Get WILD baby!

I was recently asked to make a cake for a baby shower for a gal in my ward who was having a baby boy. I brainstormed until I came up with this fabulous idea, the only trouble was I needed to figure out how to do fondant.

I found a recipe here that makes a delicious alternative to traditional fondant. I was nervous to try it, but got up the nerve Wednesday night. It took lots of kneading, but it was worth it! I let it sit in the fridge until the next afternoon when I was ready to color it. I added my gel food coloring (using gloves so I didn't dye my hands as well) and kneaded some more, until I had lots of bright colors to get wild about. My green frosting on the sides was too runny, so the leaves just look like blobs of green, but the greenery in the rainforest isn't perfect, so who cares? My monkey was done at the very last minute, so he's not perfect either, but the top of the cake looked just as I envisioned it!

My review of working with fondant: I didn't have any shape cutters, so I freehanded everything. It was a little tricky to use a knife on, but I feel like I was able to get the shapes I wanted by using my fingers to mold the imperfections and my kitchen shears were great for the little giraffe horns. Rolling it out was a lot simpler than I expected. I thought it would stick and tear, I didn't really have any problems with either. It was great! I don't know if this version will harden and hold a shape, so I'm not sure if it can totally replace traditional fondant, but for my cake it was ideal.

My review of the taste: It was very sweet (as expected from the ingredients). One gal told me she tasted fondant once before and thought it tasted like soap. She ate mine and was totally surprised. She even peeled it all off her piece of cake and ate it solo so she could savor just that flavor. Another gal got up for seconds saying, "I want more of that fondant." So I guess it was a hit.

If you're considering making this, try it! Like I said before, I was really nervous, but it was quite easy and so therapeutic. It opens up so many opportunities for decorating. It made making my cake a little easier, too, I think. And the finished product speaks for itself.