Making a Fondant "Beach" Cake

Have you ever decorated a cake with fondant?

Fondant has always been one of those 

baking things that scared me...

you know, like yeast. 

If fondant is scary, yeast is terrifying! 
 

I've done a great job

avoiding recipes calling for either of these ingredients...

until I signed up for a cake decorating class 

while I was on my cruise. 

I really wanted to take the cupcake decorating class, 

but it was full. 

I had a choice of two other classes...

cake decorating using fondant;

or not using fondant.

"Or not, please."

You can imagine my terror when I walked in and saw fondant.

I froze. 

What to do? 

I could chicken out and leave...

or tough it out and stay.

I looked around the class.

There was a young boy next to me.

He didn't look afraid.

He looked ready. 

Deep breath...

OK, I can do this.

Guess who was teaching the class?
The Cake Boss!
That's right, master baker Bartolo Jr. "Buddy" Varlastro, 
of Carlo's Bakery was going to teach us 
how to decorate a cake with fondant.

Well, he wasn't there in person...
But he did talk to us via video...for a few minutes, anyway. 

The technique was actually shown to us 
by a baker trained by the Cake Boss himself.

Each station had a layer cake with "dirty icing" spread on it.
 There's nothing unsanitary about dirty icing...
it's just a name for crumb-coating --
a thin layer of buttercream applied to seal in all of the crumbs,
so they don't poke through to the decorative icing layer. 

We had three rolls of fondant, a bag of buttercream, 
sugars, gels and tools.

We watched as the teacher demonstrated the entire process...

 

 

Voila! It's a beach cake!

The teacher's cake

Then...it was our turn to dip our toes
into the fondant ocean.

First, we flattened each package of fondant into discs, 
about 6-8 inches in diameter,
 stacked them together, and cut them in half. 

We brought the stack of semi-circles up to a fancy rolling machine,
and our dough was flattened and stretched 
till it was the size of a pizza dough.
The three colors created a marbleized look.

I couldn't get photos of these steps since I was busy making sure 
my fondant didn't end up on the floor.

Very carefully, I placed the fondant on top of the cake...

Photo by Zack's Mom

And pressed it up against the sides.

The wrinkles were ironed out with the
fondant smoother...
Hmmm...I wonder if that would work on my face.

We trimmed the fondant around the base of the cake. 

So far, so good.

Then, it was time to decorate our "Beach" cakes.
OK, I got this. 

Icing was piped around the bottom.

I started to put the blue gel on the cake to create the ocean,  
but my neighbor, Zack --  
he's nine, by the way -- 
informed me that I'm supposed to do the sand first.

Oh. 

  We piped buttercream on the top as a base for the "sand," 
which was brown sugar.

Zack was very busy over there. 
  I took a quick peek at his cake to make sure I was doing it right. 

OK, I'm good.

Next, it was time to make the ocean with the gel.

I used the leftover fondant to make a giant octopus...
(stop laughing!)

 
Which is when I thought I heard the Cake Boss yelling,
"You're Fired!"

One thing I am not, is artistic.

I embellished with an umbrella, shell and flip flop...

But not before I stole a glance over at Zack's cake 
to see if I could get any ideas.

OMG...
his cake was better than mine!

He used his extra fondant to write his cousin's name on it...
 he was going to give it to him for his birthday.

Zack's cake

Crap. Why didn't I think of something like that?

I thought about swapping cakes when he wasn't looking, 

but I think he saw my octopus, and he'd have known it was me. 

OK, are you ready for the big reveal?

Hold onto your beach hat...

Hahahahahahaha!!!!

Is that hilarious?

Our cakes were packed up
 to be delivered to us at dinner. 

I couldn't wait to see the looks on Mr. and Jr. Goo Shoes' faces.

So fast forward to later that night...

Our waitress came over and said,
"that's some cake they're bringing out to you.
Are you celebrating something?"

And I don't know why I said,
"Yes, it's our anniversary."

Before I could pull the words back in my mouth,
a dozen waiters came out with the octopus cake
and starting singing Happy Anniversary to us.
The waitress made us hold hands...

which was fine, except we were laughing hysterically.

Everyone in the restaurant was looking 
at our Octopus Anniversary cake.

It was one of those moments.

The cake was delicious, by the way.

I guess I am officially over my fear of fondant,
so I'm going to give it a try at home.

I'll have to make the cake,
crumb-coat it, and roll my own fondant, though... 

 and I may need eight arms to do it.

Linking with:
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