Gold Crackled Fondant Is A Beautiful Texture For Many Different Cake Applications
Gold crackled fondant is so beautiful and easy to make! All you need is some fondant, non-toxic or edible gold paint, everclear or rose water, confectioners glaze, a blow torch and a rolling pin! I love the beautiful effect the gold crackle has on a simple tiered cake or you can use it on sculpted cakes for a reptile scale or weathered look. Check out my cute sea turtle cake tutorial to see how this gold crackled fondant looks on a sculpted cake.
I first fell in love with the gold crackled look from that amazing work from Angela Morrison. Her technique uses gumpaste over fondant and is really beautiful as well!
How To Make Gold Crackle
Making gold crackle is easier than you think. Here are the supplies that you're going to need.
Gold Crackled Fondant Materials List
Fondant
Creme brulee torch
Confectioners glaze
Corn starch
Non-toxic gold or edible gold (note: if you use the edible gold paint then you don't need confectioners glaze)
Everclear, rosewater or lemon extract
Rolling pin
X-acto blade
Fondant smoother
Chilled Cake
How To Achieve Crackle Fondant On A Cake
First roll out your fondant to about half as thick as you normally would. Torch the surface with your creme brulee torch until the surface is nicely toasted. If there are any light spots, that place will not crackle.
Paint the surface with confectioners glaze then paint it with your gold/everclear mixture. Let dry completely to avoid the gold from flaking off when you crack it with your rolling pin.
Crackle your fondant by rolling it out with your rolling pin. Go in both directions. The more you roll, the bigger the cracks will be. I prefer to keep my cracks pretty small.
Now you can cover your cake in one piece or you can panel it depending on the final look you are going for.
Edible Crackle Paint
If you want to make a crackle that isn't gold, you can paint the surface of your fondant with food coloring and it will crackle the same way. I used black airbrush for this crackled fondant tutorial but you could use any type of food coloring. Just paint it on and let it dry. Edible artist decorative paints are great for this because it dries really fast.
For the inside of this cake I used my delicious vanilla cake recipe from scratch filled with easy buttercream frosting. I always make sure my cakes are fully chilled before covering with fondant.
Recipe
Ingredients
Gold Crackled Fondant
- 1 ½ lbs fondant
- 1 teaspoon confectioners glaze
- 2 teaspoon Non-toxic gold or edible gold
Instructions
Tools Needed
- Creme brulee torchCorn starch dusterRolling pinX-acto bladeFondant smootherChilled Cake
- Roll out fondant to half as thick as your normally do. Torch the surface of the fondant until it's brown and bubbly. Let cool.
- Brush the surface of the fondant with confectioners glaze. Combine your everclear and gold dust to make a paint. Paint over the glaze and let dry fully. At least 10 minutes.
- Use a bench scraper to loosen the fondant from the table and then using a rolling pin, roll out your fondant to the desired thickness. The more you roll, the thicker the cracks will be. I like thinner cracks.
- Cover your cake in one piece as you would normally or panel to keep the texture more intact.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Anne says
Wow this is amazing, cant wait to try this, one quick question after torching the fondant could you air brush with gold airbrush paint?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Yes you could! Great idea
Amber S says
You say to roll the fondant half as thick as normal. But I think you mean twice as thick right? Since you'll be rolling it again it should be thicker.
This looks amazing and I will be trying soon.
The Sugar Geek Show says
Haha yes you are correct, sorry about that
Pilar arrias says
Hello, I loved IT. I have a cuestión. What do you use whit This non-toxic gold from Truly Mad Plastics to make the paint? Alcohol, water??
The Sugar Geek Show says
Grain alcohol, I use everclear
Faith says
I will give it a trial
Irma says
Has anyone attempted this technique with MMF?
The Sugar Geek Show says
I have with my LMF recipe
Carolyn Wisdom says
Can you use hold/silver leaf to get this crackled effect?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Yes just put the gold/silver leaf over the confectioners glaze instead of the gold paint
Mary Aguda says
Wow! I love the technique,thanks so much for sharing,God bless u
Dilrukshi Fernando says
Love this. Must try on my cakes. Thank you very much for sharing.
Lynne says
Ooohhh totally trying this! I just need the blow torch. Will any type of kitchen torch do, or is there a type you recommend? Also, when I cover my cakes I spritz them with sugar water (equal parts corn syrup and water) to get the fondant to adhere properly to the SMB or ganache. What do you use? Great tutorial!
The Sugar Geek Show says
I don't use anything to spritz my cakes but if the ganache is dry then I will use water. I use a creme brulee torch, see the link in the blog post
Lynne says
Thank you. I did click on the link but it didn't bring up the product page. I'm sure any type of creme brulee type torch should work fine.
Dinesh says
Very nice realy u r brilliant chef
Maureen Narib says
Amazeballs!! I just love this idea. I want to do this technique with a peach colour. Can I use normal peach lustre dust with rosewater and paint it like you did?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Yes you could but I would do a small test first to practice getting the crackle right before you do it on a big cake
Renita (Essie’s Delights) says
Can’t wait to try this!!!
Thank you for this tutorial.
Marina Nunez says
Love it! thanks for the demo! Love all these tutorials you do!
The Sugar Geek Show says
Thanks! So happy to hear it
Danay says
Can you use other colors? I'm looking for this technique using black.
The Sugar Geek Show says
Absolutely, check out the other tutorial crackled fondant in the tutorials section https://sugargeekshow.com/crackled-fondant-tutorial/
Monica says
This is great.knowledge is real power. Thanks for shearing with us