How to Make Your Own Yummy (yes Yummy) and Easy (yes Easy) Marshmallow Fondant

Hello dear readers,
Finally - the How to make Fondant, as pictured in this Noah's Ark cake.

More on this cake later :)

In the past, I always would just purchase ready made fondant (usually Wilton's) to use on any of my cakes that required fondant.  I have heard horror stories about making fondant and how hard it was.  I would watch as people would take a piece of cake and peel off this fondant and put nicely on the side of their plate to then throw away later.  I was never upset by this, because to be honest, the pre-made fondants taste like plastic.  I only used it out of fear of making my own.
Then, last July, I entered a contest for my town's birthday and the cake had to made completely from scratch.  So, I searched the recipes on-line and found this recipe on Cake Central.
Before I get to the "How to" of it all, I wanted to share my first experience.  It was VERY funny:

I was such a mess that I couldn't get this gooey mess off my fingers to roll out the cling wrap or open the ziplock bag.

 

I had to wake up my husband to come take my picture because I was laughing so hard.  I didn't know what had happened and why it didn't do what it was supposed to (the next morning, when I made my second batch, I realized that I had put in an extra cup of marshmallow and not added enough powdered sugar).  The good news - it was still salvageable!  I did not have to throw all this away.  After letting it sit over-night, I added more PS and presto - perfect Fondant!  The next day, when I made it with the actual right amounts, it worked PERFECTLY!  It really was so easy and it smelled and tasted great!  (What could taste bad about marshmallows and powdered sugar?)


For the sake of this post, I will edit the recipe a little.  All the wording is hers, and if I have anything in addition to add, it will be in blue.  For the full recipe, go to her post on Cake Central

MMF-EASY PEASY! Made Using a Kitchenaid Mixer

Posted by The_Lil_Cakehouse

This MMF (MMF stands for Marshmallow Fondant) is a tad softer than the kind I bought, but I made figures out of it without the addition of gumpaste/tylose/glucose/gumtex or any other thing that is said to help with it. My figures stayed up to the challenge, all I did was kneaded in some extra PS (per figure, I didn’t measure it, just “felt” and adjusted)–Best Part most of it was done in my Kitchenaid!!!

Ingredients

• 8 Cups of Mini Marshmallows
• 3 Tbsp of Water
• 1 Tbsp of Flavor
• 9 Cups (ish) Powdered Sugar, Sifted
• 2 Heaping Tbsp of Shortening + whatever you’ll use to grease your work space

Instructions

Directions (in this order too):

1. Grease Bowl and Dough Hook of Kitchen Aid



I find that if I sift the 7 cups that are needed at first, it is easier to add to your mixture, then sift the rest later




2. Sift 9 Cups of Powdered Sugar in a separate Mixing Bowl (found out this IS VERY important)



I have used rum, almond and vanilla flavoring

 

3. Put marshmallows, Water, Flavor, Shortening in microwave safe bowl 

4. Heat up marshmallow mixture in 30 second zaps, pull out, stir, keep heating until the marshmallows are almost melted, it will look soupy with some lumps 

5. Scoop 6 Cups of PS in Kitchen Aid. (all the while the marshmallows are sorta cooling down–but don’t let them cool completely) Make a well in the powdered sugar with the measuring cup 

6. Pour Marshmellow Mixture into PS well, it’s going to spread out and cover all the PS basically, but it helps for it to be in the middle of the PS. 

7. Put 1 More Cup of PS on top of MM’s 

8. Kitchenaid first setting, on mine its Stir, once the PS is mostly incorporated, put on the next setting (I used 2), let it run for a while, you’ll notice there is PS on the sides of the bowl, that’s fine, leave it there, try and refrain from scraping it down  

9. Here’s where it comes to your EYE and Finger, You’ll notice it will start to creep up on the dough hook, if its not doing this yet, start adding the PS 1/2 cup at a time until it does (I didn’t let it fully creep up, once it started is when I moved to the next step). 

10. Touch the mixture, if its goo and sticking to your finger completely, add 1/4 of PS, if its slightly sticky, then you’re ready for the next part 

11. Prepare a portion of your counter (or where ever you hand knead MMF), Bring your sifted PS left over in your separate bowl where you can get to it easily, Shortening on the area where you’ll knead, dump out Mixture (Just for a visual, I still had to scrape mine out–I tried not to fully mix this in the mixer–I found I got a better workable material if I had some hand kneading in there so I could feel the right consistency). Grease your hands up 

12. Add more PS like 1/8 of a cup at a time if it appears to be falling under its own weigh–the perfect MMF should be able to hold its weight a little even at this stage– hand knead, add more PS if you need to, (by the time It was all said and done I had left over PS in the bowl-quite a bit, I’d say I only used about 3/4 of the bag in the mixer, and then like another 1/2 cup (maybe) when I had kneaded it.) 

13. Grease it up, wrap in saran wrap–I used to do the gallon bag also, but I only did saran wrap this time like triple wrapped, but if I were making it a couple days in advance I probaby would of done a gallon bag also–let rest overnight (or at least several hours, 8+).

 Well, that's it!  The best part is that it saves for a really long time.  

Enjoy the recipe and talk to you soon,  

Meagan