Fondant
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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 a point, specifically the soft-ball stage, cooled slightly, and stirred or beaten until it is an opaque mass of creamy consistency. Fondant is commonly used to decorate wedding cakes. This gives the cakes a smooth appearance.
[edit] 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.
