Lessons

Lesson Info

Kneading Fondant

Here comes the fun part. We're going to watch me need funding those air looking good guys did a good job. Your icing surface does not have to be perfect. It just needs to have a nice layer of butter cream on it thin layer so that it will stick. Now if your bond it's a little stiff, which it should be and it's, maybe a little cold, you can't put it in your microwave for a moment or two and warm it up. Be careful that you don't get any burn hot spots on it. Yeah, loosen that, would you? I'm curious. Would you suggest our students as they prep further funding? Is it easier to stand when you're needing your fund? And so then I can put my whole body into it. Nice now, here's, what I need to tell you about funded funding is beautiful. It is gorgeous. It makes a lovely surface blank canvas to work on. But guess what? It is one of the most unforgiving mediums we have. It will show what color you use last on your counter. It will show what color you use last in your hands. It will show if you o...

wn a cat toward dog, it will it will show if you have a wood fire place in your home. And if you stick your nail in it or you get a poke in it or folding it, guess what? That's what you have, you have a folder poke it doesn't change and fondant also needs to be needed it loves to be needed, so essentially what I'm doing at this point is I'm warming it up I'm warming up the gums inter funding and getting it ready, building up my arm muscles on my back if you're short, you might want to find a lower surface to work on if you're tall, find a taller one, we'll make a difference on how your body feels at the end of the day at an inch cake is not that big of a deal. It gets more interesting when you're covering an eighteen or twenty inch cake and you're needing about ten pounds of funding you always need a little more a little x a little more of bonding than what you think because you have to you have to go over, you have to go over the edge of what you're doing so you don't want it to be perfectly fifteen inches and think you're going to make it work, it won't do that it does stretch ok? Are you guys doing over there? How do you know when it's done when it's cooked? Well, one thing is this when you're working with it, you'll see it's smooth and if I have cracks succeed I have a little crack in there it's still not quite done um a lot of times what we see especially and shows when we're judging shows is that people have a tendency to under need it it's very hard to over need it um if it's if it's dripping down when you lifted up you've over needed it but you really have to work hard to get to that point e so sorry miss that you say it's hard to over neeta it is hard to over and over need a great thank you very it's much easier to underneath it yeah and most people go I'm tired I'm done no keep going sometimes I get little bits of sugar in it so like that when I could feel a little bit rather than have gotten to the one there if you don't sit your sugar real well you can get little lumps in it especially if you buy the big fifty pound one hundred pound bags of sugar there's more lumps in those bags for some reason that's great information for you to have right when you buy the fifty pound bags of powdered sugar need shifts, ifs ifs if and we are a christian from the from the chat rooms asking if you make your own frosting as well which of course you do the butter cream on we're going to be covering that tomorrow we actually have a youtube video out on the buttercream oh great perforated glide did that so that's out there and they just I'm not sure where all you have to check in order to find it but I'm sure if you looked under buttercream and we'll have mallory find that link for us and post in the chat rooms as well awesome mallory's wonderful isn't she's great she's the best okay, so at this point I'm feeling pretty confident about how my fund it's looking you can see it's nice and soft the term smooth as a baby's butt kind of comes to mind right? Can you guys see that? So now what I want to do? I'm taking those folded edges and I'm turning them down so I have my smooth side and I'm going to consider this my top okay, so what I'm going to do is I'm smooth crushing it on too this surface I just saw I just saw two things that have got to come out one is here and the other one said black crumb and I just treat this place just like my bakery I just threw it right on the floor that means all have to sweep and mop later or somebody will maybe I can hire something okay, so now I have the top here I'm going to take my other piece of plastic because I said we have to write whips throwing stuff on the ground wave been this at home put crisco on her hands and or some other kind of a little chris go on your hands is fine that will help it. Um, especially if it's sticking to your surface, but I find working on the upholstery. Plastic, you don't have those issues, they kind of go away, so I think we could get rid of issues. Let's, get rid of him. Yeah, okay. Now, at this point, I'm going to start rolling. Now, part of the trick is, if you'll notice I made the bottom of this one. I wiped it down with my damp cloth, so it's sticking to my surface, that keeps it from moving around while I'm trying to roll. And then the other thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to work from the center out, and I want to roll it into I saw a little something there must have been on the outside, and I want to roll it into the shape of my cake, so I wanted to be round because I have around cake. I think I'll move this over here, so that bold isn't bank okay, and I want to roll it so that it's about a quarter to an h, a thin stick, you want it thick enough to, um cover the cake and do what it's supposed to do but you don't want it so thick that when you cut into it you're cutting through an inch although I have seen photos of australians in english that like it much thicker than way we're getting used to doing it. The other thing is is that fund it's incredibly heavy? So if you're putting this much weight onto a little eight inch around cake, you're going to kind of crush it down and you don't want to do that either so little on the thinner side but not too thin because if it's too thin and guess what it rips and tears does weird folding things