Another Fondant To Test - Dream by Choco-Pan

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My quest for the perfect fondant continues....

I thought I had found the perfect fondant with Via Roma Bakery Fondant, but my last 5lb tub of the stuff was less than perfect (it formed the dreaded elephant skin).  So I'm back on the hunt, searching for the "Perfect Fondant" that is consistently perfect.    Next to be tested is...

Dream Fondant by Choco-Pan

(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, or the Fat Daddio's comparisons.)

In my non-expert analysis of the fondants I use nine different criteria: Taste, Texture, Rolling, Coverage, Draping/Smoothing, Cutting/Trimming, Drying Time, Tinting, and The Final Look.

Taste - I have to say I was impressed with the taste of this Dream Fondant.  It has a hint of White Chocolate and a touch of vanilla.  The fondant feels creamy in the mouth and dissolves easily on the tongue.  It doesn't feel tough and is not chewy at all.  Dream is more like firm buttercream instead of icky, chew, fondant.  I have to say that Dream is one of the best tasting fondants I have sampled.  (But in my book, Pettinice is still the best tasting.)

Texture -  Out of the pail this Dream Fondant was as hard as a rock, but a few seconds in the microwave had it soft and malleable.  It is very easy to knead and condition, and very easy to fold and stretch.

The photo below show exactly how soft the fondant is.  I had the fondant sitting on a paper towel, and in just a few short minutes the fondant pick up the pattern from the paper.  I didn't press the fondant into the paper, honest I didn't.

The fondant also had this strange paradox of textures.  On the one hand it felt dry and cool to the touch, but it also left a greasy film on my hands. 

And even more contradictions: the Dream Fondant comes out of the pail as hard as a rock, but after warming the fondant is soft to the touch and will stay that way for days.   The fondant feels soft, but strangely, if you don't work quickly it can tear.   And while the fondant is soft and malleable, it is not floppy.  It will hold its shape without bending.  A good analogy for this fondant is modeling clay.   It is soft and workable, but it will hold its shape after it is formed.  So this his Dream Fondant is full of contradiction, but contradictions that (for the most part) all work in the cake maker's favor. 

Rolling - After softening  and working the fondant for a few minutes, I found that it rolled very easily.  I didn't have to use a lot of effort or muscle to flatten it to 1/8".  I did find the bottom of the fondant stuck a little to The Mat, but nothing too bad.  The rolled, outer edges of the fondant also stayed soft and supple and didn't crack.  

Coverage - In all of my fondant comparison I used the same amount of fondant (5 ounces) rolled to the same thickness (1/8") to see how far each brand would spread. At 11-1/2 inches round, this Dream Fondant was one of the best performers (tied with Fondarific and Via Roma). The worst performers, at 9" round, were Duff & Satin Ice. 

Draping/Smoothing - When compared to other fondants, I found the Dream Fondant a little stiffer and more difficult to work with.  When placed over my "dummy" cake it acted more like a piece of aluminum foil rather than a piece of Saran Wrap.  The fondant just didn't want to drape and flow down the sides of the cake.  It was also a little difficult to fluffy out the folds.

And below is something that really surprised me given how the fondant is so soft...  I was in the middle of smoothing the fondant over the dummy cake.  I was taking my time, slowly moving back and forth trying to fluff out the folds, when the fondant start to rip.  Gasp!!  This is a cake maker's worst nightmare.  

I yanked the fondant off, squished it a bit, re-rolled, and started over.  The second attempt was much better.  I worked faster this time, although it still took a lot of time to smooth, fluff, and work out the folds.  I also trimmed off the excess skirt fondant away from the base before I started smoothing.  In the end I finished without creating any tears.  And best of all there was none of that dreamed Elephant Skin, and NO bubbles.  I hate bubbles in my fondant (see the Carma Massa drama).

Cutting/Trimming - The Dream Fondant performed very well at the cutting/trimming stage.  No ragged edges are unsightly pulls.  I have started using these Sugar Smoothers to cut/trim the bottom of the cakes...

But a wheel cutter works just as well.

Drying Time - The Dream Fondant has a slow drying time. I had a small ball of the fondant sitting on the counter for over 30 hours and after all that time it was still soft and moist.  I was able to rework the ball, and roll it out like it had just come out of the pail.

Tinting - After all the problems I had coloring the Carma Massa fondant a pretty mauve color, I started testing the fondants to see how they handle  U.S. Certified Red #3 dye.  The Dream Fondant had no trouble with the Red #3 dye.  The mauve looked pinkish just like it was supposed to look.

Final Look - Well in the end, this Dream covered cake dummy looked pretty damn good.  Not perfect, but pretty close.  The fondant finish was smooth and velvety, and seemed to float above the nooks and crannies of the dummy cake underneath. It really looked good.  About the only negative I could mention is that I found the surface of the fondant to be a little delicate.  Even hours after the fondant is applied, it is very easy to gouge the surface of the fondant with finger tips or other tools.  But on the positive side, the same character that makes the fondant surface easy to gouge also make it easy to buff out the imperfections.

So this Dream Fondant is a real contender for the crown of Perfect Fondant.  Until I find something better, this will probably be my go to fondant. 

Happy Baking (and Decorating),

Carol

  

First Ombre Cake

My first attempt at an Ombre Cake.  Not too bad, but I think the line between the colors should have been a bit more blurred.  Oh well, I'll do better next time.

