Oh fondant...

Fondant is not like play-dough at all! Play-dough does not crack, get soft, or change it's shape as easily as fondant. (I love playing play-dough with the kids) Here are some of my play-dough creations...

I made an entire army of these guys. :)

Mr. Caterpillar took forever, but he's pretty cute.

Let's not talk to Thomas about the elephant. I agreed to let him smoosh the elephant, but forgot the head was attached with a toothpick. Yeah, that didn't go so well. :(

So, why can't fondant be as easy as play-dough? Since no one actually eats the fondant, do you think I could sneak a play-dough character on a cake? Of course not. I was only kidding. ;)

I am using the oh so tasty Duff Goldman Buttercream Fondant. It's  much easier to work with than any other fondant I've tried, including home-made. With better quality and taste, comes a price. It's pretty expensive, so I've never used it to cover an entire cake.

I have been practicing Lego cupcake toppers like these...

How cute are they? I came across this last year when we did a Lego birthday for Logan, and was reminded of them today by a friend, so I thought I would give it a whirl. I am just using random fondant I had left over from a previous cake, so I didn't worry about colors. I also didn't want to waste fondant on the disc that goes on top of the cupcakes, since it's just for practice. So, here is my first attempt...

Not exactly the same quality, but I thought it was pretty good for my first attempt. It only took me 2 hours to make these 7. :(

I have been watching tutorials on fondant, but have not found one for these. I am always up for advise, so please share.

I was raised by a baker who wouldn't dare touch fondant. She would have never worked so hard to make something that most people pull off anyway. Fondant has come a long way in the last few years, and is now actually edible (some of it anyway), but people still tend to peel it off when eating their cake. Is it really worth the extra cost to buy a fondant covered cake? Sure, they can make cake into a work of art, but isn't a cake for eating? Hopefully, through my baking journey I can learn to provide cakes that an average person can afford, but also be really pretty, and taste great.