Marshmallow Fondant

I have wanted to try fondant icing for quite a while. However I've heard that it's not that tasty and it seemed like it might be hard to do. Then last week I saw this recipe in the Globe and Mail for Mother's Day. It sounded really straight forward and easy, and it was!

The recipe calls for mini marshmallows, shortening, food dye and icing sugar. I could not originally find miniature marshmallows, so I used large ones, and I do not have a microwave. This meant melting the marshmallows in a double boiler (which I also don't have, so really a bowl over a pot of boiling water). The recipe also recommends gel or powder food dye but I used regular liquid food dye which worked just fine. I do believe you can get more vibrant colours from gel and powder dyes. However I've never used them, is this true?

The fondant was really quick and easy to make, and it was fun to knead it together and see it take shape. The longest part was rolling it out and cutting the pieces and shapes. Then gluing them (with icing) individually to each cupcake. You can follow the steps from Stephanie Eddy but I found you don't really need to follow specific measurements. Steps to how I made the fondant are below.

I needed something to put the fondant on, so I made Vegan Marble Cupcakes. Also delish and easy!

I used Joy the Baker's chocolate cupcake recipe from her recipe for chocolate peanut butter cupcakes (!) and Golden Vanilla Cupcakes from the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which just might be true. Alternate chocolate and vanilla batter into your cups until they are three quarters full then grab a toothpick and give 'em a swirl.

Marshmallow Fondant

1. Melt a bag a marshmallows in a bowl over a pot of boiling water, or in the microwave.

2. Once marshmallows are fully melted, stir in food colouring if doing so. Then start adding icing sugar a 1/4c at a time and stirring into the marshmallows.

3. Keep adding sugar until mixture forms a sticky ball, and it becomes difficult to incorporate the sugar. Then grease up your hands, and start kneading in more icing sugar, until you get a firm, dough like consistency, that doesn't have sticky spots.

4. You can either immediately start rolling out your fondant, or store it up for three months in a cool dry place. Just rub some shortening into your dough ball to keep it moist and then wrap securely in plastic wrap and a ziploc.

5. To roll out your fondant use shortening to grease your rolling pin and rolling area, or icing sugar if it becomes too sticky, instead of flour. Just remember, the icing sugar will make the colour of the fondant dull.

Overall I'd say the finished project was fantastic, so well worth it! Also I made the fondant ahead of time, then just warmed it up to decorate the cupcakes I had made.  It was easy to get the fondant malleable again, I just left it in the sun while the cupcakes baked! (Remember, no microwave).