Marshmallow Fondant

Duff from Food Network's Ace of Cakes

We love cakes shows in our house.  I like the quirkiness of Duff's crew at Charm City Cakes on Ace of Cakes (think I could be friends with those guys).  My daughter's a Buddy fan and has Carlo's Bakery on her list of places to visit.  And who doesn't love a good Food Network Challenge where cakes are involved?   So, what is it that all of these have in common besides cake, crazy designs, arguments, and bizarre characters....did you say fondant?

I suppose my first real baking misadventure was making fondant.  Yep, not buying it (you can do that...fyi).  I did my research and found what seemed to be a too simple recipe on my favorite go-to cooking website allrecipes.com.  If you have never visited this site, I highly recommend it!   There I found something called Marshmallow Fondant.  There were several recipes for this.  I went with the one with the most positive reviews and the one that seemed to be less daunting for me...a novice!

Finished product!

We did cheat a bit and find some premade fondant that was made specifically for the smaller decorator pieces.  We also got some small cookie cutters (apparently they also make these - called fondant cutters) so we could trick out cake.  Michaels has quite the cake decorating section...in fact, it's become quite the craft lately.  Like scrapbooking, only tastier.

The cake itself was a VERY simple store bought chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  I iced between layers and then did a crumb coat over the entire cake.  Now, for the nice "taller" cakes I would have needed 4 layers.  Did I mention this was my first baking misadventure?  Live and learn.

Hollywood theme bridal shower cake.

I did learn that you really have to work the fondant like dough.  Adding water a little bit at a time was key to softening it.  Crisco was also my friend and made it more pliable.  I learned by doing this project all of tools I didn't have (like a REAL rolling pin) that would have made it much easier.  The end result was very gratifying, though!  The plus side of using fondant is that it hides a multitude of cake sins and offers a very clean look (providing the fondant doesn't crack or split).

After this attempt, I ventured out a bit and got a little fancier with my batter and filling.  A friend's bridal shower was coming up, so I decided to make her cake.  It was no award winner, but I felt like I'd accomplished something!  Yep, that marshmallow fondant is really idiot proof!

MARSHMALLOW FONDANT
(from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter 1 (16 ounce) package miniature marshmallows

4 tablespoons water 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 pounds confectioners' sugar, divided

Directions:

1.	Place the butter in a shallow bowl, and set aside.
2.	Place the marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on High for 30 seconds to 1 minute to start melting the marshmallows. Carefully stir the water and vanilla extract into the hot marshmallows, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Slowly beat in the confectioners' sugar, a cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of powdered sugar for kneading. The dough will be very stiff.
3.	Rub your hands thoroughly with butter, and begin kneading the sticky dough. As you knead, the dough will become workable and pliable. Turn the dough out onto a working surface dusted with confectioners' sugar and continue kneading until the fondant is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.
4.	Form the fondant into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. To use, allow the fondant to come to room temperature, and roll it out onto a flat surface dusted with confectioners' sugar.