1st Birthday Cake

J-B

Hi - am looking for some help with a first birthday cake - I would like to do something covered in fondant so I can cut out different coloured animals to stick on it. I am wondering (i) what is the best type of cake to use to put fondant icing on and (ii) how to stick the fondant on? any help would be greatly appreciated!

phormium

Anything from victoria sponge/madeira/chocolate/chocolate biscuit cake. Only unsuitable thing is something like a fatless sponge which is very light and won't hold weight of sugarpaste well.

For sticking on the sugarpaste you need to cover the cake with buttercream or chocolate ganache.

If you have two tins bake two separate layers, easier to make sure it's cooked etc. Either way if you are making one cake and layering it or baking two turn the cake upside down so that the bottom becomes the top, this will give you the smoothest surface and a flat top.

Ms.Sunshine

Agree with the above. I also find the best Fondant to use is Covapaste. It is nice and firm and not as sticky as the Rickshaws brand which have all the different colours. The covapaste only comes in white and ivory but if you add a bit of colouring & knead it all the way through it will be perfect if you want to add colour to cover the whole cake. The Rickshaws icing is alright for cutting out shapes etc If you mix it with a bit of Tylo paste and work it through the fondant it will allow it to thicken up a bit which will make it easier to use.

I find Sponge cakes the easiest to ice. if you bake one cake it would be nice to do three layers of filling to give the cake that bit more height. Hope that all made sense!

What type of design were you thinking of doing?

phormium

Sorry, I'm a stickler for spelling, it's Renshaws

As the OP is only going to need a small amount Tesco own brand is fine in my opinion, I don't think covapaste comes in anything smaller than 2.5kg packs which is a lot if you seldom use it.

J-B

Great thanks for the advice! Think I will do a chocolate sponge in two tins and stick it together with ganache which I can then use to stick the fondant on. Am planning to cut out some ducks and teddies in coloured fondant to stick on after that. Will see how successful I am!!

dee_mc

Sounds great, be fairly sparing with the ganache and don't spread I to the very bottom of the sides of the cake to avoid it spilling out the bottom when you put on the sugarpaste, if that makes sense!
Try not to use more than a sprinkling of icing sugar when rolling out and cutting the shapes, I find if I break off small pieces, roll each one separately and cut out the shapes one by one (rather than rolling the entire piece and cutting the shapes all at once) I don't need to re-roll the fondant too often, which means it doesn't become brittle. This also helps avoid raggy edges and discolouration once the sugarpaste dries. It also helps to keep the block of sugarpaste covered in clingfilm to stop it drying out while you work.
If you colour the sugarpaste yourself bear in mind you'll need gel food colouring rather than liquid, you can buy multipacks of gel colours cheaply in HomeStore and More.

J-B

Was just wondering about how much ganache to use so thats really helpful advice. Had problems before with too much icing sugar when rolling the fondant to cut shapes so will def do it one by one. Coloured three small batches of fondant yest for the shapes so have them wrapped in cling film and hopefully they will last - if not will buy the pre coloured stuff.