Fondant Fancy

Fondant was a substance I'd only ever encountered as an observer, marveling at the sculpted confections of friends, laughing with others at amateur attempts to craft Peppa Pig's family in the wee hours the night before a first birthday and peeling off cake to save for the satisfying end of my dessert. However, since my caking journey began I knew that fondant would have a minimal if not absent role in my baked creations as my preference is 100% buttercream.

However, with that all being said, when a customer recently requested a panda topper for her daughter's cake I discovered a sneaky interest in the art of fondant modelling. Aiming to stay within budget I invested in the relevant materials and boned up on Mrs BeeBakes' YouTube tutorial to make a fondant panda. And to my delight, I actually pulled it off!

How cute is this little guy! Now... I will admit, I did run into a problem so thank goodness I made him a week in advance. His little legs snapped off at the hips a couple of days later. I have no idea why as I'd followed all the instructions and used the right tools and ingredients to mold him. Anyway, back to the drawing board and I made him a new body, simply extracting his head and placing it on the newly crafted bod. Not perfect but then that's what practice is for right!

I've included the tutorial I used as Helen's guide is so easy to follow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaMI5Y1nBUE

In fact I got a bit hooked on crafting with fondant so when I got a brief for another cake requesting something to reflect the birthday girl's love of monkeys, I knew I had to make a fondant monkey!

I applied the same principles as the panda though I did watch a couple of monkey-making specific tutorials just to point me in the right direction as let's face it, I am a fondant novice! The tutorial uses gum paste but I used fondant with a hardening agent purchased from my trusty cake supplies shop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4SMj-npnkU