Fondant icing
a type of icing used to decorate cakes

Fondant icing, also commonly just called fondant (, French: [fɔ̃dɑ̃] ; French for 'melting'), is an icing used to decorate or sculpt cakes and pastries. It is made from sugar, water, gelatin, vegetable oil or shortening, and glycerol. It does not have the texture of most icings; rolled fondant is akin to modelling clay, while poured fondant is a thick liquid. The flavor and texture are generally considered a weak point, as it is sweet and chalky. It is generally chosen for its appearance rather than flavor.
The word, in French, means 'melting,' coming from the same root as fondue and foundry.
Rolled fondant
Rolled fondant, fondant icing, or pettinice, which is not the same material as poured fondant, is commonly used to decorate wedding cakes. Although wedding cakes are traditionally made with marzipan or royal icing, fondant is increasingly common due to nut allergies, as it does not require almond meal. Rolled fondant includes gelatin (or agar in vegetarian recipes) and food-grade glycerine, which keeps the sugar pliable and creates a dough-like consistency. Rolled fondant is rolled out like a pie crust and used to cover the cake.
“Fondant icing” enters the record as a type of icing used to decorate cakes. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fondant, icing and type can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fondant icing” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.