Fondant 101 lol

So I started using fondant over a year ago my first two experiences with it were NOT fun and I swore I'd never use it again. Until I learned how to make MMF (marshmallow fondant). Oh my gosh, sooooooo much easier and sooooo much cheaper! So now I use it all the time! But there are other types of fondant - they are much more difficult to make and require expensive ingredients that are also hard to find. Or, you can always just buy it, but it's about $15 a batch.

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Anyway, I use MMF for all my cakes now. It doesn't take a professional to use it, it's very easy!

First you need supplies: 1 bag of marshmallows and 1 (2lb) bag of powdered sugar will make you 1 batch of fondant. (you'll have left over sugar, you can use it for rolling and save the rest). A tub of shortening (like crisco, any brand), and your frosting - the picture shows what I use which is whip cream with raspberry preserves, it's just something we like, buttercream or any flavor/type of icing works just fine (even store bought!). (I was making 3 batches, so I had 3 bags of each) And of course - your cake. Your cake needs to be cool or room temp so I suggest making it the night before.

To make the actual fondant you'll only need the marshmallow, sugar and water.



Here we go....

The very first thing you need to do is sift your sugar, if you don't you will get hard clumps of it in your fondant which doesn't look real pretty. So sift it at least once (twice is better if you're using what I have there - if you use a sifter like this once is enough - I forgot I had one of those lol) and be sure to get all the hard bits out. Set it aside in a bowl with a scooper that is about 1 cup.



Put the entire bag of marshmallows in a pot with 2 tablespoons of water and melt them - stirring CONSTANTLY!! It's very very important that you do not burn the marshmallow so keep your heat low and do not stop stirring!




When it gets to where most of the marshmallows are melted but there are still chunks take it off the heat and continue to stir until the rest are melted (there will be plenty enough heat to melt the rest).



If you want to color the entire batch, now is my favorite time to add it because it won't color your hands this way! So add a few drops of food coloring into your fodant. Remember, you can add more color but taking it away is hard. This was mothers day so I used red to create pink.



And stir...



Next scoop in 4 cups of your sifted sugar. Let it sit a minute - the marshmallow is hot, you don't want to burn your fingers by digging in!



Now the greasy part lol, take a handful of shortening and rub it all over your counter - or where ever you will be making your fondant. Then sprinkle a bit of sugar over that. NOW grab another little handful and rub it all over your hands, inbetween your fingers and even up your wrists some - trust me on this! It will help avoid getting 'club' hands lol.



Now obviously I didn't get any photos of the "dumping and greasing" part since my hands were covered in goo lol. All you're going to do is (carefully) with your greasy hands dump the pot of marshmallow/sugar onto that spot you just made and start mixing it together with your hands - folding it around the sugar, sort of.. kneeding it. Withing 4-5 minutes you'll start to get a thick dough like texture with it. Add in sugar as you see necessary. Just continue to do that until it gets to where you can poke it and it's not sticky. It never takes me more than 10 minutes to get to this point. It will look something like this:



Now he's a good example of what happens if you DON'T sift your sugar (yeah, I forgot OK?).
See the white chunks? That's gonna be a pain in the rear later!! However, even with sifting you may still get some of these... just pull them out as you work with it.



Wrap in plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge - overnight is better but at least a few hours!



When you get it out of the fridge, it's going to feel like a rock. You can sit it at room temperature for a few hours and let it warm up. OR, you can toss it in the microwave (marshmallows are awesome in this way!) for a few seconds till it's softer. As you are decorating it you may find your smaller pieces that sit out get harder so you can just toss them and warm them up to make them soft again as needed. Just a few seconds!! Anymore than that and it will melt and you'll have to add more sugar!
Get your tools...


And decorate!!



My finished project: