Fondant is worked sugar in its smoothest form — a supersaturated syrup of sugar and water, cooked and then agitated as it cools so that it crystallises into a mass of microscopically tiny sugar crystals that read on the tongue as creamy rather than grainy. Bright white and opaque, it is warmed to a glossy, pourable cream for dipping and glazing, rolled into pliable sheets to cover cakes, or piped and moulded as the soft, melting centre of a chocolate or a mint — a foundational confectioner's medium as much as a sweet in its own right.