Marshmallow Fondant

If you're like me, regular fondant is a bit too sweet! I love this MM Fondant recipe I found online! It works just like regular fondant, only it tastes way better! I forgot all about it when I made my minnie mouse cupcakes, but either way, use this recipe if you want a better tasting fondant! It also dries out, overnight if you want to use it to decorate!

Ingredients:

16 ounces white mini-marshmallows (use a good quality brand)
2 to 5 tablespoons water
2 pounds icing sugar (please use C&H Cane Powdered Sugar for the best results)
1/2 cup Crisco shortening (you will be digging into it so place in a very easily accessed bowl)

Directions:

NOTE: Please be careful, this first stage can get hot.

Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave or double boiler. To microwave, place the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted. It usually takes about 2 1/2 minutes total. Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix. Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY (palms, backs, and in between fingers), then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle. 

Start kneading like you would bread dough. You will immediately see why you have greased your hands. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking. If the mix is tearing easily, it is to dry, so add water (about 1/2 tablespoon at a time and then knead it in).   This is a great time to add the color if you are using color! Knead until the color is completely combined. It is best if you can let it sit, double wrapped, overnight (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see them, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water.

Prepare the fondant icing for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic-type wrap product and then put it in a re-sealable or Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible. MM Fondant icing will hold very well in the refrigerator for weeks. If I know that I have a cake to decorate, I usually make two (2) batches on a free night during the week so it is ready when I need it. Take advantage of the fact that this fondant icing can be prepared well in advance.

Now it’s time to start. Your cake should be baked, and completely cooled. If you have a shaped cake, you can trim it now and then place the cake on a prepared cake board. In other words, you are assembling the cake puzzle on the board. You can also place the cake on the board first and then trim (you must be extra careful not to damage the covered board). I personally find that shaping first is the easiest and then transferring the cake. 

Give the top and sides of the cake a nice thick 1/4-inch coating of Buttercream Icing (click on the underlined for buttercream icing recipe). NOTE: At first I was wondering why I needed to bother with this step. Well, there are a couple of reasons: The buttercream icing helps the fondant icing to “stick” to the cake and this cushion of undercoating icing helps to give you the beautiful smooth nearly perfect finish that you are looking for.

When you are ready to use the rested fondant icing, the first thing you need to do is decide what size you will need to roll your icing to.

Minnie Mouse Cupcakes!

Hello! Well we had a wonderful birthday to celebrate this weekend! My daughters' Godmother's. She loves Minnie Mouse! So we decided to use our Moist Chocolate Cupcake recipe and Espresso Frosting (posted before on the blog) with Minnie Mouse ears and bows to top it! Cute huh?! Everyone else thought so! Here's how to do it!

Easy Fondant:
1/3 cup softened butter
1/3 cup light corn syrup (substitute 1/4 water + 1 cup sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb sifted powder sugar, extra if needed

In a large bowl, blend the butter, corn syrup, vanilla and salt until smooth and well combined. Add powdered sugar and mix until well combined. I used a hand mixer. The fondant should be smooth when done. Now you can add your color and just knead the fondant until it is completely combined. For this recipe I took 1/3 and made the black and the rest pink. Now roll it out to about 1/6 inch thick, or thicker/thinner to your liking. Using a small circle fondant/cookie cutter (one that is small enough for the cupcakes) cut out your circles. I place mine on plastic wrap or parchment so that it won't stick as they are fragile. Then roll out the pink fondant to the same thickness. Using a pizza cutter, or fondant cutter, cut out 3.5" x .5" strips (you can go bigger or smaller, as you like). Lay the strip flat and pinch the ends inwards. Then bring both ends to the center. Next cut a smaller strip about 1/4" x .8" or so and place in the middle of your bow, vertical. Press down on the top and bottom to ensure it sticks. Push the outsides of the bow in just a little to create that bow look. And there you have your bow! I keep the fondant I am not working with at the moment covered with plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out too quickly. Questions? Comment below!
Tip: If your fondant is too sticky add more powdered sugar until it doesn't stick anymore. If it is sticking to the rolling pin or table, use sifted powder sugar to keep it from sticking.