Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

After having mentioned Marshmallow Fondant in my last post, it occurred to me that I should post my recipe!  If you are new to the cake decorating arena, you may only be familiar with Wilton fondant (or none at all).  While it may be usable for making figures and covering cakes, it does NOT have a pleasant taste, to me it tastes awfully chemically.  For years now, even before I started "serious" cake decorating, I have been making Marshmallow Fondant instead.  It's super easy, fairly cheap to make and has a marshmallow taste that most people like.  So, here is my recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 16oz. bag miniature marshmallows (get the mini, they melt more evenly; also, it may be hard to find the 16 oz. bag, you can get the 10 oz. bag- just use less powdered sugar!)
• 1 2lb bag powdered sugar
• 3 Tbsp water
• about 1/4 Cup shortening (for greasing hand & surfaces)
• gel food colors (optional)

Directions

1. In a large, microwave safe bowl, melt marshmallows in increments of 30 seconds (to avoid burning them!).  It will probably take about 1min-1.5min to get them completely melted (stir in between).  While the marshmallows are melting, prepare a wooden spoon or silicon spatula with a generous greasing of shortening! 
2. When the marshmallows are completely melted, stir them with your prepared spatula to smooth out any lumps.  If you need a large amount of colored fondant, this is where I add my gel color food coloring (for dark colors I use a combination of powdered food color & gel because too much gel food color will change the consistency of the fondant).  
3. Then add about 1/2 of the powdered sugar and stir to incorporate, it's going to be VERY sticky!!  
4. Add more powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time until you get a thick dough starting to form (if you are using the 10oz bag of marshmallows, you will probably only use about 2/3 to 3/4 of a 2lb bag of powdered sugar).  
5. When it gets difficult to stir with the spoon, there is nothing to do but get your hands in there and get messy!  Grease your hands and table liberally with shortening and turn the mixture onto your work surface.  Knead until smooth, kneading in more powdered sugar as necessary until you have a smooth ball.  It should not be too sticky and should be nice and stretchy.  
6. That's it!  Now wrap it up until you are ready to use it.  If you worked very quickly, it is probably still warm and very soft, you CAN use it as is, but might find it easier to work with if you let your Marshmallow Fondant "rest" for a bit (wrapped tightly) to cool to room temperature.

Tips

*If you think you added too much powdered sugar and it is too dry knead in some shortening and it should solve the problem.
*If you are not using your fondant right away, just knead it a bit when you're ready, to get it soft and stretchy.
*When you roll out your fondant, there are two schools of thought, some people use shortening (to keep the fondant from drying out), some people use powdered sugar or cornstarch.  I prefer to use powdered sugar, it does dry out the fondant if you don't work quickly... but I find that the shortening makes it a bit gooey.


There you have it!  Very simple to make, just a bit messy!  I hope you've found this recipe, and my tips, useful.  Good luck, and enjoy!!

Happy Caking :)