Deciding upon a fondant cake idea depends largely upon your decorating skills. Luckily, many designs require just a few tools and some basic cake decorating techniques. With some practice, you can start including advanced techniques into your repertoire of fondant designs.
Basic Fondant Cake Designs
Basic fondant cake designs require minimal skills, making them a good place to start for someone who hasn't worked with fondant previously. Try one of these two fondant ideas that work for occasions from birthday to retirement parties:
- A cutout fondant cake design requires only a cookie or fondant cutter and some royal icing adhesive. Simply roll out fondant that is tinted in your desired color and use the cutter to make the shapes. Brush a little royal icing adhesive to the back and "glue" them to the cake. Random sizes of circles make a fun polka dot cake, while stars and flowers are also good choices. Get creative and choose cutters in the shape of barns and tractors, holiday icons or even vehicles to create a simple theme.
- Ribbon wraps is a simple fondant idea for a cake. To create a ribbon wrap around a cake, cut long, even strips of fondant. Wrap them around the cake's base. If desired, make a small loop to cover the seam.
- A nice border pulls together any cake design, no matter how simple. Cut similar sizes of fondant and roll them into balls and place around the border or base of a cake. Another idea is to twist two different colors of fondant together and roll them slightly. Add it to the edge or base of a cake for a rope-like border.
These basic fondant cake designs are easily enhanced by using fondant letters to write a simple message on top of the cake. Using one of these ideas on a cake with fondant makes it look professional without much fuss.
Intermediate Fondant Skills and Ideas
After mastering some basic fondant cake decorating ideas, take your original skills up a notch for these design ideas:
- Striping a fondant cake might sound simple, but it actually requires quite a bit of additional work. Find a helpful explanation of how to make striped fondant cakes on the blog translated by Google as My Colorful Cake World (English translations are below the tutorial photographs, or use Google to translate the entire blog itself).
- Add a bow to the top of a fondant cake. Start by making the loops and allowing them to harden, and then use royal icing adhesive to glue them into the bow shape on the cake. Making bows look realistic usually takes a little practice. A bow is a great topper for a wedding or birthday cake that has a ribbon around the base(s).
- Purchase fondant tools, like impression mats or rollers, which create designs in fondant before you cover the cake. After covering the cake with the patterned fondant, add additional accents, such as piping dots, swags or other designs where necessary to enhance the design.
- Learn to make roses using fondant flower kits and cutouts. This is a great technique that is used for anniversary cakes, wedding cakes and many birthday cakes. Perfecting the rose can take a lot of practice, but is well worth the time and effort.
At this point in your decorating skill set, you can begin to combine the various skills into one cohesive fondant cake design. For example, try these fondant cake ideas using the techniques outlined above:
- Gift Cake: Make a single or multi-tiered cake into a gift by wrapping fondant ribbon vertically around the cake and topping it with a large bow. Add polka dot cutouts for a whimsical effect.
- Circus Cake: Delight children with a circus cake. Make a striped cake using the primary colors and add a large round fondant ball to the top. Place small fondant balls around the base. This is a simple representation of a "big top" tent.
- Flower Cake: Use basic cookie cutters or fondant cutters to make a simple flower blossom shape. Add a rose bloom to the top of the cutout and place sporadically around the cake. To truly make this cake pop, find a garden lattice pattern for the rolled fondant covering on the cake, adding piped details where necessary.
As your repertoire grows, so does the number of cake ideas you can come up with for fondant. Once you have mastered these basic design ideas, move onto advanced ideas.
Advanced Designs for Fondant Cakes
Making fondant people and figures like fondant cats is another great way to open up the fondant idea possibilities. You can make brides and grooms, animals, buildings, vehicles and more when you learn to shape fondant.
Many professional cake decorators make sculpted or 3D cakes and cover them with fondant. Not only does the sculpting take time and skill, but it is also difficult to lay the fondant cover without any rips or lumps. Once you have mastered making these cakes, you are sure to be making celebration cakes for family and friends for years to come.
