Marbled Fondant Cake

Today's decorating technique is marbled fondant.  Ridiculously easy and gorgeous.  What better way to coat a marble cake!

If you've ever seen taffy being made, marbled fondant is a lot like that.  You make ropes of the colors you want to incorporate.  In this case, half of it was white, with some grey, pink that I added black to until it turned dark grey, and leftover lavender from the Princess Cake.  You twist them together, fold it over, twist again, and repeat as much as you want.  When you roll it out, you get streaks and blobs, with a little showing through from the back.  No two roll-outs will ever be identical.  If you're making multiple tiers, make all you need of one color at a time, then split it up for the different twists.

I felt like the effect looked like a design out of the 1980s.  Maybe because of the colors, which were very much in fashion around 1982, right before neon took over.  I had a lot of grey and pink clothes.  I'd probably twist the fondant a lot more if I did this again, or use less of the accent colors and pick one to dominate 75%.

I also practiced chocolate curls, since Cousin Smurf expressed an interest in having them on or around her cake.  I actually found pre-made mini curls at the cake supply shop, but she wants something that looks handmade.  Well, if she wants that, they're going to look like crap.  There was maybe a ten second stretch on each swipe that I could get the curls I wanted.  And various chocolates hardened differently.  The white barely needed a refrigerated tile, while the Nestlé's wanted a frozen one.  The sugar-free chips (not unsweetened) hardened into a leathery sheet, which I could roll by hand.  I'm going to try to talk her out of that.

This is my last fondant cake for a while, but I do have enough left for one more 6" at some point.  Cousin Smurf wants buttercream, so I have only one more cake scheduled that doesn't use it.  Up until the next cake have been to show her other options.  Then I'm going to be focusing on recipes and techniques I'll actually be using when I go to Virginia.  At least, until she changes her mind.

I'm going to be trying a meringue buttercream in the near future, but not if it's getting covered in fondant.  We're going basic on this one and drizzling the filling with more melted chocolate.  I've been watching Man About Cake on YouTube.  I don't like his decorating style, but the techniques are things I can use.  He did this on his marble cake.

Marble Cake, sliced in at least 2 tiers
1 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 batch buttercream frosting
*1 lb prepared white fondant
gel coloring (not water-based drops)
corn starch for dusting board
1 oz each white and dark chocolate for making curls

1.  Trim cakes flat.  Place bottom one normal-way up in center of cake circle, "cemented" by a dab of icing.  Spread a layer of icing to be the filling.  Drizzle with melted chocolate.  It gives a really cool crunch and extra zap of chocolate, because it isn't a good idea to use chocolate buttercream with a light-colored fondant.

2.  Center the trimmed top layer upside-down over the bottom.  This is a pastry chef trick to get the flattest top possible.  Spoon a generous amount of icing on top.  Coat the top, then work it down the sides and into all the nooks and crannies.  This is your "crumb coat".  It's purpose is to keep the crumbs on the cake and not in the top coat.  It's your primer.  That's why it's ok to see bits of cake peeking through, where evening it out leaves bare patches.  Once the icing is as smooth as you can get it, freeze the cake for at least 2 hours.  Days is fine.

I can fix this later

3.  Once you put on the fondant, you can't freeze the cake again.  Keep this in mind for your timing.  You can only refrigerate it, which means it will go stale in a few days.

4.  Dust a flat, texture-free work surface with corn starch.  Divide fondant into however many colors you want to use, and in whatever size you plan to distribute the colors.  Use gel food coloring so you don't disrupt the moisture content of the fondant with water-based colors.  Knead the gel color into the fondant until you get the color you want.  It's ok to have streaks, since you're marbleizing anyway.

5.  Form your different colors of fondant into ropes the same length.  Grab them into a single rope and twist several times.  Fold rope in half and twist again.  Repeat until you have the degree of color distribution you want.  Pay attention that you don't over-mix into one peculiar color.

6.  Place the twist on your work surface and press down with the roller.  Roll until you get a circle-ish at least 4 inches wider than your cake.  More, if you made a really tall cake.  They're in fashion right now.  Personally, I prefer no more than 3 layers.  Any taller, and even a small slice is daunting.

7.  Get the cake out of the freezer.  Heat an offset spatula and use it to smooth the buttercream even more, until it's as smooth as you can get it.  Drape the fondant over the cake, and center before you start to work it down the sides.

8.  Gently coax the fondant where you want it to go.  It's going to take a few minutes.  Too fast, and you'll tear it.  Once it's smooth all the way to the base of the cake, trim off the excess.

9.  The cake is done at this point, or you can decorate further.  I did the curls, secured at the bottom with a thin layer of icing.  To do those, melt chocolate, spread onto a clean tile that you had in the freezer for at least 15 minutes, and push against it with a bench scraper at a low angle.  The joy of this is that any product you hate can be re-melted and tried again.  Then I dusted the top of the cake with edible silver dust and topped with the best of the dark chocolate curls, plus white chocolate fails.

Makes one 8" cake, about 12 servings

Difficulty rating :-0