My first foray with fondant!!! I made this cake the month that the iPad was released, for a birthday of a loyal Apple user and fan (like myself). I first made a rough sketch of the design, and baked a rectangular cake. I used pre-made Wilton fondant, and coloured portions with food colour. I created the sky streaking, mountain marbling, and water gradient by laying out strips of the various colours in the general orientation that I needed, and then kneaded them just enough to stick and blend together. I rolled them out with a rolling pin, cut out the shapes where they intersect, draped them over the cake, and trimmed the edges. I used an exacto knife to cut out individual shapes for the app icons, and fused them together by lightly painting the connecting portions with water. I didn’t use any buttercream icing between the cake and the fondant, so after a while it settled into the cake texture. Lesson learned: Always ‘dirty ice’ the cake with a layer of buttercream under the fondant to get a smooth finish. Overall, the fondant was great to work with, and opened up a whole new world of cake decorating possibilities!
Natalie Intven 