A busy cake decorating weekend in my kitchen.

One cake, teaching a student. nearly 5 hours of work with her. A "geode" cake for her daughter's 21st, with "crystals" of lightly broken up clear blue and clear boiled sweets, and "geode slices" made from more heavily crushed-up sweets, lightly meltted in foil shapes,,,, marbled fondant, etc. Pretty good, for her first-ever go! She came in muttering she was never going to bake and deccorate a cake again, and left extremely happy, wonderig what her next cake might be!
https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/full/663927428.jpg And today, finishing off a cake for my mother's birthday tomorrow. Some of the same elements ("geode slices" and "crystal" gems"), plus gelatine "balloons", silver lace, and a lot of flowers (Mum loves her garden). A Spring cake for someone who's not a spring chicken. https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/full/663928817.jpg https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/full/663928878.jpg

Fiddly stuff, but lots of fun, and thought you might enjoy.

nice autumnwinds. How did you get the marble effect in the fondant. cheers in advance.

oh wow, they look fantastic.

Autumnwinds - they are beautiful and the marble effect fondant is stunning!

I knew I was in for a visual treat when I saw this thread! You are very clever AW . awesome.

Cont'd.

Then, having made sure your buttercream coat (see the video, to understand this bit) is tacky (simply rub some glycerine on your gloves, and rub over the cake if it's not).

Then comes the fun part (the part that amazed my student - already thrilled with seeing the marbelling appear)! You take your smoothed fondant of the right size and shape for your cake, gently roll it onto an arm, and throw it (yup. she WAS amazed, although I'd warned her!) onto the top of the cake, as evenly as you can!

Don't panic if you go askew - fondant is easy to patch, you just rub the edges of another pieces onto the short bit.

Then, you start to smooth, having added another light dusting of cornflour - rule of thumb is, if you can see more than a shadow, it's too thick - and simply rub flathanded. There are all sorts of tools to smooth, but hands and a good eye are best. and you can always shove a flower or something on the part that not quite right. There's never been a situation, in well over 40 years, I haven't been able to smooth out, fill in, or cover up, sooooo Don't Panic! Enjoy your creativity! It was meant to look like that!

So there you go - a mini tutorial on making marbelled fondant. Cheers

Thank you - but maybe not so clever, more very inquisitive about cake decorating, very patient and blessed with a more than healthy sense of humour.

I'm reasonably creative, but cake decorating is something that I've never considered trying . but in saying that, I can truly appreciate/admire the work & patience that goes into such lovely creations.
I can imagine I'd be saying !@#$%^ words a lot, if I attempted it!

thank you autumnwinds,im an old cake decorator from days gone by .