little more on the sweeter side. But fondant has taken
cake designing to another level, which no other medium of frosting could give us. Not only
fondant gives us a neat finish, but also makes the cake much more stable for transportation
and withstand different climatic condition.

Homemade vs readymade fondant.

Though many has claimed to achieve good results (taste wise and texture wise) with
homemade fondant, unfortunately i could never find that ultimate recipe, neither the one
made with marshmallow, nor the one made from scratch!! Marshmallow fondant no doubt
tastes good, but it turns out to be quite pricey to use for commercial purpose, as
Marshmallow doesn’t come cheap in India. Apart from that, if the pack of Marshmallow is not
fresh, itll not melt properly. Ill suggest trying once to understand the difference between
homemade and store-bought ones. Sharing links for both the variety.

Marshmallow Fondant

Fondant from scratch

Moreover, homemade fondant doesn’t contain any preservative, which is good from health
point of view, but a loss from the baker/cake artist's point of view. It moulds very fast and
gets spoiled. If kept in fridge, it stays for some time, but outer surface dries off. Plus, the
condensation makes it sticky.

Most beginners don’t own a stand mixer, and to get a good result with the texture, a stand
mixer is necessary. As its important for the dough to be kneaded very well to get good result
with the texture. For draping, we need fondant which can be rolled out very thin and which
doesn’t break or crack during draping.

Which brand of fondant should be used?

Satin ice, Vizyon, Cdeco, Confect, Magiculata are few good brands available in india

Different kind of paste used for cake decoration.

Is there a difference between fondant used for draping and fondant used for
designing or detailing?

Fondant used for draping should be very soft, pliable, stretchy and shouldn’t dry off fast. At
the same time the sugar paste that we use to make design elements, we want them to hold
shape faster.

When, the same ingredients used to make fondant mixed in different proportion, we get
different result, and hence different kind of paste, which are named differently too. Below are
few eggs.

Fondant-
also called sugar paste. mainly used for draping. Needs to be very soft, pliable and stretchy.

Gum paste /Floral paste-

Gumpaste holds shape very fast and dries fast too. Moreover, once it dries, it rarely reacts to
climate change. For eg, a fondant flower will droop if suddenly starts raining. But a gumpaste
flower, once it dries, won’t change the shape easily. So Mostly, gum paste is used to make
realistic flowers and foliage, and hence called floral paste too.

Homemade vs readymade gumpaste:

Most bakers or cake artists prefer the homemade gumpaste as it dries really well. Brands
like Vizyon, Satin ice, confect have their range of gumpaste, which you can use if you want.
A homemade gumpaste will be shared with you, which you can make a small batch and
freeze it. Apart from flowers, its useful to make different standing toppers, numbers,
alphabets.

Modelling paste
its neither fondant, nor gumpaste, it comes in the middle. We mainly use it for modelling
different characters/animals/vehicle etc. Main characteristic of this paste is, it should give us
enough working time as well as retain its shape when the work is done. like fondant it
shouldn’t sag down and go out of shape when handled. And like gumpaste, it shouldn’t dry
too fast, not giving us time to shape it, and form cracks.

Homemade vs readymade modelling paste

It mainly depends on your preference. You can mix fondant and gumpaste in 50:50 ratio and
make your own modelling paste. Some of the readymade brands like Sugarin, Confect etc
haver their modelling paste. For simple designing work, we can mix CMC or tylose to
fondant and use like modelling paste.

Flowchart-1
What kind of Frosting pairs up well with fondant?
We can’t drape fondant directly over the cake sponge. In fondant cakes, we have 2 layers of
frosting. First, sponge is covered with either buttercream or ganache and left to set. Then
that frosted cake is again draped with fondant to get neat finish, plus add different kind of
design /texture or impression.

So, the prime characteristic of the first layer of frosting is, it should set well , and not hamper
the texture of fondant.

--whipped cream-
for the above mentioned reason, its a big NO , as the first layer.

--Meringue buttercreams (with egg white)

(swiss meringue buttercream/SMBC or Italian meringue buttercream/IMBC) --if you have
access to a chilled air-conditioned room, can use it, as it tastes really good, mildly
sweetened. But without A/C, the buttercream will start becoming soft, and the fondant cake
might go out of shape.

--American buttercream –
or crusted buttercream is fine as long as you don’t mind the extra sweetness it will add to the
fondant. Its more stable than meringue-based buttercream, but if it stays out of refrigerator
for a long time in a non-A/C room, it will not serve the intended purpose.

