This homemade fondant was surprisingly easy to make, and not too difficult to use. I used an entire bag of mini marshmallows, added two tablespoons of water, and microwaved for about 2 minutes, but at 30 second intervals with mixing in between. Then add 1 teaspoon vanilla and mix well. Now, you're going to add in about six cups of powdered sugar, but it takes some real elbow grease. And literal grease. Grease up your counter top space liberally with Crisco or other shortening. Start by adding as much powdered sugar, slowly, as you can to the bowl and really working it in to the marshmallow mixture. I only made it about three cups. Then dump it out onto your greased surface. Here it helps to also grease your hands up pretty well, so it doesn't stick to them either. Continue working in the rest of the powdered sugar by hand. Knead it by hand until it's stretchy, but doesn't break when you pull at it. If it's too dry, add a very little bit of water (maybe half a teaspoon at a time).
Form the dough into a smooth ball and coat it with crisco. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours, or overnight. You can also choose to work in color before you refrigerate. It takes a lot of kneaded to get the color worked in solidly and not in a marble pattern. Husbands are good for this.
I left the majority of my fondant white and after rolling it out, draped it over a strawberry cake. It went on pretty smoothly and I tried to start at the top center and secure it smoothly outward. As you can see from these less-than-glamorous pics, I had a hard time cutting off the excess. I'll learn, I'm sure.
I was left with a lot of fondant, so that's what I used for the pink hearts. I added several drops of red gel coloring and worked it in. Then I just rolled it out and freehand cut out some hearts with a knife. Fondant cutters or even cookie cutters would have been more helpful. Then you just secure those to the cake with a few drops of water - it acts like glue and really sticks pretty hard.
Ta-da! It's nothing fancy, but for my first foray into fondant it could have gone a lot worse. Stay tuned for my next, surprise project...
To find other fondant recipes, just google "marshmallow fondant" and marvel at the choices. The main two I worked off where The Polhamus Family and Clockwork Lemon.
I absolutely hate fondant. However, I think it's pretty awesome to make. I'll have to give it a try sometime. I've heard to cut the edges that it helps to use a pizza cutter or box cutter. Who'd have thought?
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about fondant! How did it taste on the cake?
ReplyDelete@Blair - I heard that too. I might give it a try.
ReplyDelete@Gabby - It didn't have much taste. A couple blogs I read said you could add some artificial strawberry flavoring or something. I don't care for the texture, kinda chewy and thick, so I took it off before enjoying my cake :)