Fondant smoothers are plastic tools that help when covering cakes in fondant but you can achieve a smooth finish without them. Use leftover fondant dough shaped into a ball, dip your hands in cornstarch or use a piece of thick foam to smooth out the fondant on the cake.

Although fondant icing may lack flavor, it is always better to use it as a major cake decorative as its neutral taste would let other flavors to shine through. Marzipan in your cake is delicious, but excess use would make the cake heavy as well as overwhelm it with the taste of almonds.

Probably not. The fondant really needs the buttercream to adhere to and give a nice smooth finish. You could try covering the cake with piping gel, but that wouldn’t have the best flavor and you’d have an extremely sticky surface that you could t work with.

Best UK Fondant

• Karen’s Kakery 6 years. Hello xx.
• Roo’s Little Cake Parlour 6 years. Agree with Karen, Sainsbury’s flower paste is incredible, and great price.
• SugarMagicCakes (Christine) 6 years.
• Lizzie Bizzie Cakes 6 years.
• The Custom Cakery 6 years.
• Ultimate Cake 6 years.
• Shell at Spotty Cake Tin 6 years.
• Carol 6 years.

Try using a soft brush to brush it off. If that doesn’t work you can try a slightly damp bit of kitchen roll, it needs to be nearly dry though or it will leave a water mark. If its a decoration you’ve made you can also steam it over a kettle (mind your fingers!) to remove the excess icing sugar.

Fondant: Fondant can be made 1 day before, up to 5 weeks before cake is due. To store fondant, wrap well in plastic wrap, and place inside an airtight container. Keep at room temperature, away from sunlight.

Fill a small spray bottle with vodka. Once you have put the fondant on the cake, lightly spray the finished cake with the vodka. As the vodka evaporates, any excess sugar or corn starch will disappear, and the fondant will remain shiny.

A little water goes a long way. Unless necessary do not apply water to a big area of the cake. Instead apply water/alcohol to the piece of fondant attachment. If your attachment is large apply water in smaller sections to the cake, and only to places you know ;will be covered.

Try a fan or blow dryer Moving air around fondant gets the drying process going. Place fondant pieces on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or waxed paper, then set the sheet in front of a stationary fan. It’ll still take a few hours (up to overnight) to dry your fondant pieces, but the overall time will be shorter.

Fondant will harden when it is exposed to air, but how quickly it hardens will depend on the humidity and the air temperature. You cannot put a fondant cake in the refrigerator or freezer because it will attract moisture. When you take it out, it will melt and become goopy and lose the clean professional look.