My Fondant Recipe brings a lot of mails and comments, but Brandy really got me speechless.

She followed my fondant recipe, and here’s what she wrote:

I tried your fondant recipe not only was it easy, but it tasted super! Thank you so much! Here is my cake. I think it turned out pretty well considering it is only the 2nd time I have used fondant.

 

Thanks Again

 

Brandy, 35

In Washington State

The reason for me being speechless is the quality if the cake she made in her SECOND attempt with fondant!

Fondant recipe cake

I must admit that m second attempt with the fondant recipe was much poorer than this, Brandy – I’ll be happy to post all pictures of future cake you make using my fondant recipe.

If you want to read more users stories of their experience with my fondant recipe, please visit:

• Fondant Recipe – Alison’s experience
• Fondant Recipe – Amy Johnson’s experience
• Fondant recipe – Jacalyn’s Experience
• Fondant Recipe – Stephanie’s Experience
• How to make fondant – Gerbera Daisy Cake

If you make a cake using my fondant recipe you can send it to me and I’ll be happy to post it, my mail address is theduke@thecookduke.com

Happy Cooking

I love my fondant recipe, and I’m always happy to get mails from people who followed my fondant recipe to a great success.

Danielle sent me this mail after her FIRST attempt with my fondant recipe, it’s amazing that the cake she made looks SO good after the first try.

Fondant Recipe Suns cake

Here’s what she wrote:

Hi!

I just wanted to write a quick “thank you” for the great fondant recipe, instructions, and encouragement to give it a try! I have been interested in fondant for awhile. But I always heard it was too hard to make yourself and tastes bad. My younger sister found your recipe after doing random google searches. She tried it. She succeeded. She gave me the web address.

I don’t have much spare time (I have 4 kids and the oldest just turned 3!) but I got the ingredients I’d need,  just to have them on hand. The other night, I happened to have a spare unfrosted cake just lying around….and a couple of hours I could spare (sure I had better things to do, like laundry, but the cake was much more fun. The laundry waited.)

I decided to make a Phoenix Suns cake for my husband (they are currently in the playoffs and we’re big fans).  In less than 2 hours, I was able to create this fun little cake. Sure, it’s got it’s flaws, but it definitely showed me I am able to not only make fondant, but if I was really serious about it and made some time for it, I could probably do some really cool cakes! I was SO excited that the fondant actually TASTES GOOD too. My 3 year old ONLY wants to eat the fondant!

Thanks for your instructions and pictures. I probably wouldn’t have tackled it this soon (definitely not on a random Sunday night for no reason!), or at all, especially by myself without an “experienced fondant user” with me!

Thanks again!! Feel free to use any pictures/this email in any way you’d like!

Danielle

How to make fondant

So thank you Danielle for tring my fondant recipe, I’m posting my fondant recipe here again so more people can find it.

Fondant Recipe Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp of unflavored gelatin
• 1/4 cup of cold water
• 1/2 cup of light corn syrup (If a corn syrup is not available, you can substitute it with a sugar syrup made with 1-1/4 cups sugar and 1/3 cup water, boiled together until syrupy)
• 1 Tbsp of EDIBLE glycerin (some recipes say it’s optional, believe me, it’s a must)
• 1 tsp of almond extract (I use almonds extract in m fondant recipe, but it can easil be replaced with Vanilla extract)
• 2 lbs 10X confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 tsp of white vegetable shortening

Fondant Recipe Preperations:

• Sprinkle the gelatin over cold water in a small bowl and let it rest for 2 minutes to soften
• Place the bowl in a microwave for 30 seconds on High, until the gelatin dissolves
• Add the Almond or Vanilla extract
• Add the corn syrup and the glycerin and stir until the mixture is smooth and clear (if the mixture is not turning smooth and clear, microwave it for an additional 15 to 20 seconds on high and stir again)
• Sift 1 1/2 pounds of the sugar into a large bowl
• Make a hole in the sugar and pour the liquid mixture to it and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes sticky
• Sift some of the remaining 1/2 pound of sugar onto a smooth work surface and add as much of the remaining sugar as the mixture will take
• Knead the fondant, adding a little more sugar if necessary, to form a smooth, pliable mass
• Rub the vegetable shortening on your thumbs and knead it into the fondant
• Wrap the fondant in plastic wrap and place it in a tightly sealed container to prevent it from drying out. If the icing dries out and harden it can often be revived by popping it into a microwave oven for a few seconds and then kneading it back to life

One of the best things about this Fondant recipe is that the fondant recipe is not only simple and eas to follow, it also makes the best flavored fondant ou ever tried!

