Fondantology

November 19, 2013

Yes, you CAN make fondant at home!!

People often ask if fondant can be made at home. Guess what? Yes it can! Yay! You will find that home made marshmallow fondant tastes better than the store bought kind, which is great. However, this is not for the faint of heart. It requires some patience and persistence to make, as well as sufficient clean up time. I have tried this a total of once, and then gave up. It was far too messy and time consuming. Remember the Rice Krispies commercial where the Mum has flour all over her face after making Rice Krispy squares? You might actually look like that. Your cat might too. Only it will be powdered sugar instead of flour.

Why don’t I make my own fondant, you ask? No, it’s not due to sheer laziness. I have found a ready made fondant brand which gives me consistent results and the taste is pretty nice so why mess with a good thing, right? Right! And by nice tasting I mean certain family members will eat it like candy right out of the container. So yeah.

If you wish to venture into the abyss of no return (err, making fondant at home, I mean) here is a recipe for homemade marshmallow fondant. Good luck 🙂

This recipe makes about 1 1/2 lbs fondant

Ingredients:

  • 8 oz miniature marshmallows (4 cups, or half of a 16-ounce bag)
  • 4 cups of powdered sugar, and a bit extra for dusting
  • 2 tbsp of water
  • food colouring, or flavouring (optional)

Make it:

– to avoid a sticky mess, dust your counter or a large cutting board with powdered sugar. Also, coat your bowl with cooking spray or shortening before melting the marshmallows. You’ll be glad you did.

-place the marshmallows and the water in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute, until the marshmallows are puffy and starting to expand. Be careful not to burn them. Microwaves are sometimes overzealous that way.

– stir the marshmallows  until they are melted and smooth. If they don’t all melt right away, return your bowl to the microwave in 30 second increments until all of the marshmallows are melted and the mixture is smooth and lump-free. You can add colours or flavours to your fondant at this point if you wish.

-add the powdered sugar to your marshmallow mixture. Stir, and stir and stir some more. Basically until you can’t stir anymore. Or until your arm falls off.

–scrape the mixture onto your counter or cutting board. It will be VERY sticky and quite lumpy. At this point you will be thinking WTF and about ready to chuck the whole thing in the garbage. Keep going, though, you can do it! Dust some powdered sugar onto your hands and begin kneading the mixture.

-keep kneading the fondant until it is smooth, adding more powdered sugar along the way to get rid of the stickiness. Add only a bit at a time though, as you don’t want your fondant to turn out dry from too much sugar.

-once your fondant is smooth and not sticky, you are done! You can now use it right away, or wrap it well in plastic wrap for later use.

Whoo hoo! Give yourself a pat on the back, if you’re still standing 🙂

Have a sugarrific day,

M xoxo

November 14, 2013

Colouring Fondant….because white is boring!

Sometimes you need white fondant. And other times you just want some colour! Now, there is already coloured fondant to be purchased out there, but really, who needs a whole tub of Tiffany Blue fondant? Not me. I prefer to colour my own. It gets me just the shade I want, plus I find it doesn’t bleed as easily as some of the pre-coloured ones out there (I’m looking at you, Wilton). So, let’s get to it. First, here are the supplies you’ll need:

-fondant (obviously!)

-corn starch (to get you out of sticky situations)

-food colours

-toothpick

-waxed paper or a roll-out mat

-gloves (optional)

This is pretty much it. You can see my supplies (minus the waxed paper and gloves in the image below:

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In this case, I need some grey fondant, so I am using black gel food colour. Gel is the best to use, since the liquid ones add too much moisture to your fondant, making it way too sticky. I personally like the Wilton Icing Colors, but go with whatever you like best.  Now, to add the colour:

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Just take your toothpick, dip it into the colour pot, and away you go. Add a little bit at a time, kneading the fondant between additions. It will start to get sticky, so just sprinkle a bit of corn starch on it and knead that in too. Then you’ll have something that looks like this:

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Lovely marble effect! However, if that’s not what you’re after, keep kneading.

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Almost at the right shade, and a wee bit sticky at this point. Corn starch to the rescue!

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Ta-da! All done. Perfectly smooth, and just the right shade with a few simple steps. Keep in mind that should you need a darker colour, you will need to keep adding colour and working on it as it can take some time, especially if you need a lot of fondant. But again, the time is worth it in the end when your darker accents aren’t bleeding all over your cake. Or, if you’re like me, get yourself a handy dandy helper (you know who you are!) and go do something else while he is slaving over working on it for you.

Oh, also, you should wear gloves especially if dealing with a dark colour, but I usually don’t, unless I’ve gotten my nails done or have somewhere to go and don’t want dark dye all over my hands. I like to be able to feel the texture of the fondant and gloves kind of get in the way of that. I do end up with some interesting stains on my fingers, but it comes off eventually, especially after doing dishes. Same goes for the waxed paper. It helps if you’re working on a lot of fondant which can get messy. 

So there you have it, go from boring white to fabulous colour with not a whole lot of effort 🙂

Have a sugarrific day,

M xoxo