Fondant Shells: Step-by-step

I had quite a few requests asking me to share how I made the fondant shells on my giant cupcake. They are very fast and easy to make but they look very impressive!

First start with fondant. You can either make your own (there are recipes online) or you can buy it premade.

Fondant doesn't taste very good but I heard that this brand "Satin Ice" is the best tasting. (available at Global Sugar Art) I'm still using the fondant left over from my cake decorating class so I haven't opened this one yet to try it. There is also recipes for marshmallow fondant that I heard taste better as well. You can do a google search to find those. You will also need a silicon shell mold, which you can buy online at Global Sugar Art, small paint brushes and lustre dust. I bought my lustre dust at Michaels in the cake decorating section.

First you want to knead a little bit of fondant. If it's sticky you can use a little corn starch or powdered sugar. You can either use the fondant white or add some paste food coloring. If you've never used this before...a little goes a long way. Just dip the tip of a toothpick in the color and dab it on the fondant and knead it until the color is blended.

I like to combine two colors and knead them together just a little so you get a two toned effect.

Take a small amount of the fondant and place it in the mold.

Press down and remove any excess.

Turn the mold over and bend it to get the shell to release.

You can let these harden a bit overnight or you can continue on with brushing on the lustre dust. Just dip your brush in the bottle and brush on the shell. Lustre dust can also be used by mixing a little with some clear vanilla extract or vodka to make a liquid paint. I used mine dry though.

I like to use multiple colors on each shell. The colors I've used are a bronze, pink, gold, yellow and pearl white.

That's it! You can store these a LONG time in an airtight container until you are ready to use them.

This would be a great project to do with kids...it's so easy!