How to Make Marbled Fondant Icing for Cakes
Easy Steps to Creating a Beautiful Marble Cake Finish
Sometimes a plain cake covering just won't create the effect that you need. For my latest cake project, a Christening cake with a froggy theme, I needed to make the cake look like a pond for the frog. The frog also needed lily pads to sit on.
I decided to try out a marbling technique that I'd read about many times before, and the results were very pleasing, to say the least!
Although it was my first attempt, I decided to take pictures of the process and share them with you here in this step-by-step guide to marbling fondant icing.
Ingredients
- Equal amounts of ready-to-roll coloured fondant
- Icing sugar
- Rolling pin
- Sharp knife
- Cake, ready to ice!
Step 1: Prepare the Coloured Fondant Icing
- Take a quantity of fondant icing that's already coloured to your required shade.
- Make sure you have equal quantities of coloured and white icing. You can use two different colours instead of white if you prefer.
- Knead both colours into pliable balls so that they are ready to work with.
Tip: If you require a large quantity of icing it may be easier to buy some already-coloured fondant. You can also colour it yourself. I use paste food colours and knead them into the white fondant icing, adding more until I reach my desired shade.
Step 2: Roll the Fondant Balls Into Sausages
- Take each chunk of fondant and use your hands to roll it into sausage-like strips.
- Lay the sausage strips alongside each other, ready for the next step.
Tip: You can vary the thickness of the strips to make the marbling effect more or less.
Step 3: Twist the Coloured Sausages Together
- Take hold of the strips on one edge and gently roll them together as shown in the picture.
- This will twist the colours together, creating an alternating colour pattern.
Step 4: Roll Them Together
- Gently roll the strips together, kneading them slightly to encourage the strips to bond together.
Tip: Take care not to press too hard or you will lose the marbling effect
Step 5: Fold the Sausage Over
- Slightly flatten the combined sausage strip and fold it over one more time, preparing to start to form the fondant into its shape for rolling out.
Step 6: Shape the Sausage into a Round
- Prepare to roll out the fondant by shaping it into a round, as you would do with pastry.
Tip: It doesn't need to be perfectly round here—you will achieve a better shape once you start to roll it out.
Step 7: Roll Out the Coloured Fondant
- Roll out the mixed, coloured fondant in the usual way to finalise the marbling effect.
Tip: Turn the fondant over to place it on the cake, the marbling will be more defined than the side you have just rolled out
Step 8: Cover the Cake
Cover the cake in the usual way:
- Lift carefully, using a rolling pin if necessary, and gently lower over the cake.
- Smooth the fondant using an icing smoother.
- Trim away any excess fondant and re-smooth.
More Fondant Marbling Tips
- Marbling Fondant Icing, Decorating Cakes with Fondant Questions and Answers
>Marbling Fondant Icing, Questions and Answers about Decorating with Fondant
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