If you want to read more users stories of their experience with my fondant recipe, please visit:

• Fondant Recipe – Alison’s experience
• Fondant Recipe – Amy Johnson’s experience
• Fondant recipe – Jacalyn’s Experience
• Fondant Recipe – Stephanie’s Experience
• How to make fondant – Gerbera Daisy Cake

If you make a cake using my fondant recipe you can send it to me and I’ll be happy to post it, my mail address is theduke@thecookduke.com

Happy Cooking

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake

Here’s what she wrote:

Thank you for sharing your fantastic fondant recipe on your site!
My baking skills are so-so, however after reading the fondant recipe, I felt confident that making tasty fondant was completely attainable!
Here’s my story, Alison, 29, Nashville:

Before I tried the fondant recipe on thecookduke, I had purchased the Wilton pre-made fondant to make a couple dozen toppers for cupcakes.
My first endeavor was successful, it gave me a chance to feel the texture and workability of the icing.
As cute as the toppers were, they tasted like cardboard. Even after rolling the icing out on powdered sugar…

After milling around on the internet, I came across thecookduke.com, read the testimonials, and asked a girlfriend if she would like to try it out with me…

We very precisely followed the directions… However, I think our fondant was a little too warm, because it kept “melting” or sticking to her granite countertops.
The vegetable shortening became key when working the icing, and we found that simply wrapping up the fondant and leaving it in the fridge for a few minutes (15-20) offered enough time to cool it down and solidify the texture.

We made two colors, orange and black. The black was very grey, even with a ton of icing dye. In the end, I simply painted dye directly on to specific spots to darken the grey to a black.
Orange worked great, we were able to achieve color in no time at all.

The tiger’s base is a marshmallow, with fondant shaped around it. His tummy, nose, ears, and paws are also marshmallow.
Then the marshmallow was coated with a little vanilla frosting – to give it that ‘fuzzy’ texture.
I did use tooth picks to attach his head to his torso, Paw prints were cut with circular cookie cutters.
I did include a portrait of Percy the Tiger by himself, because I kinda gave him a touch up before presenting him to my daughters school…

This project was pretty lengthly, and it did help to have a more experienced baker in the kitchen with me (it was her first time making fondant, too!).
Making the cakes ahead of time, from scratch, took about 3 hours. Two square white cakes with a simple mix of strawberry preserves heated and mixed with Grand Mariner as a filling.
Vanilla (store bought) frosting on the cakes to crumb coat.
The fondant portion ran roughly 6 hours, from scratch to finished cake.

It was completely worth the work and I cannot wait to make another cake (probably in two weeks!).

Thank you *again* for sharing this amazing fondant recipe. Your blog, advice, testimonials, and feedback gave me all of the ingredients and encouragement I needed for my first fondant cake!! =)

And look how great her cakes are:

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake 1/5

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake 2/5

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake 3/5

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake 4/5

Fondant Recipe Tiger Cake 5/5

• Fondant Recipe – Stephanie’s Experience
• Fondant recipe – Jacalyn’s Experience
• Fondant Recipe – Amy Johnson’s experience
• Fondant Recipe – Sarah’s experience

Happy Cooking

I get many great comments on my fondant recipe, and one of the questions I’m being frequently asked is what kind of cake to use as the base cake.
Well, there’re hundreds of recipes that can be used as base cake for the fondant recipe, all having the right mass and moist texture needed to support the fondant icing, but here’s the recipe for a cake you can’t fail with. I call it “Fondant icing friendly cake”
(In addition, due to its firm body it’s a perfect cake for tiered designs)

Fondant Icing Cake’s Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of butter
• 2 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 cup of milk
• 5 eggs
• 1 teaspoon Almonds Extract (I’m using the almonds extract but you can easily replace it with pure vanilla extract or any other flavor you like)
• 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Fondant Icing Cake’s Preparations:

• Preheat oven to 350°F
• Mix the butter and sugar in a mixer bowl until light and fluffy
• Add the eggs one at a time, keep mixing until all eggs are added
• Add the almonds flavorings to the mix, followed by the flour with baking powder and salt
• Add flour mixture alternately with milk, starting with the flour
• Spray pans with vegetable pan spray and pour in the mix
• Bake until a wooden skewer comes out clean (I rather use a skewer rather than a toothpick after I burnt my hands several times using a short toothpick…)
• Cool for ten minutes in the pans, and the cake is ready for you to loosen the sides and remove the pans
• Let the cake cool completely before you start the fondant icing

This recipe makes around 8 cups of batter which will give you two 8″ round cakes. (The amount of fondant you get by following my fondant recipe is enough to cover two 8” cakes with a little fondant left for decorations)

Base cake for fondant icing

Bast cake for Fondant Icing

I hope that this recipe will encourage you to try my fondant recipe, you’re always welcome to send me pictures of cakes you made using my fondant recipe to theduke@thecookduke.com

Happy Cooking

Stephanie had a bad experience with the store-bought prepackaged fondant and she decided to give my fondant recipe a try.

