Fondant Part 2 - June 11, 2026

The kitchen ran at full capacity Tuesday from about 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.  There was a minor bungle with one of the 4 cake layers.  I must have lost count when pouring the batter into the pans, for one cake turned out thicker than the others, and it took longer to bake, and a crater formed in the middle as it cooled (even though the test stick came out clean).  I will putty the crater with frosting when I assemble the cake.

Everything else went fairly well.  Got the fondant equines wrapped, air tight, I hope.  Got the cakes wrapped and in the freezer.  For kicks, I cut out the letters of one granddaughter's school and set them aside to dry.

The frosting will happen Friday.  Cream cheese and butter and confectioner's sugar and vanilla.  Since this is an orange-flavored cake, I am considering flavoring the frosting with orange jello.  Might be orange overkill.  We'll see.  I have orange extract, but I don't like it.

I'm sweating covering of the unicorn cake with fondant (per the granddaughter's request).   I tried fondant for the first time last year and didn't do such a great job with it.  I rolled out a circle for the top and a long strip to wrap around the sides.  The seams were ugly.  I disguised them with wonky flowers.  Need to watch some videos and do some experiments before I tackle this cake.

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When shopping for groceries, I could not prevent myself from buzzing the craft aisles.  Found some new-to-me clay, cheaper than most other brands.  I bought the primary colors and white and black.  "Art Elements" is the brand.  Online video reviews say it's stiff.  One person called it unusable, another said it was so-so.  After I cleaned up the cake mess, I tried it.  It is stiff.  The dark blue color I tried first could be crumbled right out of the package.  I did not try to condition it.  Instead, I completely crumbled it, squirted it with liquid clay, gave it a shot or two of black alcohol ink, and smushed it into a ball.  Took a lot of smushing to get the ball to stick together, and when I cut the ball open, there were a lot of air holes inside, which gave a texture to the cut side.  I rolled some slabs out, would've had to roll them pretty thin - thinner than I wanted - to get rid of the texture.  So I just coated it with liquid clay and baked it.

The black clay was a little softer.  It crumbled the first time I ran it through my pasta machine, but I smushed it back together and rolled it a few more times.  Got a nice, even sheet after a few trips through the machine.