Marshmallow Fondant

I believe I have mentioned once or twice my dislike of fondant and the hubby especially hates it.  But as it is pretty regularly used in the cake decorating world I need to suck it up and find something that I actually am happy working with and that I actually like eating.

My friend Chuy from Chuy’s Cakes (you may have noticed the link on the right hand side to her blog, but you can also check her out on Facebook – her Farm Cake is one of my favourites) told me ages ago that she makes her own marshmallow fondant so I finally got around to searching the interweb for a recipe to try.  You can’t rush these things.

The first marshmallow fondant recipe I tried was by Jessica Harris from Jessicakes.  As I ordered some white marshmallows for a cake I was making, for this batch of marshmallow fondant I used the standard pink and white marshmallows that are easily available.  As this batch was going to be used to cover a cake board and painted to look like wood grain, it wouldn’t matter that it was pink.

If you want to have a go at it yourself, there is a video on YouTube with a link to the recipe.  The fondant rolled out quite easily, but because it was a little too warm when I was using it, a few rips occurred.  But as this was going to look like wood on the board, I wasn’t too worried about a few little inconsistencies, I thought it would just add to the character.  You will be able to check out how I made my wood grain board in an upcoming post by clicking here.

For the next recipe I tried Liz Marek’s fondant (or LMF as it is affectionately known).  It is essentially the same recipe as Jessica’s, however there is one additional ingredient being store bought fondant which helps with rolling out the LMF quite thin.  For this batch, I used the white marshmallows I ordered plus a little water, shortening, icing sugar and leftover Fondarific fondant I had in the pantry.

Now, with regards to the marshmallows make sure you get some nice tasting ones.  Given this is marshmallow fondant, it will taste like, you guessed it – marshmallows.  So don’t skimp on them!

Place your chosen marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl and start with one minute.  Give them a stir and if they are still lumpy, put them back in for 30 second increments, stirring after each burst.

You are wanting them to be nice and puffed up and smooth.  When you have got to this stage, add the water which will help release the melted marshmallows from the bowl allowing you to transfer them to the bowl of your mixer.  Add the shortening, and with your dough hook start the mixer.

Gradually add your sifted icing sugar, mixing well after each addition.  It is important to sift your icing sugar as you don’t want clumps of icing sugar through your fondant as you knead it.  You will need to stop the mixer every now and then to scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything gets incorporated.  Once the mixture starts to come away from the bowl (you may not have added all of the icing sugar so don’t fret), turn the mixture out onto your bench, dusted with a little more icing sugar, and heat the store bought fondant to soften it a little.  Once the store bought fondant is soft, knead it together with your marshmallow fondant.

Once you have thoroughly kneaded the two fondants together, Liz says you can use it straight away, however I used mine a few days later.

As the fondant was quite firm when I went to use it a few days later, I placed it in the microwave for 30-40 seconds until it was soft enough to start kneading, you don’t want to heat it so it all melts again so be careful.  Once kneaded it was really really easy to roll out.  In my very limited experience with fondant, this was so much easier to work with and it came away from The Mat very easily even though it was quite thin.

Taste wise, yes it did taste like marshmallow and was quite sweet with the icing sugar and I definitely preferred it over the straight store bought stuff.

You can certainly colour this fondant as well.  As I was covering the colouring book cake (coming soon) with the white fondant, I coloured what remained in blue, green, gold and peach.  I added a little Americolor Gel Paste to each of the balls of fondant (and yes, I did weigh them so they were even) and kneaded it through.

The colours were really vibrant and although the fondant became a little sticky with the gel paste, I rolled it between grease proof paper and it was fine.

On Liz’s website, she has some details on how to create dark colours like black, red and purple (remove two tablespoons on the water at the beginning and replace with gel paste) and how to convert the fondant to chocolate flavour by adding modelling chocolate.  I will definitely be giving that one a try!

I could really see why so many people love LMF and it will probably be my go to from now on as it is pretty easy to make and only took me about 20 minutes which isn’t a great deal of time.  Plus, it tastes pretty gosh darn yummy!

For the recipe below I have adjusted it to be based on 500g of marshmallows as in Australia most bags that I have come across are 250g (or a multiple thereof).  For my friends using the imperial system, the original quantities can be found on Liz’s website which is based on 1lb of marshmallows.

Print Recipe

Marshmallow Fondant

Adapted from Liz Marek's Recipe for LMF

Course

Homemade Ingredients, Icing/Frosting

Prep Time

30 minutes

Servings

Ingredients

• 500 g marshmallows mini or small in size
• 1 kg icing sugar sifted
• 3 1/3 tbsp water
• 110 g shortening
• 624 g fondant store bought

Course Homemade Ingredients, Icing/Frosting Prep Time 30 minutes Servings Ingredients 500 g marshmallows mini or small in size 1 kg icing sugar sifted 3 1/3 tbsp water 110 g shortening 624 g fondant store bought

Instructions

1. Place the marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl and heat in the microwave for one minute. Remove the marshmallows and stir. Put the bowl back in the microwave for another 30 seconds. Stir again to ensure that all of the marshmallows have melted. If not, put back in the microwave for another 30 seconds. When completely melted, they will puff up.
2. Add the water to the bowl and stir to pull the marshmallow away from the bowl. Transfer the marshmallows to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.
3. Place the shortening into the bowl and start the mixer on a low speed. Gradually add the sifted icing sugar and mix well in between. Occasionally stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and continue until the icing sugar and shortening are thoroughly combined.
4. Heat up the fondant in the microwave until it is pliable (should only be 30 seconds but may vary depending on the brand).
5. Turn the marshmallow mixture out onto a surface dusted with icing sugar and place the fondant on top. Knead the two together, dusting with more icing sugar as required.

Recipe Notes

Chocolate Flavour - Mix in modelling chocolate. Dark Coloured Fondant - Remove two tablespoons of water and replace with gel paste in your chosen colour. However, if using powdered colour there is no need to remove any of the liquid. The colour will develop and darken over a few hours.