-- Ganache—
Ganache is made with chocolate and cream. Different kind of chocolate is mixed in different
ratio to the cream. This is the most stable medium of frosting used beneath fondant. Many
doesn’t prefer the white chocolate ganache beneath as it adds extra sweetness to the
fondant layered cake. So best option is dark choc ganache as it balances the sweetness of
fondant.
Flowchart-2

What kind of cake sponge should be used for a fondant draped cake?
Cake should be dense and sturdy, so that it can bear the weight of two layer of frosting.
Preferably butter cakes, pound cakes. The fat solidifies when we freeze the sponge before
doing the first layer of frosting, which helps us to get good result. Some oil-based sponge
recipe turns out to be quite dense and heavy, that is also fine. But very light, spongy, fluffy
kind of cake sponge is not at all recommended, such sponge should be frosted with
buttercream or whipped cream only. Hence fatless sponge should not be used for fondant
cakes.

Can we use sugar syrup to moisten the cake sponges?

Yes. But we shouldn’t soak them like the black forest kind of cakes we get in bakeries. firstly,
that will hamper the texture of the sponge and make it easily breakable. And secondly, the
water can leak and melt the fondant, which is nothing but sugar.
Can we use all kind of fillings in the cake?
Yes, we can use most kind. But we need to consider how long the cake is going to stay out.
Most of the time, we do lot of detailing on a fondant cake. So, it stays out the whole time, we
work. Hence, easily perishable fillings are not suggested if you know, the cake is going to
stay out for long at your end as well as the client's end. Fresh fruits are not suggested inside
a fondant cake as the whole process of ganaching, draping and decorating take quite some
time, and acidic reaction of fresh fruits can produce certain gas and make the ganache or
fondant bulge out. So best is to cook the fruits, make compote/preserves out of it, and use
as filling.

Can we use liquid colour with fondant?

A strict NO!! Only gel based, paste concentrate or powdered colours can be mixed with
fondant. Water based, liquid colours will make fondant sticky and difficult to handle. Sugarin,
Sugarflair, Magic, Americolour, Chefmaster are few brands available in India.

Popular brands that produce tools used for fondant.

PME, JEM, FMM, Karen Davis, CerArt, Marvellous Mold, Evil Genius are few famous
brands. But they come little pricey, hence we mostly end up buying the Chinese ones. And
last but not the least, our very own Indian brand Ultimakes is now coming up with many tools
.

Can we use wires in the toppers/flowers or other elements?

Yes, we can. Wires that are used in cakes are covered with paper. Still it’s very imp that we
inform client or the person consuming the cake, if we are not present there, where we have
used wires. if wire is poked on the cake, we can use a drinking straw and insert it there, so
that it doesn’t come in contact with any acidic element in the filling.

How can we dry flowers/design elements in humid season?

Firstly, we will try to use gumpaste or modelling paste instead of fondant to prepare them.
Secondly, we can lit a 60w yellow bulb inside a box, and keep the objects there to dry. We
even get to buy a readymade wooden box with fixed light, which is called red hot box.
Thirdly, after we bake a cake, the top surface of the oven remains warm, we can keep there
too.
Fourthly, Confect has come up with a product named Superdry, which you need to place
along the toppers or elements in a closed box, and the moisture gets absorbed.
lastly, those who make cakes commercially, they can invest in a food dehydrator, which is
easily available online. it helps not only to dry fondant elements and flowers, but also to
dehydrate your frosted cookies and keep them crunchier. In all the above-mentioned
methods, we have to be careful not to leave them like that for long, as that might discolour
the toppers.

Fondant elements Vs humidity

Firstly, even if it’s not humid, and you finished making the toppers well ahead of time, keep
them in a closed box to protect from dust. secondly, if its humid, first dry the objects as
mentioned in the previous pointer, then keep in the closed box along with few silica gel
pouches. Or we get to buy Dehumidifier also online, which can be used. To protect and
preserve your practice work also, this is a very good method.
Should we keep the ready fondant cake in fridge until its consumed?
It’s not recommended. The condensation that happens once you take out the cake from
fridge can spoil the look. it can even bleed the colours. So, assemble your cake keeping the
consumption time in mind. Once you assemble, you can keep in an A/C environment if you
have that facility. In unavoidable circumstances, if at all you need to keep in fridge, leave the
cake under full speed fan or in a A/C room, And don’t touch it at all until the condensation
dries off. Apart from getting the look spoiled, a fondant cake straight out of fridge will never
taste good. The butter-based sponge and the chocolate ganache will be quite hard along
with the layer of fondant, which not at all is pleasing to your taste buds.

