Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

Here at Living Well, we make a lot of home made food, from scratch.  Not only do they taste better, they are better for you as well.  You know exactly what goes into the dish, and what your kids are eating.  So today, in celebration of my 9 year old's birthday, I'm going to share with you a Marshmallow Fondant Recipe that'll have you making fun, festive cakes for your kids, or any special occasion.

Decorating with MMF (Marshmallow Fondant) takes practice, but with each new birthday, my cakes get better, and more creative.  To start out, I would recommend that you start with simpler designs.  I made the mistake of trying more complex cakes (a NASCAR cake with Jimmy Johnson winning the race) and have since become more patient with myself to make simpler cakes that kids will love just the same.  So, while I have your mouth watering for this delicious recipe, let's get started, ok?

Here's what you'll need.

1 bag mini Marshmallows.  (Some people prefer a name brand, but I use whatever is on sale.)
1 - 1 1/2 boxes powdered sugar 
1-2 Tablespoons water
Crisco (I use butter flavored.  I'm not sure that it actually tastes like butter.  It does give your fondant an off white color, but it's what I use.)
1 tsp vanilla flavor

To start:

Liberally grease your counter top with crisco.  Place marshmallows into a microwave safe bowl, and sprinkle with water.  Melt marshmallows 30 seconds at a time until melted.    Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and vanilla and stir well with a well greased wooden spoon.  Pour mixture onto greased counter top.  Grease hands with Crisco.  The marshmallow mixture is sticky, so you'll want to remove any jewelry and grease your hands all over.  Knead in enough of the remaining sugar to form ;a nice, soft ball of MMF.  At this time, you can tint your MMF to any color you want or store it away for later use.  I recommend using gel coloring for tinting since it does not water down the MMF, and the colors are more vibrant.

To tint your MMF, using a gel color and a toothpick, start with just a little bit of coloring and smear it onto the white MMF.  Knead MMF until color is consistent.  If the color is not as bright as you want, gradually add more color and knead until you get the color that you want.  I used two different yellows to get this bright yellow.  You should experiment with different color combinations on smaller amounts of MMF in order to get the color you want, before coloring a large amount of MMF.  For best results, us a color chart.

To Store MMF, grease the ball of MMF, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in an air tight container.  To use, simply lightly grease and knead the MMF until it become pliable again.

Before covering your cake with MMF, level your cake and lightly ice it with any icing that you like.  I like butter cream.  This helps the MMF stick to the cake.

To roll MMF, liberally dust counter top and rolling pin with powdered sugar.  This keeps the MMF from having a shiny look.  If you cover your counter top and rolling pin with Crisco instead of powered sugar, the MMF will have a shiny appearance to it.  The powdered sugar keeps the finish matte.  Don't worry about it leaving white spots on the cake, it easily dusts off.  You'll want to roll the MMF until it's about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick.  Once the MMF is rolled out, you can roll it onto your rolling pin (like you would a pie crust) and roll out onto your cake.  Using a pizza cutter, cut off excess MMF and set aside for future decorating.

You can use the left over MMF to shape into anything you like; keep in mind that the bigger the object, you may need support, such as toothpicks, or small wooden dowels.  You can also use Rice Crispie treats to make bigger items, such as cars, trees, people, etc. and then cover with MMF.  MMF will have the consistency of play dough in order to mold into figures.  To attach decorations to your cake, use icing as a glue, or mix up an edible glue to use instead.  You can use cookie cutters to cut shapes, and get your kids involved to make 3-D shapes.  The end result is a nicely decorated cake that your kids will love.

The total cost for this cake was under $5.  All the kids thought it was cool, and my 9 year old has memories that will last a life time.  Practice makes perfect, or at least perfect enough for your kids to think you are a cool mom.

Enjoy decorating with MMF.  Decorating takes lots of patience and time, but it's well worth it.  So, the next time you have a special event coming up, and you are standing at the cake counter, think, do I really want to spend $30 on a store bought cake that has been sitting on a shelf for days, or should I invest the time to make one that every one will love.

COMING UP NEXT WEEK: Staple Ingredients Every Home Should Have in Order to Live Well.

COMING UP IN TWO WEEKS: Why you should, or should not invest in a Keurig Coffee Maker.