Another one of my “Get It Done” projects was to learn how to decorate cakes with fondant icing, or even just decorate a cake at all beyond just spread some canned frosting on a flat cake and tossing on some sprinkles.

For my first attempt, I thought I would buy pre-made fondant icing and just figure out how to work with the icing and not worry as much about making it from scratch. So, I headed to JoAnn fabrics with a handful of 40% off regular price coupons and bought these supplies to help me with my first cakes.

The most helpful part of buying the pre-made icing is having the instructions on how to use it and how to make a few things that was included in the box.

I also found the small roller to be helpful in rolling out small amounts of fondant, but with the large piece I put over the cake I used my regular rolling pin and that worked great.

Cake #1

This was my first attempt at using fondant icing. I also made royal icing to help decorate and attach items (later I would learn I just needed to wet the fondant to make it stick together).

I used the fondant icing cutters I purchased. I found those cutters very easy to work with. The leaves I cut our free-hand.

This cake was my birthday cake and since I was embarking on this project, my family was totally off the hook for all of the responsibility for providing me a cake. They baked the cake, but I did the decorating.

I was pretty happy with how this turned out and was proud of my first attempt. It is the prettiest cake I have made so far in my life.

The verdict on the pre-made icing is that it has no taste and is very gummy. I didn’t realize they sold flavoring to add to it, but for the next cake I am going to try making my own fondant.

 After making my first cake and feeling some success, I decided I wanted to make homemade fondant icing, which I had heard tastes so much better (and it does!) The other goal I had for my second cake was make 3D shapes and experiment with those.

This Angry Birds theme cake was for my husband’s birthday. He was very surprised by this cake and impressed by my abilities and that I spent 2 1/2 hours making this cake, which included making the fondant.

I think the most time consuming part (doesn’t matter if you have pre-made fondant or make your own) is coloring the icing and mixing it so that the color is even. They do sell pre-colored pre-made icing in a variety of colors (I bought a couple color which y0u can see in the top picture), but they cost significantly more.

This time around I purchased edible markers so that I could draw on the eyes and eyebrows.

My verdict on this cake is tha the homemade fondant tastes better and is easier to work with and MUCH more economical, and it’s easy to make.

I was thrilled with how great this turned out and all of the compliments I received about it. I am excited to make the next one.

My goals for my next cake are to make a shape other than 2 9″ cakes stacked and I am considering experimenting with using edible glitter.

Some time in the future, I might like to try decorating cupcakes with fondant and making cake pops and use fondant.

Here is my third attempt at a cake decorated with fondant icing, a Barbie cake.  For this one I used the pre-made fondant, mainly because I was also making 2 dozen decorated cupcakes and the colors I needed to match the Barbie I bought were those of the pre-made variety.

My only issue with making this cake is that I was that cake (bottom) skirt wasn’t as tall as I would have liked. I think I may have needed to have doubled the amount of batter. And since the cake wasn’t very tall, there wasn’t anything to support the fondant and I ended up tapering quickly in the center of the skirt.

So, here is my thoughts on fondant. It can make really great looking cakes. The pre-made fondant has no taste, so I much prefer a homemade fondant. And since I have not learned how to decorated very well with a frosting bag and tips, I might continue to try other cakes with fondant, but I will make homemade fondant.

Maybe my next “Get It Done” post needs to be learning how to decorate with buttercream frosting.

What projects did you cross off your “Get it Done” list?