Making Fondant & Sugar Paste at home
By: Dima Sharif
Published: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - 6:52pm

Ingredients




2 tbsp water
1 1/2 tsp Powdered Gelatine
1 1/2 tbsp Liquid Glucose
2 tsp Glycerin
455g Icing sugar, sifted
2 sachets vanilla powder (optional) for flavour

Preparation

1 You will need a stainless steel or non stick saucepan (non Teflon coated). 2 Pour the water into saucepan, sprinkle the gelatin on top and dissolve over low heat. Once dissolved add the glucose and glycerin and stir to combine. Immediately remove from heat. 3 Gradually add the sifted icing sugar, mixing continuously with a wooden spoon. If you do not continuously mix, lumps will form. Continue to gradually add the icing sugar, until you can't stir the mixture anymore. 4 Dust a clean work surface with the remaining icing sugar and flip the sugar paste dough over it. Incorporate the icing sugar - on the work surface - into the sugar paste by kneading it in using your fingers not your palms. Continue kneading, till the paste is smooth. 5 Your sugar paste is now ready for use. When not in use, sugar paste must be tightly wrapped with cling film to avoid drying out and becoming hard!

About

Fondant here, is the white pliable paste that is used to cover cakes in prep for decoration. Fondant covered cakes used to be more popular for weddings, but are now popular and demanded for all sorts of occasions. It creates a velvety finish that looks very elegant, and allows for various decorations in order to carry out various themes. Fondant is firm, and can easily be rolled out on a board dusted with equal amounts of icing sugar & cornstarch to prevent it from sticking to the work surface. Once rolled it can then be used to cover cakes, or can be used to cut out shapes (using templates or cookie cutters) which are then used in the decoration of the cake. Fondant can tinted to any shade you like, best using gel-based food colours. It can also be made more pliable, and hard upon setting by adding Gum Tragacanth to it, Kind of a recreation of Gum Paste. This is usually used for modelling, basic flower creations, and decoration structures that need to be hard and hold shape.
Actual Fondant recipe carried out by bakers, is mainly heating sugar syrup to soft ball stage, then turning this sugar over on a marble work surface and working this sugar with metal scrapers (hard spatulas) till it forms a white paste that is smooth and pliable.
Please be cautious when working with heated sugar, to prevent risk of severe burning!
An easier adaptation of Fondant, suitable for domestic production is Sugar Paste. It is hardly any different to fondant in texture and function, but easier and less hazardous to prepare at home. Sugar paste is treated exactly like fondant, can be tinted, is pliable and used to cover cakes as well as in cutouts...etc
So if you do not own a candy thermometer, or if you are worried about working hot sugar, don't fret! Just make Sugar paste. No one will know the difference! Of course there are many variations and recipes, this one is a simple recipe that you can easily make, it requires a bit of work but works every time...