My First Fondant Cake: A Beginner's Experience

Wilton Cake Leveler W815; 3 Items/Order

This is the level I used to level my cake. It is simple and it works great. I tried to use it two ways. First I kept it straight and pulled it through. Next I tried sliding it from side to side. Both methods worked for me.

I had no idea what rolled fondant looked like. I was expecting to see looking like a pita rolled up in a package; instead I found a brick of fondant that looked more like a bar of soap. It was hard to work with at first. It took a lot of kneeding to get it to pliable. I worked with smaller pieces to make it easier and then combined them before I rolled them out using a fondant roller on my mat. I used white fondant but there are a multitude of rolled fondant colors available or you can use dyes with you white fondant.

You have to work the dye in well to get a consistent look.

I used this press to make all the flowers on my fondant cake. I used it to make my decorations out of fondant but you could use gum paste or a combination of the two.

How to use it:
Use the back side to cut a square of fondant. Place the square in the center of the press and push down. Lift up the press and remove excess fondant around the petals and button center. Replace the lid on the press and push down one more time in order to make the details stronger.

What I found:
This is a very easy way to make flowers. I had trouble removing the flowers from the mold, and sometimes I was hit or miss with getting the flower details even though I did follow the directions. I imagine, though, this was more a problems with the person pressing the flowers than the press itself.

I used this to make the leafs for my fondant cake. This cut and press set works exactly the same as the above Flower Button press set; though, I found it much simpler to use. First because I had gotten better at removing the decorations and second because they were a simpler design than the flower petals. The flower petals were harder to extract.

This is great way to make leafs for you cakes.

I bought this gum paste tool kit to use on my cake. I played around with a few of the tools and utilized a couple when making the cake, but not to any great extent; though, I expect to get more use from these tools as I proceed to make more and more cakes because I read all about the cool uses for these tools in the instruction manual that came with the set.

Without the instructions and explanations of what the tools are used for I would have been so lost.

What I did use was the lifter/smoother, and the tool to make the flower centers look more realistic (though I used it to make my sack of Pixie Dust look more realistic. I played around with the leaf vein tool but didn't need it because I used the press and I tried the rounded tool to make the flower petals look more realistic.