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Fondant Recipe
The benefit of making your own fondant is that it is less costly than purchasing prerolled fondant; however, purchasing fondant can save you plenty of preparation time. Purchased fondant is closer in texture to gum paste, giving you more flexibility for creating decorations. Poured fondant has a completely different look and texture. It is shiny and translucent. Poured fondant is commonly used to cover petit-fours. You can color or marbelize this fondant recipe by adding paste food coloring with a toothpick. Paste coloring is best, because it is made with glycerin and will not affect the consistency of the fondant. 
To marbelize this fondant recipe: Add a small amount of color and knead in a bit, but not to the point of making the fondant uniformly colored. When rolled out, it will appear marbelized.When coloring the fondant, add a little paste at a time. You can always add more to darken the shade, but you can't lighten it. The cake will look best if the fondant color is lighter than the rest of the decorations. If you are trying to achieve an intense color, be more generous with the food color, as it will take quite a bit to get a dark shade. Due to the glycerin in the food color paste, the fondant recipe may become a bit sticky. Just add additional confectioner's sugar as necessary to return the fondant to its original texture. Professional decorators use fondant quite frequently, due to its versatility and pristine finish. Frequently, they finish the cake by airbrushing the color on to the fondant or they paint it with a powdered food coloring and lemon extract mixture. Painting a cake is great fun and gives you endless design possibilities. It's also easier and less time consuming than tinting fondant different colors. If you decide to paint a cake, first test your colors on a piece of white fondant. Once you begin brushing color directly on the cake, you won't be able to remove it.
Easy Rolled Fondant Yields 2 lbs. - enough to cover an 8 - 9" cake
In the top of a double boiler, place gelatin and water. Allow the gelatin to soak for 5 minutes. Set this mixture over bottom of double boiler, filled with hot water. Allow to dissolve, but not boil. Add glycerine and glucose. Stir until melted. Pour gelatin mixture into the center of the confectioner's sugar. Knead until soft. Wrap in plastic. Let fondant recipe sit for a few hours before using. The texture will be much softer and workable after resting. Note: Since you cannot refrigerate a cake covered with fondant, do not apply it to a cake that has a filling requiring refrigeration, such as mousse. Nor should you apply this fondant recipe to a cake covered with cream cheese icing, for the same reason. Covering the cake The edge of the cake should be beveled to prevent the fondant from cracking. Trim evenly around the top layer of the cake. Rolled fondant needs something to stick to in order to adhere to the cake. You can ice it first with buttercream or place it on top of marzipan. When using marzipan, brush the surface with hot water first to make it sticky. When covering a cake with rolled fondant, determine the size to create by adding the size of the pan to twice the height of the cake. For example: For a round 9" cake that is 3" high - 9" + 3" + 3" = 15"This means you would roll out the fondant to a circle that is a minimum of 15" at 1/4" thickness. 
Roll fondant with a rolling pin on a surface dusted with confectioner's sugar to prevent sticking.The rolling pin should be lightly dusted, as well.Fold the rolled fondant over the rolling pin and place on cake so that the center of the fondant sets down in the center of the cake. Start smoothing the fondant with your hands from the top and work your way down the sides. Trim any excess away at the base of the cake. If embossing the fondant, do so immediately. If you wish to paint the fondant, wait until it is dry first. Do not refrigerate a cake covered with fondant.
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Instricate fondant cutters offer endless possiblilies for creating breathtaking cakes with dramatic designs. Place the fondant cutter over the rolled fondant and go over it with a rolling pin. Best results are achieved by using a pasta machine to roll the fondant to an even thickness. These applications can be attached any where on the cake by wetting the back of the fondant with water. The fondant cutters can also be used for marzipan, modeled chocolate and sugarpaste. 
