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