Fondant substitutes

Melted marshmallows kneaded with icing sugar into a rollable paste.

Best for

covering cakes, cut-out decorations, birthday cakes, simple figures, cupcake toppers

The standard homemade answer and the reason most people stop buying fondant. Melt about 280 g or 10 oz of marshmallows with a tablespoon of water in the microwave in short bursts, then beat in roughly 450 g or 1 lb of icing sugar, greasing your hands and the bowl generously. It tastes of vanilla marshmallow rather than the faintly waxy sweetness of shop-bought paste. It is softer and stickier to roll, holds a sharp edge less crisply, and sags more in a warm room, so chill the covered cake briefly to set it.

Chocolate or candy melts kneaded with corn syrup or glucose into a firm, sculptable paste.

Best for

sharp-edged cakes, figures and models, draped panels, bows and ruffles, covering small cakes

The best substitute for anyone who actually wants to eat the decoration. Make it by melting chocolate and stirring in corn syrup or glucose, roughly three parts dark chocolate to one part syrup by weight, or four parts white chocolate or candy melts to one part syrup, then rest until firm. It gives razor-sharp edges, sets solid and tastes genuinely good. The trade-offs are that it softens in warm hands, so work quickly, and it cracks if you roll it as thin as fondant.

Ground almonds and sugar, the traditional covering under royal icing on a fruitcake.

Best for

Christmas and fruit cakes, simnel cake, covering under royal icing, moulded fruit and figures

It rolls more easily than fondant and is far more forgiving over awkward corners, which is why it has been used for this job for centuries. Two real differences. It tastes strongly of almond, so it changes the flavour of the cake rather than sitting neutrally on top, and it is an allergen you must flag to anyone eating it. It is also beige rather than white, so pale colours look muddy over it unless you cover it with a thin layer of white icing.

Not a like-for-like, and the right answer for most home bakers.

Best for

birthday cakes, sheet cakes, cupcakes, semi-naked and rustic finishes, cakes that need to taste good

Say this plainly, because it saves a lot of people a bad afternoon: if the only reason you were buying fondant was a smooth finish on a birthday cake, buttercream does that. Crumb coat, chill until firm, apply a thick second coat, then smooth with a bench scraper or a palette knife dipped in hot water and wiped dry. What buttercream cannot do is hold a hard edge in a warm room, take heavy decorations, or be draped as a sheet, so tiered and sculpted cakes still want a paste.

Icing sugar beaten with egg white or meringue powder, which sets hard.

Best for

fruit cakes, flooded and piped cookies, snow-peak finishes, piped detail and lettering, gingerbread houses

A different look rather than a substitute for the same look. Royal icing is spread or flooded, never draped, and it dries to a brilliant white surface that is either rough-peaked in the traditional Christmas cake style or glass-flat if you thin it. It sets genuinely hard, which is good for cookie decorating and for gluing gingerbread together, and it shatters rather than cuts, so slice a royal-iced cake with a hot knife.

The honest limit, for tiered cakes, thin drapes and modelled figures.

Best for

tiered wedding cakes, sculpted figures, thin drapes and ruffles, razor-sharp edges

If the design needs paper-thin drapes, standing figures or knife-sharp edges on a stacked cake, there is no substitute that performs the same way, and improvising will cost you the cake. Gum paste is the correct upgrade for figures because it dries hard and holds fine detail, and you can turn fondant into something close to it by kneading in about a teaspoon of tylose or CMC powder per 250 g and resting it for a few hours.