Lisa, there's rolled fondant and poured fondant. And then, there's melted chocolate. Any of these coverings will work fine. and will give you a clean, smooth surface to attach the letters onto the tiny cakes.

If you need a recipe for any of these, holler.

I want to add that freezing the cake before cutting it into squares will make your life a lot easier.

Then (assuming you're using poured fondant, or melted chocolate you can either place the cakes on a wire rack and pour the icing over them, using a small spatula to help it along, and cover the entire cakes.
Or, skewer the cakes (to keep your hands off the icing) and dip each one, while still frozen, into the poured fondant or chocolate, and stick the skewer into a piece of styrofoam which has been covered with plastic wrap, to minimize the gigantic mess it will make. Then, allow the cakes to dry on the styrofoam base.

I get the feeling I'm forgetting something here, but I'll check back tomorrow.

Sol

Thanks Sol - a recipe would be great if you have one handy. I think I would go with the poured. That's a great idea to freeze the cake - that way I would imagine you would get less crumbling as you cut the squares. If I was making individual serving sizes, the skewers and dipping would be a great idea! I'm going to make them a bit larger tho, so I'm not sure if the skewer could support the weight of the larger pieces, altho if they're frozen it might work. But I don't mind putting the squares on a rack and pouring either.

Lisa

This may not be as fancy as you were envisioning, but did you know you can put plain old store-bought frosting in a microwave safe container, doctor it up with extracts and food color if desired, nuke it for a few seconds at a time on half power, take it out every so often and stir to test for consistency and get it to turn into a dipping sauce that hardens? Store bought frosting doesn't always taste the best --- but it's better tasting than fondant! (And it goes on thinner when it's dipped, thus making its taste nearly a non-issue.) This would be easy to do with frozen cake cubes. Plus, if you bought white icing, each block could be a different color without much expense or hassle.

As for the letters, I have some small alphabet cookie cutters. I've cut letters out of Trader Joe's fruit leathers and had them look very nice. The same could be accomplished by warming Starburst or Tootsie Rolls in your hands, unwrapping them, rolling them flat (and thin) and then either cutting them out with letter-shaped cookie cutters... or even placing a pre-cut paper stencil over them (easily made with your computer and a printer) and going to town with an Exacto blade.

Is there some trick to making the store bought frosting "harden"? Just keep nuking it in the microwave and testing it? How would I know it was the correct consistency? That sounds like a plan as well. As long as I could pour it - Again, I think the blocks will be a little large to try and dip them. I'd need a vat of icing/frosting!! While it's not as good as home made - most things aren't - I'm not one to turn down a box cake with canned frosting. It's all good to me lol! That would make my life a lot easier since I was planning on using white icing anyway. I was going to make the blocks all white, then make the decorations - the "outlines" along all the edges, the letters, any pics I get ambitious enough to try, etc., in pastels of pink, blue, green and yellow for the baby colors since we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet. Figured I'd incorporate all the baby pastels.

Lisa

There's no trick to it. It firms up on its own as it cools. I've had success by nuking frosting at 50% in 5 second increments until it's just barely just liquified. I test by stirring. It only needs to be warm enough to be dip-able. In my mind, (your mileage may vary) warming the frosting in a shallow, flat-bottomed container, barely bigger than your cubes, would be less messy than pouring... you could dip one side at a time, and if you worked quickly, your finger marks in the frozen cake would fall out as it cooled.

I learned this trick from an awesome book I bought my niece and nephew for Christmas. They describe the technique on pages 18 & 19, which you can see by clicking on the "search inside this book" link, entering the work "microwave" in the search pane, selecting the second search result, and turning to page 19 with the right hand arrow. (For the record, the book is way fun!)

I tried this dipping technique with cupcake frosting and the results were so flawless that the ladies I served them to assumed I'd done something very difficult and fancy. The punchline was that it took less time to dip (from scratch) cupcakes into warmed white Duncan Heinz frosting (with a bit of yellow food coloring and lemon extract added) than it would have taken to frost by the traditional method. The frosting firmed up a bit and they looked beautiful.

