Marin County Fair Cake: Day 1

I'm entering a cake into the Marin County Fair for the first time. I've sniffed at past year's entries and said, "I could do something better than that" for years. Yeah, maybe you could, but have you?

The theme of the fair is "Cool, Green, Fun" so I decided to make my cake a tribute to a the cool, green, fun flower store run by my friend Silke, Local Flora.




When people ask me why I don't make cakes as a business, the answer is they are a LOT of work and take a lot of time, which I love when I'm doing it on my time and for fun and creativity - but would make me a basket case if someone were paying me. Folks also ask how long it takes to make an elaborate cake. It's hard to say because it's a multi-day process, but I'm going to try to break it down for this project.

Day 1 - Make and Color Fondant
Total Hours: 2.5

I made 7.5 pounds of the Cake Bible's rolled fondant (click here and scroll down for the recipe)

To color the fondant, first you slice it into chunks:



Then add paste food coloring with toothpicks:



Then feed the chunks into a food processor. The fondant will crumble at first, and the bind back together:



You do have to do some hand-kneading, but it's much easier if you give it a head start in the food processor, especially with a large volume of fondant:



Et Viola! Colored fondant: