Chocolate Cake with Fondant Roses

I had this brilliant idea to finally make fondant and try it on a cake. It was to be our dessert our for our fellowship last night. I picked the design I wanted, pulled out my recipes, and got to work. I made a batch of marshmallow Fondant (MMF) from Cake Central (CC). I also made batch of Chocolate MMF from the same website. So far soooo good.

Then things started to go array. As I was trying to add all 8 cups of powdered sugar my chocolate MMF was becoming drier and drier and crumbling all over the place. So I tried to put in roll and wrapped it tight with plastic wrap. I let both MMF rest over night, but I was still concerned that they were really dry. Off to the cake forums,to come some advice from other bakers.

In the meantime I baked the cake using a cake mix and recipe extender from CC. I make up a batch of frosting and got the cakes ready to be iced the next day.

I wake up Tuesday ready to make my MMF and try to get nice and pliable for my cake. I follow the advice and then let my Chocolate MMF rest. I did the same for the MMF, it's still resting, we will get back to that later. I prepare the cake (chocolate frosting filling, then I brushed it with chocolate sauce mixed with a tiny bit of milk, then crumb coated it) and set it aside to finish after we get back from dance class.

Ok, I am already I have the Chocolate MMF out and ready to roll out. I carefully roll it out making it large enough to cover the cake. Hummm, it's tearing as I attempt to pick it up. I try again, still tearing. Back to Cake Central, I check the article on covering a cake with fondant, reply to a couple of my posts on my MMF. I come back add more powdered sugar, I knead it again, I repeat this over and over and over again, until my hand, arms, and wrists are telling me I need to rest. I refuse. I roll out the MMF again...still the chocolate MMF (I haven't even attempted to get out the other MMF). I get ready to put the chocolate MMF on top of my cake! Lauren helps me and we get it on the cake...only to have it fall and tear completely into pieces on the cake!!!!!! I pull it all off, and say...forget the fondant. The MMF will have to to wait, it was supposed to be for the flower cutouts.

I am tired, everything hurts now, and I have to get this cake done! I decide to go ahead and frost it with the rest of the chocolate frosting I used for the crumb coat. It's looks great and the strawberries will be a nice touch to it when I serve it later. I don't feel much like trying to decorate it because I only have a pastel green frosting on hand and the last thing I want is more tips and bags to clean. And green just isn't going to work. But I have all this Chocolate MMF, and we could make little rose buds out of it. So Lauren and I work on make enough roses to go around the bottom of the cake. I tried to make larger roses, but the fondant is toooooo soft and they just fall. Tyler came home and told me the cake looked nice, that made me feel better!

I am very pleased with how the cake turned out despite my fondant issues. The cake it's self had a nice texture and wasn't too rich. The frosting was a bit rich, but wasn't bad, a good balance?! Now that I have had a good night's sleep and can think more clearly I might actually want to try using the MMF again...in the future.