How to Make $3 Fondant

It is no secret that I hate store bought fondant. It tastes horrible and is way too expensive. But, nothing compares to fondant to get those smooth, expensive looking cakes and cupcakes. So I was forced to occasionally buy the Wilton fondant from Michael's even though I hate it.

Until I found a recipe for Marshmallow Fondant. It is wonderful, tastes like a marshmallow, insanely easy and cheap to make, easy to work with (once you get the hang of it), and for covering a cake it looks just as good as the manufactured stuff. The only area it lacks sometimes is molding figurines. Marshmallow fondant tends to be softer than store bought fondant, and it doesn't dry as quickly either. But it can still work. For instance I made the pumpkins on the cupcakes in this post with fondant and it worked just fine. Anything much more complicated and you are asking for trouble though.

While I was making my fondant for a little boy's birthday cupcakes I decided to set up my tripod and camera and do a little tutorial on how to make marshmallow fondant. Enjoy!

What you need:
A big bag of mini-marshmallows
1 pound powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp(s) water or flavoring
Crisco

What you need to do:

First, pour the bag of marshmallows into a microwave proof bowl along with a tablespoon of water or flavoring:


Microwave the marshmallows in short increments for 15-30 seconds, stirring between each interval. Continue until the marshmallows are almost entirely melted, continue stirring until they are melted entirely.

Next, pour half of the powdered sugar into the bowl with the melted marshmallows...



and stir until the mixture begins to thicken.


Once the mixture has thickened a bit grease the counter top and your hands with Crisco and dump the mixture onto the counter. (You will have wonderfully soft hands after all this)


Knead the marshmallow/sugar mixture while adding more powdered sugar...


Once the mixture is thick enough that you can pull it apart with out the fondant breaking form it into a ball and cover it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight or until you need it. Fondant will last about a week in the fridge if you double wrap.


If you want to color the fondant only use gel food colorings (I have never used the powder ones, but I hear they work too). Color the fondant after it has set in the fridge and before you roll it out and decorate with it.

Disappear...

I seem to be thinking about disappearing a lot lately, and not just because I am baking magician themed cupcakes for a little boy's birthday party this week. There are days when I just want to grab Garry and our dogs and disappear to some island. Completely isolate ourselves from everything and everyone we know. To try and just be happy with the two of us, no possibility of fertility treatments or false hopes. Just us doing what we do best, chilling out together.

There are days that I want to block every pregnant couple, new parent, old parent on my facebook. Just make them all disappear. Because there are days that their happiness feels like salt in my wounds. Thankfully those days are still few and far between. Most days I can talk to my pregnant friends about morning sickness and nurseries and be genuinely happy for them, and not even that sad for me. But some days seeing a pregnancy announcement on Facebook makes me want to curl into a ball and disappear.

There are days I can feel parts of myself disappearing. I have always been a fairly optimistic person, I always believed things would work out eventually. I don't always believe that any more. I have always thought if I did things right and worked hard, tried to be a good person that things would work out. But now I know that isn't always the case. It may not matter that I waited till I found the love of my life to get married and have a kid. It doesn't matter that I work hard at my job and do more work then I am actually paid for. It doesn't matter that I have tried to be kind to people even when they didn't really treat me the same way. The odds are still going to be in favor of me not having a child, not getting my dream job or even promoted, and I am never going to make everyone like me. It just isn't how it works. I feel sad thinking about my optimism seeping out of me. I never wanted to be someone who looked on the darker side of things, but that is what is slowly happening.

I know I am lucky to have found a man that I love and who loves me so completely. And most the time I do feel lucky just to be with him at all. But the closer we get to IVF #2 the more terrified I become that it will fail and a little bit more of me, our relationship, my hope will disappear.

Gearing Up

Things have been very quite around my world lately. I admittedly gained some weight back in the past two months. It was so easy going from eating perfectly healthy every day to eating like crap again. Turns out it is a lot harder to go back to eating really healthy again. For the past week I have been trying to get it back under control, and working out everyday. but it doesn't seem to be making a huge difference, which is frustrating.

But regardless I am still under my IVF weight, and things are lining up for starting IVF #2 in June. We are ordering the meds and waiting for the calendar from my IVF nurse to see what we are looking at as far as timing goes. I am excited to get started again. Mother's Day was hard for me, and it seems like everyone around me is giving birth or announcing their newest pregnancy. I am beyond ready for it to be me.

I am also very excited because I have a little surprise lined up for Garry at the end of June. I won't go into much detail because I don't want him to find out, but it is something we really need, and it will be a good way to either celebrate IVF #2 working or drown our sorrows if it doesn't work. I'll clue you all in when I clue him in. We are also going to get our portraits taken by a friend who is also a wonderful photographer. I have always hated our engagement photos, so these will take their place. It is all part of my plan to concentrate not just on trying to have a baby, but also to make sure that no matter what we are as tight a couple as we have always been.

It may be slow around here until IVF #2 actually gets going because I have a lot of work responsibilities coming up, and I have several photography projects of my own coming up as well. Enjoy the Spring people!