What Is Fondant?

Published on Friday, June 26, 2009, by CHOW Video Team / Edit Post

What Is Fondant?

Gabrielle Feuersinger, owner of San Francisco’s Cake Coquette, understands that there is a time for fondant on a cake; for example, when the weather is really hot and buttercream might melt. Or if the flavor of Play-Doh is something you are going for. She believes fondant is overused and is not nearly as good to eat as buttercream.

CHOW Tips are the shared wisdom of our community. If you’ve figured out some piece of food, drink, or cooking wisdom that you’d like to share on video (and you can be in San Francisco), email Meredith Arthur and tell us what you’ve got in mind.

ALLCHOW Tip
POST A COMMENT |9 Comments

COMMENT

  • I really do appreciate the advice that you have given up on using fondant. I recently started working with it and I have to agree with everyone. It's terrible and really a waste of money time and effort.

  • I had no idea fondant wasn't good for eating! So what do you do pick off the topping.

  • When the wife and I were picking out wedding cakes, I told our cake designer we wanted to see cakes that didn't involve fondant, because I Loathed it. Out of maybe 6 binders, I think I saw 3 pictures and we just ended up telling her what we had in mind before we visited. The cake was incredibly delicious, but fondant is indeed incredibly overused, especially in wedding cakes and such.

  • Fondant is absolutely disgusting, especially the way they over-handle it on Ace of Cakes. Who wants to eat all that uncooked junk covered with dead skin flakes from over working it?

  • You can make a fondant for candy centers that tastes pretty good, but it's really too soft for cake covering. The stuff you can buy from Wilton is truly awful, and too many commercial bakeries seem to have cribbed their recipe. Flavoring it does help, but a lot of people don't seem to bother.

  • Traditional fondant, imho, is hardly edible. However, a pal who is a semi-professional cake decorator has made a nouvelle fondant out of marshmallows and a mix of powdered & confectioner's sugar.
    It's too sweet for my taste, but if you're a fan of fluffernutters, then you'd probably love it.
    Several friends had a party coloring the stuff, then cutting cake decorations. They love it

  • I think the "overuse" may in part be due to Ace of Cakes being such a hugely popular show. They use soooo much fondant to make really cool-looking cakes that people want to try it for themselves.

  • I've been decorating cakes for years as a hobby. Fondant does have it's place, but in the past 5+ years, it has become a huge fad. Overused indeed. We recently went to a party where there were cupcakes with fondant. No special designs or decor that required fondant, just some fool that thought it necessary.

  • I have to agree... I hold no love for fondant.