Harry Potter Lesson Books Cake

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My first Groom’s Cake!!!

Both the bride and groom (close friends of my niece) are big Harry Potter fans, so they requested a Golden Snitch Cake. I didn’t want to do just the snitch, so I decided to build a tower of Harry Potter lesson books with a wand and the golden snitch sitting on top.

(Hey, free cake so I kind-of get to do what I want.)

Not surprising, the snitch was the hardest piece to make. I started with a fondant covered foam ball, and then used various sized fondant ropes (used a clay extruder to form the ropes) to decorate the outer shell.

Next came the wings for the snitch. I rolled out Wilton ready-to-use gumpaste very thin, and then sandwiched a curved metal wire between the upper and lower layer.

I cut out the shape of the wing, and then cut parallel lines through the gumpaste to make the individual feathers of the wing.

As a final step I sprayed (using Wilton's color mist) the wings sliver and the body gold.

The wand came next, and unlike the snitch I was able to whip it out in just with a few minutes of work. I made the wand in three stages, allowing the gumpaste to dry at each stage. First I rolled out a thin log of gumpaste and then inserted a wooden skewer down the center. After the first section dried I built up a second layer near the end of the wand and gave it a little texture to make it look like wood. The third stage was a lumpy wad of gumpaste that I stuck on the end of the wand. I cut deep grooves into the gumpaste, and stuck some wart-like little knobs to make it look like a stick from a tree. As a final step I painted it with some Wilton Black food color and Americolor chocolate brown food color gel.

I finished the snitch and wand a few days before the event so on the day before the wedding I only had to worry about the stack of books.  I didn't need a whole lot of actual cake, so I made the top two books out of foam.  There are lots of detailed instructions on the web on how to construct the closed book cakes so I won't repeat all the steps.  But essentially you cover three sides of the foam with white fondant.  All the instructions I read said to carefully measuring the cake/foam to get a piece of white fondant exactly the right size, but I just got "close" and smeared the extra fondant over the top of the foam.  I used a bit of shortening to stick the fondant to the foam.  To make the "pages" of the book I just ran a scoring tool into the fondant to make parallel lines.  The lines don't have to be exact.  You just want to give the impression of pages.

The books "cover" was the next step. You need to be a more precise when you cut this piece, and I learned the hard way that you also need fondant that is a little stiff.  If your fondant is too soft, it will get pulled out of shape when you try and place it on the cake/foam.  I used my last bit of Carma Messa fondant on the first dummy cake and didn't have any trouble with the fondant pulling out of shape. On the second foam book I used Fondarific, and had so much trouble I almost yanked my hair out in frustration.  The Fondarific was so soft it just wouldn't stay square when I tried to place it on the cake, and the edges that extended beyond the "page" section of the book kept flopping down.  The Fondarific was just too soft to use in this fashion.  In the end I used some tylose gum tex power to stiffen the fondant.  I could get away with this because this fondant was going to cover the foam/dummy cake, and no one was going to eat it. 

The final step in the construction was to cut thin strips that are position around the bottom of the cake to form what looks like the bottom cover of the book.

Other than the Fondaric issue, the foam cakes went together pretty easily.  But I did have some real trouble constructing the book that was actually made out of cake.  I'm not real good at getting my cakes level, so after I putting on the ganache I had to build up the top outer edges with pieces of fondant to get the top somewhat flat and even.  I also couldn't roll out a strip of white fondant that was long enough to cover all three sides, so I just cut three pieces and patched them together.  If you look closely at the edge along the front left side you can see where I overlapped the two pieces. 

And once again I had trouble placing the "cover" on the book.  I was using the Fondarific again because that was all I hand, and again it was just way too soft to hold its shape (and I couldn't add any tylose to this one because people might actually eat the fondant).  It took me three tries to get the top cover on without stretching it out of shape.  I used my SweetWise Pro Mat to help position the cover on top of the cake, and then pull the mat away from the cut edges of the fondant very gently.  I also had the prop the corners up with tooth picks so they wouldn't droop.  In the end the book made out of cake looked a lot more rustic than the books made out of the foam. The foam "cakes" had sharp edges and smooth sides, and the real cake looked a little lumpy.  But remember - free cake.

Final step on the book construction was to add some embellishments to make it look more realistic.  You can't really see in the picture, but I used an impression mat on the dark colored bands to get some texture on the fondant.  I also dusted it with Chef Alan  Tetreault edible gold dust to make it sparkle.  

The three books were then stacked, and the titles added to the book.  On the top book I cut out the letters using my Cricut paper cutting machine, but I wasn't too happy with the look.  The letters were too perfect and precise looking so they didn't match the rest of the book.  But I didn't have time to re-cut them by hand so I had to use the Cricut letters.

I hand lettered the titles along the spine using Wilton edible markers, and the final step to complete the books was dusting them with cocoa power to give everything an aged look.  I added a few extra things here and there like the "HP" logo and the "parchment letter" with the names of the bride and groom and the date.  Funny story but I had a white owl perched on the edge of the book delivering the letter, but the owl look so bad I decided not to use it.

So all-in-all the cake turned out well, and the bride and groom were happy.  But I have come to realize that the hardest part about making an elaborate cake is watching as hours and hours of painstaking work is destroyed in a matter of seconds. 

Happy Decorating,

Carol