No-cook Fondant

I was in college when I watched the movie "Father of the bride", the first time and loved it. I recently watched it again on TV and loved it even more. I know that is exactly how my hubby dear will react when my daughter grows up to marriageable age :). In fact hubby dear acknowledged it himself while watching the movie ;).

One funny scene is where the family visits the wedding coordinator and choose the cake from the catalog at his office. Have you noticed how the father reacts on seeing that the 3-tier wedding cake costs 600$? Well I was wondering too. I went through some pictures of multi-tiered decorated cakes and realized that these are works of art and so much time and effort goes into creating these delectable palates. Shouldn't the creator be rewarded well? And hence the cost. Here is one such sample from a website:

What lovely flowers and butterflies. I am sure my little girl will go bonkers if I can make something like this for her :).

I was intrigued and while browsing further came across this website with recipes for fondants. I really didn't want to try the recipes with gelatin, although I bought one pack on my last visit to Nilgiris, so I settled for the no-cook fondant.

Here is the recipe from baking911.com

1/3 cup unsalted butted, softened
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted

Since the corn syrup I used is vanilla flavored, I reduced the Vanilla extract to 1/2 tsp. 

Cream butter slightly in a large mixing bowl; blend in corn syrup, vanilla and salt. Add confectioners' sugar all at once and mix with a wooden spoon then knead with hands. Turn onto a smooth surface and continue to knead until mixture is well blended and smooth. Store in a cool place. Shape as desired.

Coloring the fondant:

I made five portions of the fondant and colored them with the five colors I have - yellow, orange, green, blue and pink. To color the fondant, dip a toothpick in the food color gel and smear it all over the fondant. Roll and knead the dough well so the color is uniformly incorporated. You do not want to end up with streaks of color. Repeat this process, until you get the desired color. Use a new toothpick each time you dip into the food color gel.

The blue color turned out too bright since I used the color twice, so I decided to use the red color just once and got a lovely pink shade.

The fondant can be covered in butter paper or cling wrap and stored in an air-tight container at room temperature. It keeps for several days if thus stored.

Shape leaves, flowers butterflies etc., and decorate your cakes and cookies as you desire.