Fondant Icings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the fondant
Boil the sugar and water until the syrup spins a heavy thread when dropped into cold water.
Carefully pour the syrup onto a large platter.
Stir the mixture rapidly until it is soft, white, and creamy.
Dust your work surface with sugar and turn the mixture onto the dusted surface.
Knead until very soft and smooth.
Let it cool.
Melt and finish
Place in a double boiler and melt, stirring constantly.
Add 1 tablespoon of boiling water.
Flavor to taste.
Pour over your cake while hot.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Forms the sweet base, and its crystals set into the soft, smooth texture of the fondant.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled into a syrup.
The step that matters
Boil the sugar and water until the syrup spins a heavy thread. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration before cooling. Too little boiling leaves the fondant runny, while too much makes it hard. The thread test checks that the syrup has reached the correct stage.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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