Make It Monday- Fondant Toppers

I love fondant.  I love the smooth clean graphic look that fondant creates.  I was actually scared, intimidated rather, of fondant for quite a while.  It seemed like a product for the most experienced bakers.  It was only when I became desperate for a last minute decoration for the cupcakes at my Chili Under The Oaks Party,  that I turned to fondant.

 I was sooooo pleasantly surprised.  It's just like Play Dough but for grown ups.  It has about the same consistency and you work with it in much of the same way.  Fondant is now available in the baking sections of most craft and fabric stores and comes in a variety of colors.  If the store doesn't carry the exact color you need, it's easy to dye white fondant using food coloring.  Amazingly it also molds to the shape of your item very easily.  Just a bit of smoothing with your hand and it seems to shrink up like magic. It stores very well.  You can make the toppers far in advance and keep them flat in a ziploc bag.  I also used it here

Fondant Toppers for Cookies and Cupcakes:

Supplies: rolling pin, parchment, food dye, cookie cutters or pie crust cutters, fondant

After kneading the fondant in your hands, roll it out with a rolling pin until it's about 1/16 inch thick.

Using cookie cutters or pie crust cutters (shown in acorn topper), cut out your shapes.  You can put the shapes directly on top of your frosting, like the acorn cupcakes, or you can hide the butter cream underneath by cutting out a base.  If you want to do a base for your topper, cut out a round circle nearly the same size as your cookie or cupcake.

 

Apply a thin layer of frosting to your desserts.

Put the shapes on top of your base circle.  The shapes should stick pretty well but if you need to, put a very small smear of water in the center of the shape and it should attach well. Lay the topper on your cupcake or cookie and lightly press down.

 If you need to color your fondant, put a squirt of color in the middle of the white and knead in.

It works best if you pull it like you were making taffy.

 I wanted to match the green in this ribbon. Pretty close!

If you want to get super fancy you can add accents with butter cream or candies.  You can also add dots or lines with a tooth pick.  I'm sure they sell scoring tools for this purpose (which I am going to investigate tomorrow) but play around with things you have at home.

Now, my decorations are quite elementary.  I consider myself I pretty good baker but I have no patience for decorating.  For all you really baking artist out there, please excuse my simple and possibly flawed technique.  This is my quick, simple way to add some interest to my desserts.

Here are a few images of some amazing use of fondant from around the web

and from Half Baked

I can only dream!
XO