Fondant party cake
This fondant party cake is made with a light and airy sponge base, used in most Austrian-Hungarian cakes. The secret of it is the beaten stiff egg whites and the small amount of butter. You can use plant-based dairy-alternatives for this recipe. I used a marzipan layer between the cake and the fondant icing, but I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary, you could cover the cake with the fondant directly. The decoration is up to you – you can use any coloured fondant and toppings, depending on the occasion. You can make your own home-made fondant, marzipan, jam if preferred.
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line a 20-22 cm cake tin with baking paper.
- Heat the milk with the butter in a small pan.
- Separate the eggs.
- Add salt, vanilla sugar and half of the icing sugar to the egg whites. Whisk it with a hand mixer on low speed. When it’s foamy, add the remaining sugar, turn up the speed and beat until it turns into stiff peaks that stand straight.
- Add the egg yolks and continue whisking for 2-3 minutes until the mixture turns white. Sift in the flour gradually and stir thoroughly. Make sure there are no lumps.
- Transfer a portion of the batter in a small mixing bowl and stir in the hot buttery milk.
- Pour this mixture back into the batter and carefully combine until you have a nice, smooth, foamy batter.
- Transfer the batter into the prepared baking tin and drop the tin onto the table 2-3 times so that the bigger bubbles can come to the surface.
- Using a skewer, stir the batter (along the bottom of the tin) following a circular, shell-like pattern, to allow the bubbles to disperse nicely in the batter.
- Put the tin in the preheated oven and bake for 35 minutes.
- Do not open the oven door during baking!.
- When the cakes is baked switch off the oven and open the door a little.
- After 5 minutes take the tin out of the oven and drop it again on the table three times. Then firmly put it onto a wire rack upside down. Let it cool, then take the cake out of the tin. The baking paper should come off smoothly.
- Cut the cake, horizontally into two or three identical sheets.
- Spread some buttercream on the top if one or two sheets, then some jam – or just spread jam on it.
- Warm some jam with a little water, stir until melted.
- Measure the diameter of the top and sides of cake.
- Dust the work surface and rolling pin with icing sugar, then roll out the marzipan – the diameter should be larger than the top and sides of the cake. The thickness should be about 3mm.
- Brush the glaze over the cake, then cover it with the marzipan sheet. Trim the edges neatly, and smooth the marzipan with your hands or an icing smoother tool.
- Brush the surface of marzipan with a little warm water to help the icing stick.
- Roll out the fondant icing – again the diameter of the sheet should be larger than the top and sides of the cake. Trim the edges neatly, the smooth the icing with a smoother tool or spatula.
- Finally, decorate the cake with fondant cake toppers, suitable for the occasion.