Things that should be kept ready for the make along class

Group A (Items marked with *are mandatory)

1. Turntable *

2. Steel bench scrapper * 1

3. Kitchen palette knife straight * 1

4. Artist palette knife * 1

5. Slicer

6. Serrated knife * medium size 1

7. paint brush any small or medium size * 1

8. Paper napkin *

9. thin pin(clean) *

10. Toothpick and wooden skewers * few

11. Piping bag(preferable) or Ziplock bag* 2

12. Scissors* 1

13. small knife * 1

14. Cut parchment for ganache * 1

15. Ganache board * 2

(1 acrylic, 1 cardboard if you have)

16. Prepared base board or drum board *1 (cover with fondant and stick matching ribbon or

strip of paper on the edge. You can add textures or impression if you wish)
17. Craft knife or paper cutter * 1

18. Cornflour pouch *

19. CMC or TYLOSE powder *

20. Vegetable shortening

21. Fondant tool--dresden*

22. fondant smoother * 2

23. pastry brush(preferred) or a spoon*

24. edible glue

25. water- to use as glue*

26. Foam pad or any kind of firm sponge

27. Any kind of alphabet cutter/mould

28. Any kind of silicon mould

29. Any kind of plunger cutter

30. Mist spray bottle 1(fill with drinking water)

Group B

1. Baked cake 600 gm minimum, use 6" or 7" pan (either use the recipe provided here, or
prepare your own recipe provided it is a heavy a dense cake. Cling wrapped and freeze)

2. Buttercream (as recipe provided or make your recipe)/ jam/whipped cream (either plain or
flavoured)

3. Dark chocolate ganache--as recipe shared. (keep it cling wrapped in a container which
you can microwave)

4. Colour fondant (tennis ball size), using gel or paste colour as shown in demo. Keep at
least two kind of coloured balls ready.

5. White fondant

6. Prepare gumpaste (If ingredients are available) with recipe shared and make standing
number and pop up stars as shown in demo. (if you have any metallic dust, colour the stars
and keep ready)

7. Either use gumpaste or any kind of modelling paste and prepare any kind of flowers and
let them take shape in a former as shown in demo. (If you have petal dust, add colour to the
flowers and keep ready)

Group C
1. Provision of hot water near your workplace

2. Empty little space in your fridge

3. Arrange a workplace, where you can easily access the online class, plus you have a
marble/granite counter to roll fondant. If you have self-healing mat, u can place it anywhere
convenient .

4. Those who doesn’t have cutting mat, you can use any mirror or glass to do the cutting
work.

5. Place your camera in such a way that i can view you work easily.

6. Keep a notebook and pen handy. jot down questions/doubts which doesn’t need
immediate addressing. Once we finish session, both days, we'll sit and discuss all those.

Recipes

Eggless butter cake

A. All-purpose flour (Maida)- 200 gm or 1,1/2 cup +2tablespoon
Cornflour 1 tbsp
Baking powder 2 tsp
baking/cooking soda 1/4 teaspoon
Salt 1/8 teaspoon (skip if you are using salted butter)
B. Powdered sugar -60 gm or 5 tablespoons (grind regular sugar and then measure with
spoon)
Butter 150 gm or 2/3rd cup (preferably unsalted)
vanilla 1 teaspoon
C. Fresh curd 65 gm or 1/4cup
Condensed milk 200 gm
D. Milk 120 gm or 1/2 cup

Method:
o All ingredients should be in room temperature.
o Preheat oven at 160-170 degree for at least 10 mins
o Grease and prepare pan 2 numbers of 6" or 7" (if you don’t have 2 pans of same
size, half the recipe and bake twice)
o Sieve the ingredients in group A and keep aside
o Take B group items in your mixing bowl and whisk properly until the butter colour
turns pale.
o Add curd and condensed milk and whisk again
 o Add flour mix (A) and milk(D) alternately until you get a smooth batter. If you are
using hand mixer, be careful not to overmix at this step, use the lowest speed and
whisk for minimum time. Or leave hand mixer at this step and use a spatula to fold in
the ingredients.
o Pour equally in the prepared pans and bake at 170 degree Celsius for 30 mins or
until its done, when checked in the centre with a toothpick. Before it gets baked, if the
top turns brown, put an aluminium foil top, and let it bake more. Start checking the
doneness after 20-25 mins. Overbaking can make your sponge dry.
o Demould the cakes and let them cool. Wrap the sponges with cling wrap, put in a
container and freeze them. Take out the sponge just before frosting.

