Fondant: A Retrospective

I think it is a safe bet that nearly all the readers on this blog have used, or have heard of, rolled fondant. It is certainly a staple in all of Chef Lodge's cake decorating classes and a product that continually flies off the shelf in our retail gallery. The sweet marshmallowy taste and the stretchy, forgiving texture has made fondant wildly popular in the cake decorating world in recent years. I have used fondant to cover cakes and cookies, I have made fondant flowers and figures, I have even made fondant cameos! I've never questioned how this all-powerful substance came into being. Last week, I wrote about our new Jadeite colored fondant, and I wondered at the origins of fondant. Where was it invented? When was it first used to cover a cake? What makes it so stretchy? I am a researcher at heart, so I indulged my curiosity and delved into the deep, dark, sordid past of fondant. No, wait. Let me try that again: I indulged my curiosity and delved into the sweet, sugary, delicious past of fondant. Yeah, that's better. Fondant: THIS IS YOUR LIFE!