Fondant is a cream confection used as a filling or coating for cakes, pastries, and candies or sweets. In its simplest form, it is sugar and water cooked to the soft-ball stage, cooled slightly, and stirred or beaten until it is an opaque mass of creamy consistency. Sometimes lemon is added to the mixture, mainly for taste. Rolled fondant is commonly used to decorate wedding cakes. This gives the cakes a smooth appearance. The main filling of a Cadbury's Creme Egg is fondant.
Chemistry
Fondant is formed by
supersaturating sucrose in water. More sugar will dissolve in water with a higher temperature.
Then, after the sucrose is dissolved, the solution is left to cool and the sugar will remain dissolved in the supersaturated solution until nucleation occurs.
- If, while the solution is supersaturated, a seed crystal (undissolved sucrose) falls into the mix, or the solution is agitated the dissolved sucrose will crystallize to form large, crunchy crystals.
- If, however, the solution is allowed to cool and then stirred furiously, violently mixing the entire mixture, it will form many tiny crystals and result in a smooth texture.
See also
References