okay can you guys see how pretty that's looking? Let me measure that's sixteen that seventeen so from this direction I'm right where I need to be I want to have another inch over here this way go from the center I wanna feel how smooth it is make sure it's level so when I'm rubbing on it like this, I'm feeling to see if the textures level or if it's got any washboards, innit let's let's measure one more time make sure I'm ok on my yep listening for a question yep, cool um uh dennis would like to know can we use rolling pins with height discs to help with death certainly gets a little tough to head those high debt on your surface this big I have bars that I use sometimes but truthfully when she started doing this you you'll just do it a little just yeah you told come okay, so how you guys doing over there getting close awesome. Okay, so now this is my top remember? So now what I'm going to do is I'm gonna pick up this sandwich of plastic and I'm going to flip it over and I'm going to and I'm going to roll that onto my cardboard I do not want to fold my plastic wants to be rolled any folds creases or that sort of thing going to stay in the fund it's going to show up you can work until the cows come home it will not go away okay now at this point I'm going to cover my other smoother to show you how to do this I just take that little stocking I used to have this batch of forests and colored may highs that worked great in the health department loved him but you know you use them they were out you throw him away and I've never been able to find fluorescent color okay? So I got it on there nice and tight and this sounds ridiculous but it works so well I have a, um a straight pin and I've got a little piece of black here that who knows where that came from and it looks like a little something there and this is where I'm just going to start picking at it it's it's it's on the back so this is the back and if I smooth this and if I get down I can see if there's any air bubbles and you know what? It's a demonstration and when I wanted to have a bubble to demonstrate I don't have one and at this point when you're doing this it's called polishing the fund it and if you polish the back believe it or not it makes a difference okay, that is just beautiful and I don't have a single bubble so if I had a bubble or an air pocket, what I would do because you need to know how to do this because you'll end up with them even though I have none you will have one is I take my pin and I come in at an angle and I would pop that air bubble and then press it out and smooth it to the best of my ability from this angle so then this little hole that I just put in there with my pin I'll never be able to smooth that away it just won't so it's best said if I can do these from the back and get them done and out of the way as opposed to trying to do it on the top how you guys doing no, you're going to get a workout today, huh? Ok, I'm going to ask if you will just stop for a moment and then if you'll just kind of pay attention to what I'm going to do now then this is where this upholstery plastic becomes its weight in gold. So I have my cake and if it's and then in the cooler, take it out and if it's been a while, you can spray it with a little light spray of simple syrup ok, that'll help it stick if it's been. If it's dried out mine is so fresh it didn't dry out now then this is where it comes in. I'm going to pick this up moved my cake over here I want to keep it on the surface. I do not want it on my turntable yet, okay, this is where if I'm doing a really large cake, those large sheets because I can literally pick it up and cover just about any size now, if I'm getting into twenty four inch cake, I may need some help because it's heavy and my arms were not really quite that large long, so sometimes it takes two people, but at this point I want to come over line it up so that it's a centered as possible when I pull off the upholstery plastic it's going to kind of walk it a little bit so if I have one edge that shorter than the other I didn't get it on there quite perfectly walk it to that shortage and it will be perfect ok, now at this point I want to be sure they lift it as carefully as possible without having a folder crease and again I want to roll up my fun my plastic because no creases creases lumps and crumbs all bad so okay now then let's take our fondant smoother and I'm going to smooth the top I want to hold it up groups see that right there that's not going to go away okay now then as so I've got my top smooth which means I worked out the air bubbles on the top. Now at this point I want to hold it out at the bottom pull it out as I gently work about one inch down with the palm or fingertips of my hand and just keep working around and pulling it out okay? And you want to work it around so that it doesn't look like pull it out as you tuck down pull it out as you took down okay, okay that's looking that's looking pretty good this is where we get our pizza cutter that's how I lose marble rolling pins is a roll off my bench then I want to cut but I don't want to cut right next to the cake you want to cut out just a little bit because what's gonna happen is is that fund it's going to go it's going to stretch back up once you take the heavy weight off the bottom so if I cut out just a little bit and then this fondant going to give it a quick little need while I'm eating it this funding is getting a chance to do this. Uh, question from the chat room. Listen yes um our gluten free adventures I would like to know is the stocking a one time use or do you use it over again until it's sort of done it's I use them over again and I wash him in the laundry with my bakery washcloths so I bleach of hman yeah, great. Send them through the washing machine and the dryer if they come out not working so good, then we get anyone on your retirement. Yeah, go. Thank you. Okay. Now, at this point, I think they're going to ask me a question about gluten free icing. I was thinking rice and my mind was going through gluten free icing yeah it's gluten free no, I want to move this to my turntable and what I want to do is start loving and caressing this cake have you were you ever told your thing creates your cake? This's the best part of it? Because then you can feel how smooth it isthe. Oh, yeah? And