Vanilla Pound cake (With EGG)

o Butter 200 gm
o Sugar 200 gm
o Eggs 4-5 numbers (200gm)
o Milk 25 ml
o Flour 200 gm
o Baking powder 2 tsp
o Salt 1/2 tsp

Method

o preheat oven at 160deg c

o prepare two 6" pans
o Sieve flour, baking powder and salt
o Whip sugar and butter until the colour turns pale
o Add flavour of your choice
o Add egg one at a time and whip up nicely.
o Now use a spatula to fold in the flour and milk, don’t use whisk or mixer.
o Bake at 160 degree Celsius ,with only the bottom rod in the OTG, until a toothpick
comes out clean when poked in the centre.
o Pound cake generally takes time to be done., if the top turns brown before the cake
is cooked, place an aluminium foil on top of the pan without taking them out.

Ganache
while preparing ganache, different ratio of chocolate: cream is used for different chocolate.
You can either use pure chocolate or compound(cooking) chocolate to make ganache.
Cream can have fat percentage of 20-30%. Amul fresh cream, milky mist, delecta all these
brands work in India. You can even substitute cream with water for lactose intolerant
consumer.

white chocolate: cream = 3:1 (e.g. 300gm :100gm)

milk chocolate: cream = 2.5:1 (e.g. 250 gm: 100gm)

Dark chocolate: cream = 2:1 (eg 200 gm: 100gm)

In very hot and humid climate, we can increase the chocolate quantity by 0.5.
For e.g. White 3.5:1, milk 3:1 and dark 2.5:1. But not more than this, otherwise it will be
difficult the apply the ganache.

Method:
Melt chocolate in microwave or over double boiler. warm the cream. Mix in both and stir,
adding little butter (optional).

IMPORTANT ***
For the class, prepare dark chocolate ganache. Use 2:1 ratio, take 750 gm chocolate or
compound and 375 gm cream. Those, who are staying in a hot climatic region now, use
2.5:1 ratio, use 940 gm choc with 375 Gram cream.

Cover the ganache with a cling wrap, touching the ganache, so that it doesn’t form a dry skin
on top.

Truffle
melt chocolate and add in soft butter and warm cream in the following ratio, mix and leave it
aside. when the mixture sets, whip it up with hand mixer to incorporate air and make a light,
airy yet rich filling.

Chocolate: butter: cream= 2:1:1 (for example 100 gm chocolate , 50 gm butter,50 gm cream)

Easy egg free buttercream

Chilled Condensed milk 200 gm

Room temperature Butter 225 gm (preferable unsalted)

salt -pinch (skip if you are using salted butter)

flavour of your choice

method: whip the butter until its pale. Add in chilled condensed milk, salt and flavour and
whip up again until you get soft peaks.

Simple Syrup
prepare a sugar syrup as per your taste (let it be as less sweetened as possible) and add
flavour. Use it either in room temp or cold.

Gumpaste
4 cups or 650 gm+extra (for kneading) -- Icing Sugar

1 tbsp + 1/2 tsp ---gelatine

1/3rd cup--- water

1 tbsp ---non flavoured veg shortening

3 tbsp-- liquid glucose

1 tbsp + 1/2 tsp CMC

Method
 o Sieve the icing sugar along with the CMC in a big mixing bowl, so that there are no
lumps.
o Let the gelatine bloom in the water in a microwavable bowl.
o Warm up the gelatine in microwave in 20-30 sec burst, so that the gelatine mix
doesn’t overflow.
o Once gelatine is dissolved and mixture is still hot, add shortening and glucose to it.
stir well. if it doesn’t mix properly, you can microwave again for few secs.
o Let the mixture coo down little. And then add with the icing sugar, mix well. Take it
out on the kitchen platform and knead well until you get a nice smooth dough. Make
sure not to add the hot liquid mix in the sugar. that'll melt the icing sugar and make it
difficult to handle the dough, and you'll end up mixing lot of extra icing sugar.

Sources
1. amazon.in
2. bakerykart.com
3. bakewala.com
4. Bakingcart
5. Chain of Arife stores in different cities.
Bangalore New Arife, Koramangala, contact 9611238222. (You can
get items delivered via dunzo; they are not taking customers in due to
current scenario)} They do edible print.
6. Sugarin-cake-decor For variety of Sugarin food colours, contact Mr Mayur at
7567112244 (refer my name if necessary, for fastest delivery)
7. Confect For confect fondant and buttercream, contact Ms Gauri at
9999966009 (refer my name if necessary for fastest delivery)
8. For Ultimake fondant tool set and dummy, contact Ms Seema at 9820801941
(refer my name if necessary, for fastest delivery)
9. Dainty flavor, baking supply store in Bangalore, supplies pan India . Contact
9353373641
10. My Bakersmart (IBCA) Bangalore, in Mission road and Marathahalli has
physical stores as well as online store. Bangalore students can get items
delivered by dunzo. They do edible print.