For years I have been searching in vain for that perfect fondant. I don't want much (LOL), just something that tastes good, is easy to work with, doesn’t tear or develop elephant skin, takes color well, doesn’t form bubbles, and hides the imperfections in the cake below. I think I have tried about 11 different bands, and while each fondant does well in one or two categories, none of the fondants have gotten high marks in all the categories.
(If you want to read about other fondants I've tested you can checkout the 7 fondant comparison, the Via Roma, the Cake Craft, the Carma Massa, the Dream, the Renshaw, and the Fantasia comparison.)
So my never ending search for the perfect fondant continues. The 12th fondant that I'm testing is:
Fat Daddio’s Pro Series Fondant
In my non-expert analysis of these fondants, I use nine different criteria: Taste, Texture, Rolling, Coverage, Draping/Smoothing, Cutting/Trimming, Drying Time, Tinting, and The Final Look.
Taste - This Fat Daddio’s Pro Series Vanilla actually taste pretty good. Nothing fabulous, but nothing objectionable either. It has a noticeable vanilla flavor, and the mouth-feel is very soft. It melts in the mouth and is neither chewy nor gummy. Rolled buttercream comes to mind when I eat the Fat D fondant.
Texture – Out of the pail this fondant is very soft and squishy. You can pinch off pieces with no effort. The fondant is very easy to knead, roll and shape; and like the Dream fondant I reviewed a few weeks ago, it easily picks up textures from leaf veiners, impression mats, or even paper towels. One negative about the Fat Daddio’s texture is that it has no elasticity. When pulled, the fondant breaks apart rather than stretching. Another negative is the soft texture of the fondant makes it extremely easy to gouge. This is not a fondant for someone with long fingernails.
Just sitting the fondant on a paper towel leaves marks.
Rolling – Because the Fat Daddio fondant is so soft it is very easy to roll, and best of all --- no air bubbles. Not a single air bubble appeared in the fondant as I rolled it. Some fondants are so frustrating to use because huge bubbles form when the fondant is kneaded and conditioned. The professionals say you can pop the bubbles and they disappear, but I've never had much luck doing that. The outline of the bubbles always seem to show. But even though the Fat D is easy to roll and leaves no bubbles, the rolling test uncovered one minor negative: split, cracked and ragged edges. Because the Fat Daddio fondant is not very stretchy or elastic, the edges start to split and crack as the fondant is rolled larger and larger.
Coverage – When rolling 5ozs of the fondant to 1/8” thick, I managed to get a 11” circle. This is about middle of the pack as far as coverage. But I should note that I found the Fat Daddio’s fondant a little difficult to work with at 1/8” thick. At this thickness the fondant was a little fragile and had a tendency to rip. It would probably work better at 3/16” or even 1/4".
Draping/Smoothing - When placed on the cake dummy, the fondant immediately started settling and fitting itself to the top of the dummy. Lots of folds were created, and they draped soft and loose around the cake.
But I found the smoothing of the Fat Daddio’s fondant was little more difficult than other brands. The fondant ripped and tore in places instead of stretching, and the weight of the excess fondant around the base of the cake also seemed to pull the fondant down. My first attempt covering the dummy cake looked so bad that I pulled it off and started again. On the second attempt I removed the extra fondant pooling at the base, and this helped a lot. I'm guessing the rips were caused by the thinness of the fondant and its lack of stretch. If I had rolled the fondant a little thicker, it probably would have been fine.
Cutting/Trimming – The fondant cuts easily but tends to stick to the cutter and pull up a little. Edges get a little ragged.
Drying Time – Average drying time: not too fast, and not too slow.
Tinting – No major problems with tinting using Wilton food color gels, but some of the Americolor tints looked off. Americolor Mauve looked a little brown, the Americolor burgundy looked a little purple, and the Americolor Dusty Rose looked a little orange. So test on a small sample before tinting a large batch.
Final Look – Overall the finished look of the Fat Daddio’s Pro Series fondant was pretty good. The fondant floats above the surface so you don’t see a lot of the imperfections in the underlying cake. The fondant didn’t form any “elephant skin”, but it does have a tendency to rip if you roll it too thin and have too much excess fondant pulling it down. The fondant doesn’t have much elasticity so it is going to rip rather than stretch when you pull it. It also gouges easily so watch out for your fingernails.
So Fat Daddio’s Pro Series Fondant is a solid contender. It is not the “best” in any of the categories, but it is not the worst either. It does well in all the categories so it is a good all-purpose fondant.
