Fondant vs. Buttercream: Appearance, Price, Durability, and Taste

Photography Courtesy of Photos by Wendy G., Cake by Midway Country Corner Bakery

The majority of all wedding cakes are made with a smooth, flawless layer of icing on top. If brides are interested in this type of cake, then the first decision they will need to make is whether they want to use buttercream icing or fondant.

Fondant is a sweet icing made of sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin. Buttercream, like its name suggests, is made with butter, sugar, and milk. Both types of icing are rolled out flat with a rolling pin, draped over the wedding cake, smoothed down, and dried to create a porcelain-like finish.

Let’s see how buttercream and fondant stack up in terms of appearance, price, durability, and taste.

The smooth, sleek look of fondant is hard to duplicate. The cakes featured in wedding magazines are almost always fondant cakes because of their superior workability. If how the cake looks in pictures is your main concern, fondant is probably the way to go.

Though it’s not easy to recreate a fondant look with buttercream, it’s possible in…read more