I want to use my my smoother now, if you were at home and you're trying this for the first time and you don't have a nice smoother these air a little hard to find in a little bit pricey. You want to know what you can use instead? Yes, but you can use instead is a block of cold butter with the stocking wrapped around, it works pretty good. Okay, they're covering cake. Awesome. Good job. Don't be bashful. Go for it. I was sitting here watching I was like, all right, drum roll, please say they're doing great, is it? Deidre? Yeah, you've got the one short in, so if you walk in that direction, you'll be fine. Yeah, this way. Yeah, very good. There you go. Now, I didn't ask if any of you ever done rolled funded before, just like little decorations in that kind of thing. But I've always it's always been really hard to cover the cage like not using these kind of sheets. The old fashioned method that we were all taught was to roll it onto a rolling pin and then roll that across and that's great if you're doing a six inch cake if you're doing something larger than that guess what gets tough so is this what we're using today is this the same as marshmallow funding no marshmallow fund it's a little different but it is pretty much the same um the things I kind of have an issue with marshmallow funded it's workable the moment you make it but if it sits for too long it's just a brick yeah um a lot of people like the marshmallow fund at one because it's a little easier to make but also because it has a better they like the flavor because I make my fund in't I put in whatever flavor I want and I flavor pretty much the same way that I flavor my butter creams so that I get a better tasting funded and because I don't use all the chemicals I don't have chemical taste and when you made funding if you before we start I'm gonna talk if you make your own funding it can sit on the shelf for quite a while before do you have any problems with it and if you're really concerned you can put it in your freezer for years yeah so it will last a long time okay so now what I'm going to do note I've kind of smooth that a little bit given it its chance to pull up I'm now going to trim at an angle so that not quite next to the cake but pretty darn close and this also will give it a chance for it to spring back because it probably will did you see in this section here how close it got back up to the cake? It really does spring back we'll set that there and then we come back and smooth again I have a little digging here and I have a little fleck a stuff there that I don't get to change that's where you put the lead for the lace or the decoration hopefully if not that's the back of your cake now for the edges I like to use this portion of my hand and just rub it back and forth warming those gums, smoothing it out I don't know if you guys can tell or not, but well I was smoothing it I managed to moved my cake so that it wasn't sitting square on my board anymore so I'm trying toe square it back up here it's looking like that keg stand is a pretty handy tool your cake your your turntable is a very handy tool yes unless you drop it on your hand then it's not so handy I broke my hand two years ago dropping my turntable on my hand yes listen to that you put a little nonstick underneath yeah, that cake board and I find that really helpful because I've had my cakes go sliding. You can even know the students are using the small footed turned tables that are plastic and fairly lightweight. They're very good for students. Very good for traveling. I'm using a little more professional, heavy duty one and I like this one because I can move it this way. I have another one that has a rubber based on it that when I get a fifty or sixty pound cake on it, I cannot budget. And so that in my that's not good. The other thing about my kids, my turntable turntables are very important is mine has little ridges on the bottom. So then when I'm turning it, especially when I seen a butter cream cake, I can put my hand underneath and use those to turn it. Yeah, funding it's not quite as important, but it is with butter cream. You guys are doing great, those air looking awesome. How you feeling about him? Good, pretty impressed from appear because first timers and their daily great this is a method that I've got to tell you is pretty it's pretty workable, and occasionally I have to recover something now, then let's, say, recovering let's say that I did get a a couple of holds or wrinkles in there because I didn't pull out and smoothed down at the right way. Or I have covered cakes for weddings and then gotten up the next morning do it at night get up the next morning and I'm looking at it and I'm thinking this is horrible I'm not going to send a wedding cake out rather than ripping off the funding I just roll out another thin layer, brush my surface with some piping jail or spray it with some of the simple syrup and just put on a very thin layer of fondant and then it's perfect usually, but don't try ripping it off and doing it again just put on another thin layer, it'll be easier in the long run. Yep now you got we're moving right along. I'm impressed, okay? So at this point, if I was to do crimping or um and I didn't even bring a crimping tool, but I have a tweezers crimping tools are like little tweezers that have different shapes in the end their medal, and if so, if I'm going to do any crimping or do any marking on this, this would be the time to do it while the fondant smooth okay or soft, I should say, because once this sits overnight it's going to develop a little crust it's going to become a little harder but not so hard that you can't cut through it because you have your fun, you're buttercream underneath you guys doing good on my trip? I was gonna say you might want to do one more trim, but you're working at it. I'm not frightened or worried, so if you're using a crimp or what you want to do is you want to stick it, I'm going to use this portion that I have a mistake on your minister ticket in same depth every time. Give it a pinch, release gently and pull out, so stick it in same death, give a little pinch, pull it out, stick it in a pinch, pull it out so you can see how crimping you can come up with some kind of fun, little ideas and designs that otherwise you wouldn't know or think about doing.