[Sept. 6 - This post has been edited to add a list of interesting fondant related links below.
Jan. 29, '08 - Edited to add some instructions.
March 21, '08 - Added a link at the end to a recipe for marshmallow fondant.]
My cousin’s baby shower has been scheduled for next week so the pressure is on to get that flippin’ fondant issue resolved. I have finally found a way to make it that actually works, no thanks to my BH&G cookbook! I’ve made way more hard candy than I ever meant to. (I am heartened to know that I can make hard candy. Now to do it sometime on purpose.) As soon as I finish this blog post, I’m going into the kitchen and throwing the rest of it away before anyone gets a chance to gnaw on more of it. For dinner, we are each having our own family size package of frozen broccoli - cooked, of course - and then we will spend several hours brushing our teeth.
After my most recent bout with failure, I went with the fondant recipe I posted the link for yesterday. Below are the results of my efforts. On the left we have the How to Make Fondant recipe. On the right we have the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook recipe.
Which looks more like the picture in the BH&G cookbook, the blob in my hand or the vanilla tinted venetian glass calla lily blossom on the right? [switched pics, no calla lily blossom.]
After spending an hour waiting for the stuff on the right to be cool enough to stir and then knead, I discovered that it had almost completely hardened. After wrestling with it to break a piece off to taste, I wrestled the rest out of the baking dish. So much for greasing! That stuff formed a suction in some places. I had to run the bottom of the dish under hot water to soften it enough to peel it out of the dish and then I had to run hot water on the stuck parts inside the dish. The mangled mess on the plate is what remains. If you need teeth removed, let me know in the next 15 minutes or so and you can come over and chomp down on some of this.
The “How to” recipe was so simple that I’m kicking myself for not searching for it sooner. It has basically the same ingredients as the BH&G recipe, except the “How to” recipe uses butter (I used Soy Garden) and powdered sugar. The BH&G recipe uses granulated sugar and no butter. The “How to” recipe took me about 5 minutes! The best part is that it doesn’t require constant monitoring. What a load off! I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t have all kinds of time and resources to make and remake the same recipe only to have it come out ruined every single time. I would love to learn to make other things using boiled corn syrup and sugar but I just can’t see the point in doing fondant the hard way when this easy recipe is available. [ETA on 1-29-07: The How To recipe is a bit ... doughy gloppy gooey. It doesn't hold its shape well as is, so if you attempt this, add a starch to it (I used corn starch. Tapioca starch will also work, as will a mix of starches.) so that it will be stiff enough to stay in place. It doesn't taste nearly enough like candy corn that way, but then it's not really meant to be eaten by the finger full. In the future when I make this, I will not use it if a thing has to be white. It's more of a cream than a white.]
All of that said, I haven’t decorated the cake yet so I am not absolutely sure this fondant is a success, and I won’t know until next week. I still need to bake the cake, get frosting for the layers and the baby face, and color the fondant a flesh tone before I can even get started on the deco. I am so not a cake maker! If this doesn’t turn out … well, we just won’t think about that. I guess it’s a little late to sign up for a Wilton’s cake decorating class, isn’t it.
Links:
How Much Is That Doggy In The Window - This cake is adorable! Su-Yin, “the Girl who Loves to Cook”, has made many beautiful things. Yesterday’s entry was about fondant!
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3-21-08
Marshmallow Fondant???
A hat tip to Melissa, who shared a link to a recipe for marshmallow fondant. The recipe looks simple and the instructions seem easy to follow. It’s definitely worth a try, though I hope I don’t throw in some Rice Krispies out of habit!
Thanks, Melissa!
You’re brave and persistent, for sure! I’d have given up and hit the Walmart bakery.
Coo! That’s serious dedication! Glad you finally got it to work, I’m sure I’d have given up on it!
Cheers
BC
Believe me, girls, if money wasn’t such a huge issue at the moment, I would’ve gone down to the nearest cake decorating shop and purchased ready-to-use stuff, or maybe had someone else do the whole cake.
Through this experience, I have learned a new skill and you never know when someone is going to need fondant. I can’t tell you how many times people have come to me in a panic because they didn’t know how to make fondant and I could not help them. Well now I can!
BTW, that blob (not blog) of fondant in your hand looks fun and beautiful and yummy. If I ever email you in a panic…
I can vouch for the fun and yummy. It actually tastes a little bit like candy corn. I love candy corn. I almost choked to death on it as a kid because I love it so much. I crammed my mouth full of it. Good thing the adults were paying attention!
I love candy corn, too. Now I shall think of you whenever I eat it. Far more pleasant than the other thing that makes me always think of you… and your dad… and chuckle in spite of it all…
I’m almost afraid to ask what makes you think of me, and my Dad, unpleasantly. Collapsing plastic pop bottles? No, that can’t be it because I don’t know if my Dad has ever had that sensation. I know he has never had a hyst. Hmmm … Heart disease? People dropping dead at Little League parks? People getting spitting angry and acting impulsively?? Don’t leave me hanging. Shoot me an email and refresh my memory.
ETA: Does it have anything to do with me sitting across from him at the dinner table and him getting something stuck in his throat and then, in the very next instant, that something getting blown at break-neck speed across the table into my face?
Check this website out. This website lets you know how to make Marshmallow Fondant and it taste great too. Also, I have used different flavor marshmallow too. Hope you like the tip.