First-time fondant

My first attempt at fondant. It was at the Wilton Course 3 class, where we are making a present cake (I call it that although the teacher called it a "package cake". When I first heard the term, I was wondering why we were going to be dedicating a class to cake mix).

Working with and draping fondant was a bit of a mini-nightmare. I was late for class and showed up after all the intro information and everyone was well on their way kneading fondant. In quick, whispered tones, I asked the gal next to me what we were supposed to be doing and with how much. I kept kneading well after everyone had started rolling it out. But when I rolled mine out, it tore when I tried to pick it up. The teacher said I hadn't gotten it pliable enough, mushed the whole thing back into a ball and told me to keep going. I also managed to knead a lot of air bubbles into it, so that when I rolled it out, there were huge air pockets like hideous pimples that pricking and deflating didn't really help.

I tried marbling it for the bow with a mix of royal blue and lemon yellow. I get tired of dipping toothpicks very quickly, so I didn't get a whole lot of colour into the fondant. I wasn't happy with the final result, I thought it looked washed out and boring. Then my teacher suggested I use the white lustre dust I'd bought. I'd gotten it on a lark, but when she started dusting it onto the bow with a big paintbrush, the cake took on a completely new look! It made all the difference (^o^)

I've since gotten lustre dust in Peacock Blue, Ruby Red and Super Green. Will be looking for opportunies to break those out soon.