Decorating a beautiful cake takes a lot of time and talent. But this trick will elicit wows with less heartache.

It's funny -- the smooth and sleek look of fondant looks extremely difficult. In reality, however, there are ways to get the look with minimal effort. In fact, it can often be easier and quicker than regular frosting. I can't speak for classic fondant (this no-cook formula works so well that I haven't bothered making the real thing yet), but with this no-cook stuff, you can ignore all those suggestions to buy fondant pre-made, or warnings about difficult trials and tribulations ahead. It takes maybe 5 minutes to make, and really easy to use.

This fondant is the rollable kind -- no pouring here. It's also immensely forgiving. You can get a pretty sleek cake without a crumb coat if the cake doesn't have too many ridges and the fondant is thick enough. Scraps can be smushed together and re-rolled. It won't last forever uncovered, but will easily survive the time it takes to roll and place it. It can even last, wrapped in saran, for weeks on the counter -- it'll be a bit dry, but can be kneaded into a decent and usable mass once again.

The recipe is after the jump!

As the resident cake baker in my circle of friends, I'm always trying to find something new and funky to make. I've been in a groove of no-cook fondant and marzipan figures, but this summer I got a challenge -- chocolate. Not being the biggest fan of chocolate cakes, I mostly stick to the many other flavors. However, my friend, she loves the dark and sinful treat. If she wanted chocolate, she was really going to get chocolate. Since she's also a skier, it would be served in a smooth, snowy package.

Death by Chocolate Cake, straight out of The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Chocolate, with white fondant, a marzipan skier, and some candles for wishing. Check out the gallery, peruse the recipe after the jump, and stay tuned for more information on the fondant and marzipan.

 Although not available in the US, Cadbury has recently released a chocolate bar that is a play on the Cadbury Creme egg. it's called the Dairy Milk with Creme Egg Bar - or simply the Creme Egg Bar. My first visions were of a Snickers-shaped bar with a huge amount of fondant filling, but the bars are divided up into filled squares in the same manner as other Cadbury filled bars. All reports make them sound as though they have a similar chocolate: fondant ratio as the mini Cadbury Eggs. For me, this is a good thing, since I prefer to have more chocolate to balance the intensely sugary filling, though there are many people who even want their full-sized eggs to contain more fondant.

Taste aside, I can't help by wonder if Cadbury Cremes are meant to be egg-shaped. At least half the fun of eating a Creme Egg is that it is an egg. And besides, the fondant is supposed to look like the inside of an egg, so what's the point of having a spot of orange "yolk" in the center of a chocolate bar?

[Image Chocablog]

Cadbury Creme Eggs just haven't had the same appeal to me since they took the adorable clucking bunny out of their ad campaign. Something about that bunny just made me want to eat a whole, sugary egg. In all probability, age had something to do with it as well. I no longer want to scarf down a large Cadbury Creme Egg when given the opportunity because it almost makes my teeth hurt, though I do enjoy a bite of one every now and again. Leave it to the company to come to my rescue. Their Mini Creme Eggs are just the right size - about 3/4-inch long - to eat in a bite or two. They still have the same sugary fondant filling with the trademark orange "yolk" in the center, but the chocolate-to-filling ratio is much higher than in the larger eggs. The milky chocolate even manages to temper the sweetness just enough to allow me to to indulge in one or two at a time. Cadbury Mini Creme Eggs are definitely a great Easter treat. Maybe I'll reconsider the larger eggs if they bring back that bunny!

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Cadbury cream eggs are the favorite chocolates of the Easter season for many. Even with my big sweet tooth, the creamy, ultra-sugary fondant filling is a bit too sweet for me, so I cannot imagine the sugar overload that would follow an attempt to eat the Ultimate Creme Egg. The ultimate creme egg started as 48 individually wrapped Cadbury eggs and a large, hollow milk chocolate eggshell. The fondant fillings were scraped out of the smaller egg and transferred into the large shell, in what must be the coolest Easter egg hack ever.