Here’s what she wrote:
”
I just wanted to share with you how impressed I was with your fondant recipe!

Stephanie B
”
And here are the pictures of the cakes she made:

Fondant Recipe

Fondant Recipe

I think it’s a great success, I bet no one believed it’s her first attempt with fondant recipe!

If you want to try my fondant recipe you can find it in the post called… fondant recipe

You’re all welcome to send me pictures of cakes you made using my fondant recipe to theduke@thecookduke.com I’ll be happy to post it in my blog.

To see more pictures of people using my fondant recipe please visit “Fondant Recipe – Amy Johnson’s experience” , “How to make fondant – Gerbera Daisy Cake” and “Fondant recipe – Jacalyn’s Experience”

Happy cooking

Jacalyn W. had a great success with my fondant recipe, here’s what she wrote:
”
Dear Duke,

Thanks for sharing!
Jacalyn”
And here are the great pictures she sent:

fondant recipe

Fondant recipe

Fondant recipe

Fondant recipe

Fondant Recipe

As Jacalyn wrote, the fondant is shinning in some places, but it’ll be ok when the color dries.

I think it’s a great success, I bet no one believed it’s her first attempt with fondant recipe!

If you want to try my fondant recipe you can find it in the post called… fondant recipe

You’re all welcome to send me pictures of cakes you made using my fondant recipe to theduke@thecookduke.com I’ll be happy to post it in my blog.

To see more pictures of people using my fondant recipe please visit “Fondant Recipe – Amy Johnson’s experience” and “How to make fondant – Gerbera Daisy Cake”

Happy cooking

My fondant recipe post is also the post i get most comments about, and when the reader is as generous as Amy J I also get a respond letter with pictures describing the reader’s fondant recipe experience.

Here’s what Amy wrote:

Dear Cook Duke, It was my son’s second birthday this November and I decided I’d try my hand at fondant recipe since I’ve seen it used so much on TV and admired how it looked.
I consider myself to a very apt baker and decorator for just doing it in my spare time so I wanted to try something new this year as well.

His favorite TV show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so that was the theme I chose for the party.
I scoured the internet for what seemed to be the easiest and best fondant recipe since I didn’t really want to buy it from a store.
Yours seemed to need the least amount of effort and from reading other reader reviews, also the best tasting fondant recipe.

This was my first time using fondant, let alone making it from scratch, and also my first time attempting a 3-D cake (I used a dense chocolate cake for all the base elements and rice krispie cake for everything else).

I made two batches of fondant not knowing how much I’d use and not wanting to run out.
The first batch seemed to turn out ok but when trying to work with it seemed very dry compared to the second batch I made that didn’t crack at all.
For the most part it, I was very pleased with how everything turned out (considering it was my first time) and would definitely try it again.
My only concern was when I was adding color the fondant seemed to get kinda sticky and also, when rolling it out I assumed I was supposed to roll it out on a smooth surface lightly dusted with the confectioners sugar, only that altered the smoothness of my fondant and kind of took away from the original color.

Since I’m not sure what the consistency or texture of fondant should be, is there a better description you could give so I have a better idea (because I thought I had a smooth pliable mass but it cracked when laying it over the cake (this was the ‘grass’ part of the cake)).
And possibly any other tips you might have for rolling it out so that it looks as good as yours does in the pictures??

Thanks! I’ve attached a picture of my cake although I know it could look a bit better.
Thanks again for the great fondant recipe and I’ll keep trying ’til I get it right!

Sincerely, Amy Johnson Canada 

As you can read, even when she encountered some difficulties, the fondant recipe experience is still a success.

And here are the pictures she sent, I bet her next cake will look better, but for a first attempt it’s a GREAT success!

Fondant recipe Micky mouse cake

Fondant recipe MM cake 2

Well Amy, I’m happy you enjoyed my fondant recipe and thank you for your mail and pics.

For better understanding on how to color fondant you can view my post named “how to color fondant”
and for all of you who hadn’t try yet – You’re welcome to try my fondant recipe, and more welcome to send me pictures of cakes you made using my fondant recipe to theduke@thecookduke.com

Happy Cooking

My Pumpkin Soup Recipe is my way of notifying my family that winter is here.

