Trying Out Fondant

*Edited 2/28/10 to add: So I found out what magazine inspired my brownie bites in this post-Woman's Day (photo above). Those cupcakes are super cute, right?!

So you know I've been on this cake decorating kick lately. I've always wanted to take a cake decorating class, but just haven't ever seemed to find the time! So I've been teaching myself how to do it from various resources I come across & probably a little from watching the show Ace of Cakes too! My latest adventure in cake decorating was using fondant. What originally inspired me was a magazine cover I saw while at my husband's Gramma's house-sorry, I don't remember now what magazine it was but it was this month's issue so you can probably see it on magazine stands in the stores. Anyway, this cover had super cute cupcakes on it iced in yellow with pretty, spring-colored fondant flowers on them. I flipped to the back & it had some pretty basic directions for making the fondant flowers & I figured I could try it myself at home.

Well, today I put the baby's naptime to good use & made some fondant flowers. It was so easy! I didn't have stuff for cupcakes, so I made these little brownie bites instead. Then I colored some white frosting yellow & used a round tip to top each brownie bite with frosting. Next I used 2 very small amounts of Wilton prepared fondant & colored one pink & one purple (my daughter's favorite colors). Then I rolled out the fondant & cut out the flowers with some fondant cutters & some really tiny cookie cutters. I stuck the flowers together using a small paint brush & some corn syrup. Then I stuck the flowers onto the brownie bites & finished by adding a dot of yellow frosting in the center. I think they turned out pretty good for my first try! My older daughter loved them too & is already requesting some fondant flowers for her birthday cake!

By the way, I've been slowly building up my cake decorating supplies by using my good old Michael's weekly coupons, but I also discovered that Walmart has a pretty good cake decorating section too & their prices are great!