Fondant (UK: /'fɒndənt/, US: /'fɑndənt/ or /'fɑndɑnt/, from the French: /fɔ̃.dɑ̃/) is one of several kinds of icing-like substance used to decorate or sculpt pastries. The word, in French, means "melting", coming from the same root as "foundry" in English.
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Poured fondant is a cream confection used as a filling or coating for cakes, pastries, and candies or sweets. In its simplest form, it is sugar and water cooked to the soft-ball stage, cooled slightly, and stirred or beaten until it is an opaque mass of creamy consistency. Sometimes lemon is added to the mixture, mainly for taste. Other flavorings are used as well, as are various colorings. For example, the main filling of a Cadbury Creme Egg is poured fondant. Rolled fondant or fondant icing, which is not the same material as poured fondant, is commonly used to decorate wedding cakes. It includes gelatin (or agar in vegetarian recipes) and food-grade glycerine, which keep the sugar pliable and creates a dough-like consistency. It can also be made using powdered sugar and melted marshmallows. Rolled fondant is rolled out like a pie crust and used to cover the cake.
Poured fondant is formed by supersaturating water with sucrose. More than twice the sugar will dissolve in water at the boiling point than at room temperature. After the sucrose is dissolved, the solution is left to cool and the sugar will remain dissolved in the supersaturated solution until nucleation occurs. While the solution is supersaturated, if a seed crystal (undissolved sucrose) falls into the mix, or if the solution is agitated, the dissolved sucrose crystallizes to form large, crunchy crystals (which is how rock candy is made). However, if the solution is allowed to cool and then stirred vigorously, it forms many tiny crystals and results in a smooth texture.
Rolled fondant is popular on many cake-related reality television shows in the US, including shows such as Ace of Cakes, Ultimate Cake Off, Cake Boss, and The Next Great Baker, all which often showcase decorators creatively decorating complex cake structures with fondant and other types of frosting and icing.
With the increased popularity of such reality shows, rolled fondant has become a more popular way to decorate cakes. It is also seen as much easier to use, as well as to be creative with, than the butter cream icing traditionally used to decorate cakes. There are several different brands of fondant, and they can be found in major retailers as well as in specialty cake stores; cake stores are known to have a better quality fondant than retail or craft stores. Alternatively, numerous recipes for making homemade fondant are available.