This is a
soft creamy smooth clay-like
paste. It's really
pliable and easy to work with, so it usually winds up as perfect icing on
cakes (
wedding cakes mostly) and
decorations on cakes but can be used as the center of candies. This is one recipe that will make you look damn cool making. It is similar to
sugarpaste, but not the same thing. This is not a recipe for "
rolled fondant."
But there are draw backs because it is fairly dangerous. Since it's cooked to late softball it is at 240 degrees Fahrenheit when it is finished cooking it will easily burn. There are also a few utensils that you might not have in your house that are absolutely required.
1 marble slab: It has to be thick enough to absorb the heat of the sugar without breaking and be highly polished. You will probably have to go to a really nice cooking store to find this. You can use a baking sheet or wooden cutting board (not one meat has touched) but if you plan on making this more than once you should make it easy on yourself.
1 steel scraper: This is like a knife that is held with the horizontal plane parallel to the marble slab. A wooden spoon will also work, but might make it harder for you to work with.
There are some recipes that require eggs as well as evaporated milk or cream of tartar. Some even require gelatin. Here's a basic recipe I got off of PastryWiz.com. It is basic fondant.
After cooked to 240 with stirring you work it much the way you do Marzipan, and this is the dangerous part. You pour the hot sugar out onto the marble slab, watching that you don't spill any of it. Make sure that it won't spread out too far because you have to leave it until it reaches 110 (an hour). When cool push it to the center of the slab with the spoon or knife. Then start working it in a figure 8. Occasionally scrape it all back into the 8, this is why the knife is more useful than a spoon.
When it has reached the paste stage (crumbly and soft) and is cool enough you handle; you can knead it like bread (fold it in on itself). At this point you can add in flavoring or coloring and knead it in. After this you can lightly dust a rolling pin with powdered sugar and roll it out, place it over a cake and cut off the excess.
You can also form the pieces of fondant into round shapes or squares and chocolate dip them. Marzipan is easily paired with fondant in candies. I encourage other candy makers to node their chocolate fondant recipes, or variations on mine. I know you want to BlueDragon.
I did ask BlueDragon to node that recipe, I think it would be invauable to first time fondant makers. It is also the experience of a candy maker behind it, she rocks. I would suggest anyone read both before cooking. Thank you.