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+-- Thread: Fondant Frustration! (/showthread.php?tid=126378)
Fondant Frustration! - iBcookin - 09-04-2011
So over the years of serving weddings, I have cut and served my share of wedding cake. I don't remember ever having as many issues as I had last night cutting this blasted cake! I swear it was covered with fondant that had been rolled out to 1/8" thick! I had a serrated knife and had to saw through the fondant. The cake had sat there since the afternoon, we had 90+ degrees outside (what a day for a wedding on the course!) and when you put 165 people in the banquet room, it did heat up. So I don't know if the cake got warm and pliant and wouldn't cut, but what a mess!
Fondant is not my favorite stuff, can't imagine why it is so popular.
Lorraine, ever have this issue with weddings that you have catered?
Any ideas or suggestions from anyone else?
I suppose that I could have had a pitcher of hot water, but you can only dip your knife and wipe it down so many times when you are trying to cut 165 pieces!
Re: Fondant Frustration! - esgunn - 09-04-2011
I'm sorry about that. Sounds dreadful. Fondant can sure look pretty, but I have never liked the taste of it. Unless it is buttercream, or a creamcheese icing I usually just eat cake! And throw the sugary sweetness away.
Re: Fondant Frustration! - cjs - 09-04-2011
"but you can only dip your knife and wipe it down so many times when you are trying to cut 165 pieces!" But, that is what we did at the hotel.
Why I say "a pox on pastry!!"
Re: Fondant Frustration! - BarbaraS - 09-04-2011
I agree, it makes for some absolutely awesome-looking cakes! iB - do you have any pics of your cakes to post? I would love to see them!
Barbara
Re: Fondant Frustration! - cheesemonger - 09-04-2011
This just confirms to me that I don't want fondant. I care more about how our wedding cake tastes. I keep reading that some bakers put fondant on top of buttercream so you get the look *and* the taste but I don't believe it.
Re: Fondant Frustration! - cjs - 09-04-2011
I'm not a fan of the flavor either.
Re: Fondant Frustration! - Harborwitch - 09-04-2011
Jean wasn't that fondant on that ice cream cake - ewwwww, nasty $hit.
I'd love to play with it some day, can't it be flavored?
Re: Fondant Frustration! - Lorraine - 09-04-2011
geez, don't talk to us about fondant. At the weddings, they do the first cut, then we take in back , cut and plate. Last week, the fondant must have bewn at leaat 1/2 thick. He had to peel it off to actually cut the cake. I had to go outside for a ...breath of fresh air, and wait until he had cut it all. When i went back in, there was pieces of fondant all over the floor, and he was not a happy camper.
Re: Fondant Frustration! - Gourmet_Mom - 09-05-2011
I was under the impression it was put on top of buttercream and removed for serving anyway. Just used for looks? Guess I was misunderstanding that. I'm with you Allison. I'd be more interested in taste over appearance.
Re: Fondant Frustration! - iBcookin - 09-05-2011
They generally put thin layer of icing over the cake first (I think it is called crumb coating) and then lay the fondant over the cake. So there isn't much buttercream. If you were to peel it off, there is virtually no icing on the cake.
Lorraine, I can so see that situation, it is nasty sh$t. And even though it makes the cake look flawless, it tastes like crap! I would much rather see (and eat) a cake that is iced with buttercream than this stuff.
We cut and serve the cake where it stands. I would not even begin to try to carry it back to the kitchen to cut it (through all those people? Egads!)
I don't remember ever hearing of it being flavored - obviously they color it, but I don't know about adding flavoring.
So dipping the knife in hot water and wiping it works better, Jean? I guess I wouldn't mind doing that if I was back in the kitchen, but it seems kind of messy doing it in the middle of the reception. Suprisingly, although I had to hack through this stuff, the pieces held together pretty good, but they ended up larger than I would have cut ordinarily.
Speaking of wedding cake, is it just me, or do they all pretty much taste nasty. Somewhere along the line, we seem to have focused on how the cake looks and lost how it actually tastes. I'll bet I have only been impressed with the taste of about 4 of them that I have ever served. So many of them are made so far in advance these days that they are super dry. This one was a yellow cake with raspberry filling and it just didn't taste like much.