#7 - Cake Boss, Cox-style

 While I don't watch much television, I must admit that I can sit mesmorized for hours by the Cake Boss and the Food Network Challenge when they spotlight cake decorating.  These folks are truly artists, not "just" cake decorators. Their medium just happens to be fondant.
  So, a while back the kids and I decided we should take advantage of Victoria's 16th birthday to attempt our own fondant masterpiece.  I was definitely a bit intimidated by this challenge, but after having a "Fondant 101" converstaion with my friend Paula, who has used fondant before, I felt convinced that we could tackle it. Thanks, Paula, for the pep talk and all the information!
   I didn't have a clue what fondant was even made of, and I bet many of you don't either. Here's the bad news: it is a combination of marshmallows and powdered sugar! One piece of fondant-covered cake gives you a month's worth of sugar. Oh well, sometimes even the staunchest nutritionist has to throw caution into the wind.
   We began our project on Friday and quickly learned it is a time-consuming process.  We made and colored the fondant Friday night, let it "age" overnight and tackled the decorating on Saturday.  The kids (well, minus Josh who really only wanted to eat the fondant) all got involved, and it was a fun family activity.  We were quite happy with the final result.  I can't yet tell you how it tastes, becasue we won't eat it until later today. We agreed we would postpone Victoria's birthday meal by a day, since we needed the fondant bow to set and harden overnight with supports in it so that it would hold its shape today. That's the one area where we could have definitely improved. When the supports are removed, the bow wilts a bit.  Guess our fondant should have been firmer. Oh well, if that's the worst of it, then we're all pretty happy with our first fondant undertaking. 
  Drumroll please.........below you have the first Cox Family Cake Boss Masterpiece.....ta dah!!  I may not be ready to quit my day job, but Hunter did tell me "Mom, you should become the neighborhood cake decorator." If that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is!