Recipe 6: Marshmallow Fondant

Fondant can be very expensive to buy pre-made, especially if you find yourself needing it as often as I do!  You can make it yourself for less than half the price, and it tastes far better than the bought fondant does, even if you don't add flavoring.

Here is a picture of a cake that I used home made fondant on.  I colored it with bright yellow food coloring, and added lemon extract to give it more flavor :) I used the white chocolate modeling fondant (earlier recipe!) to make the fondant for the white "topper" and the roses, as well as the bow.

Ingredients

• 16 oz. of miniature marshmallows
• 2 lb bag of confectioners sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• about 1/2 a cup of Crisco or shortening
• any coloring or flavoring, optional

Directions

1. You need to either prepare a surface by greasing it with Crisco, or make sure that you have an extremely large bowl.  Remove all jewelry, this is going to get messy!
2. In a large bowl, empty the 16 oz marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water.
3. Microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until all of the marshmallows have melted and the mixture is smooth and consistant
4. Put about 3/4 or a little more of the 2 lb bag of confectioners sugar in to the bowl on top of the melted marshmallows. 
5. GREASE YOUR HANDS! This sounds gross, but trust me, you need to get all of your hands covered; its going to get pretty sticky!
6. Either over-turn the mixture on to the greased surface, or if you have plenty of room in the bowl you can work up the mixture in that.  Start to knead the mixture like you would bread, incorporating as much of the powdered sugar as you can.
7. The fondant will begin to become more handle-able, and far less sticky.  It should make a relatively stiff dough that you can easily handle.
8. If the dough remains too sticky, you can add more of the remaining sugar.
9. If the dough seems to dry out, just add a small amount of water
10. Add in coloring and flavoring once the fondant is at the correct consistency
11. This dough is better left to sit overnight; make sure you store it wrapped up and as air tight as you can to prevent drying
12. When you roll out the fondant, use plenty of powdered sugar on the surface and rolling pin to prevent sticking
13. It can be rolled even thinner than normal fondant, just be sure to brush just a little bit of water on the surface if it dries out at all, to prevent the fondant from looking like "elephant skin" when you put it on the cake

Recipe 5: Pudding and Cake-mix Cookies

For those of you who thought that cupcakes were the ultimate portion-controlled cake, try these! They are great with or without icing, and there can be so many variations.

Ingredients

• 1 box cake mix (I used yellow)
• 1 box instant pudding mix (I used chocolate)
• 1 stick of butter, very soft or melted and cooled
• 3 large eggs
• Any mix-ins, or toppers! (optional; I used chocolate chunks to place on top)
• Icing (optional; I didn't ice them)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the softened or cooled melted butter with the three large eggs. An electric hand-held mixer works best for air-incorporation, which will make these cookies even softer and lighter.  (See the picture below for how light this batter will look!)
3. Add the pudding mix in to the whisked butter and eggs until consistent
4. If you are adding in mix-ins, now is the time to add them.
5. Add the cake mix in to the mix. The batter will become quite thick
6. On a greased cookie sheet, drop batter by large spoon full, leaving plenty of room for the cookie to expand. It will expand about 2.5-3x the size of the batter as it bakes.
7. This is when I pressed chocolate chunks in to the top, but any toppers can be added now 

Tips and Suggestions

1. Any flavor of cake mix can be used! Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, red velvet
2. Using a different flavor of pudding mix can make interesting combination of flavors.
3. Here are some:
   White chocolate pudding and devils food cake mix
   Chocolate pudding and strawberry cake mix
   Lemon pudding and vanilla cake mix
   There are so many combinations
4. Add even more variety by lightly icing these cookies!
5. This is the perfect cookie for a mix in. Try German Chocolate by using chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding, and mix in shredded coconut.