For some people the pumpkin soup recipe is a sign of Halloween coming, but trust me – after trying this Pumpkin Soup Recipe you’ll find yourself making it over and over again.

Pumpkin Soup Recipe Ingredients:

• 2 Pounds (900 gr) peeled and chopped Pumpkin
• 1 roughly chopped large onion
• 1 peeled and chopped large potato
• 1 peeled and chopped large carrot
• 1 stick of chopped celery, strings discarded
• 1.5 pints (700 ml) vegetable stock
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 1oz (25g) butter
• half pint cream
• 2 tblspoons of chives chopped to garnish
• Salt and pepper

This pumpkin soup recipe is very easy to prepare – follow the preparations below and your pumpkin soup is ready to serve within one hour!

Pumpkin Soup Recipe preparations:

1. In a large heavy bottomed saucepan melt the butter and add all the vegetables
2. Cook gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Make sure the vegetables don’t get brown
3. Add the vegetable stock and the stock cube and stir
4. Simmer gently for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are just cooked and then purée with a blender
5. Return the puréed vegetables to the saucepan and season to taste
6. Add the cream and re-heat very gently
7. Sprinkle with the chopped chives before serving to complete the pumpkin soup recipe

Pumpkin Soup Recipe Tips:

• If you plan to freeze this pumpkin soup do not add the cream until you defrost the soup before serving
• This Pumpkin Soup Recipe can be kept refrigerated for over a week
• This Pumpkin Soup Recipe takes about 25 minutes of preparations and about 30 minutes cooking

If you have any comment regardeing this Recipe please let me know, I’d appreciate if you could recommend this pumpkin soup recipe using une of the social networks below.

Happy Cooking

My “How to make a diaper cake” post is one of two special posts (the second is my “how to make fondant” post) that keep surprising me.
The special thing about those posts is that people get such good results, that many of them make it into a business.

Look at this Diaper cake made by Gerry G, I guess she took the video tutorial I recommended…

Pati’s Diaper Cake pictures:

How to make a diaper cake

How to make a diaper cake

And this is what she wrote:

“This is my first attempt to make a diaper cake, and WOW did I have fun!!! There are 100 size 2 diapers, 130 rubber bands, plus “gifts”. The mother-to-be loved it. This cake took me 5 hours to make. If I can do it, anyone can:) Good luck to all, and thank you for letting me share my success story. Gerry G, CA
PS
I am making a 2nd diaper cake, which I have already sold!! I did not roll my diapers, but did the fan look. I will send pics.”

Not only she’s making great diaper cakes, she also turned it into an additional income stream – WOW!

In my original “how to make a diaper cake” post I mentioned this “cheap as chips” video tutorial that showed me the in’s and out’s of how to make a diaper cake.
I never thought that following it is a way to generate more income

Gerry, thanks for the diaper cake pictures, I will be happy to get pictures of more cakes you made, diaper cake or not.
I hope you can develop your “how to make a diaper cake” adventure into a real business, my benefit will be getting the pictures to post here.

You are welcome to see another diaper cake made by one of the readers at “How to make a diaper cake by Pati” and you’re most welcome to send me pictures of cakes you made to: theduke@thecookduke.com
 
Happy Cooking

My “How to make a diaper cake” post is online for 2 years now, and nothing makes me happier than getting picture from people who made diaper cakes following my “recipe”.

This diaper cake was made by Pati B following my How to make a diaper cake post.

Pati’s Diaper Cake picture:

How to make a diaper cake

“Dear Cook Duke
 I can understand how hard it is to make the diaper cakes.  I have seen the one you tried to attempt on a site that sells the cakes.  It’s the diapers fanned out around a center, very hard to do I would think.  It was a valiant attemp.  I just made a plain old rolled diaper cake.  I did the diapers first one night.  Then my cousin and I made the cake together.  She’s my “bow” expert LOL 
It’s not too bad for a first one.
 Caption:  Diaper cake for shower 4/6/08 for my daughter Erin.  It was fun to do.”

So first of all, not only it’s not too bad, it’s actually good for a first try!

In my original “how to make a diaper cake” post I mentioned this “cheap as chips” video tutorial that showed me the in’s and out’s of how to make a diaper cake.

The thing I like about this video tutorial is that it saves you the need for first tries and takes you to a complete different level, although Pati shows us that you can make a beautiful diaper cake without any training.

Pati, thanks for the diaper cake picture, will be happy to get pictures of more cakes you made, diaper cake or not

Anyone that followed my “how to make a diaper cake” post is welcome to send me pictures to theduke@thecookduke.com
 
Happy Cooking