This book also demonstrates a stupid-simple technique of drawing a design on a paper template, slipping the template on wax paper, melting some colored wafers, spooning them into a ziploc, cutting a tiny hole in the corner, and drawing on the wax paper. To see an example, enter the word "monarch" in the search pane and see pages 77-79. Or just buy the book. It's a fun jumping-off point for the imagination.

Thank you so much! This will make my little experiment so much easier!

I'm of the opinion that anytime you're trying something new for the first time, if you're careful, it comes out good - UNLESS you're making it for someone else or a special occasion!! Then it usually turns into a disaster!! So I'm not even telling anyone I'm going to be bringing this just in case I end up with the disaster ending and not the successful one!!

I was pretty worried about attempting fondant for the first time - this melted frosting technique looks wonderful! Thanks again!

Lisa

Lisa, it sounds as though you like the idea of using the frosting, but just in case, I'll post a easy poured fondant recipe. I think the poured fondant is really easy and just putting the cakes on a rack and pouring it over gives a really nice easy coating. You can add any kind of flavoring to give it some taste other than the sugar. Sol might have a better recipe if you're interested but this one works fine.

Food Processor Poured Fondant
From The New Pastry Cook, by Helen Fletcher.
www.ochef.com/744.htm

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup corn syrup

Instructions:

Heat sugar, water and corn syrup to the soft-ball stage (238°F; 114°C). Pour into the food processor fitted with the steel blade. Wash the candy thermometer well and reinsert into the syrup. Let the syrup cool undisturbed in the workbowl to 140°F (60°C), about 30 minutes. Remove the thermometer.

Add any coloring or flavoring (vanilla, almond extract, etc.) and process 2 to 3 minutes, until the syrup completely converts from a glassy syrup to an opaque paste. When thoroughly cooled, store sealed at room temperature for 24 hours. Use or refrigerate for later use.

Coconut's note: When you put the hot syrup in the processor bowl, just have the steel blade in it and leave the bowl on the table until it's come down in temp. That way you're not pouring hot syrup up in the air.

Good luck and it sounds like a really cute idea. Sounds delish too. I might be secretly hoping for that disaster so I could eat it. Chuckling at self.

Lisa, I didn't forget to post the recipe; I have satellite internet, so I only have access to the internet when the weather is ideal. Which is rarely the case, in MI.

My recipe is exactly the one that Coconut posted. The recipe is originally from Helen Fletcher, which Rose Beraunbaum credits in her book: The Cake Bible.

Since CJ posted it, I'm only going to include the info in the book which seem to've been omitted from http://www.ochef.com.

The recipe above makes 1¾ cups. Which (if you go this route) you might need to make two separate batches; I don't recommend doubling the recipe.
It calls for 1 teaspoon flavoring.
Line the measuring cup with a heavy-duty plastic freezer bag and pour the fondant in, closing the bag without sealing it. When fondant is completely cool, expel the air, and seal the bag. Store at room temperature for at least 24 hours before using.
When reheating fondant, do not use an aluminum pan, as it causes discoloration.
To use, fondant must be thinned to make it pourable. Prepare a syrup of 1 part water to 2 parts sugar, by volume, and bring it to a full boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
Heat fondant, stirring often, until warm.
To maintain sheen, fondant must not exceed 105°F. Stir in enough syrup to make it pourable.
Fondant can be stored 1 week at room temperature, or 6 months refrigerated. Syrup will keep for months at room temperature.
P.S.I use any leftover syrup to sweeten lemonade and other drinks.

If you decide to go with the ready-made buttercream method (which, btw, also works well), try not to let it come to boil. Just nuke it gently and stir every few seconds until silky and fluid, because boiling commercial buttercream has a tendency to become grainy.

Sol

Thanks! So, if I'm understanding the instructions correctly, I have to make it 24 hours in advance, and let it sit? I can't use it immediately after it cools?

I don't have a candy thermometer, but we've been going back and forth to the "craft" store because my SIL and I are making a scrap book for my niece for the baby shower, so I can always pick one up while I'm there.

Lisa