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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