My Second Cake: Dark Chocolate Fudge with Marshmallow Fondant

This is my second cake.

This time I used a Duncan Hines cake mix (Dark Chocolate Fudge) and the cake came out moist! I tried to make the fondant harder by adding more confectionary sugar. I think I overcompensated as I had to use the microwave to zap the fondant several times in order to keep it pliable. I also had a problem with my creamy butter frosting. I used SmartBalance butter instead of real butter since I wanted to make my cake “healthier”. It was not a good idea as the frosting ended up too runny and spilled out from underneath the fondant! Overall, the cake tasted excellent.

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My First Cake: Yellow Cake with Marshmallow Fondant

Here is a picture of the very first cake I baked.

I used a standard yellow cake recipe to bake the cake. The marshmallow fondant turned out better than expected. It is on the soft side as it kept sinking in. The cake itself turned out to be too dry.

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How to make Creamy Butter Frosting

Here is a recipe that you can use to make a simple delicious creamy butter frosting:

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 lb sifted confectionary sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons milk

Steps:

1. Using a hand mixer, beat the butter, salt and vanilla until it is light and fluffy. This can be tricky if your butter is straight from the refrigerator. So I suggest you leave it in room temperature before you begin.
2. Gradually add sugar while beating.
3. Add the milk while beating.
4. Once the frosting is in a smooth consistency, it is ready to use for icing the tops and sides of an 8 inch 2 layer cake or a dozen cupcakes.

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How to make Marshmallow Fondant

To make marshmallow fondant, I use this simple recipe:

• 1 pack mini marshmallows (any brand, they say to use a good quality brand, but I have used the store brand and it worked out fine)
• 1 lb confectionary sugar
• Crisco shortening (just enough to coat your hands and the counter you are working on)
• 2-3 tablespoons water (this is not exact, it is really on your discretion)

Steps:

1. Melt marshmallows in the microwave (make sure you place it in a microwave safe bowl) for 30 seconds. Stir the marshmallows and then microwave it again for 30 seconds. Keep doing this until it is completely melted. Be careful not to burn the marshmallows!
2. Grease your work counter and hands completely with some crisco shortening.
3. Spill a pile of confectionary sugar on the work counter.
4. Dump the bowl of marshmallow onto the confectionary sugar pile.
5. It will get messy – knead the marshmallow onto the sugar. Keep kneading and adding more sugar. If it gets too sticky, add a few drops of water. Keep kneading. This is where it takes some judgement as to what you need more – sugar or water.
6. Eventually, you will get a smooth elastic ball that feels like dough. It will be very satisfying at this point and no longer messy.
7. You can make your marshmallow fondant a couple of days prior to using it for your cake. You may want to color it at this point. Gel food coloring works best.
8. What I do is I separate them out to smaller balls and wrap them individually with glad wrap. Then I place the plastic wrapped ball in a ziploc bag and store it in a tupperware container. Make sure you squeeze out as much air as possible in the ziploc bag.
9. In a couple of days when I use the stored marshmallow fondant, I may need to zap it in the microwave for a couple of minutes to get it soft again before I knead it to a pliable consistency.

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