The Mat- The Ultimate Fondant Application System

I am super excited to have found this product by SweetWise called "The Mat"- the ultimate fondant application system.  I haven't yet bought it but I was so excited that I had to share with all my favorite readers out there!

Here's a wonderful video that shows not only how The Mat works, but also gives GREAT tips on how to correctly roll out and apply fondant to a cake:

I will be purchasing this mat soon, and will update you all on how the product performs in a normal kitchen.  The reviews I have come across have all been positive.  The only problem would be its 30 inch size, which is very large to work with, and you can't get a fold in it or the dent transfers into the fondant and is impossible to get out once imprinted.  

I'll keep you all posted!

Pin It

I scream, you scream, we all scream for... (Updated)

...cake!  The Scream cake that is!

This weekend the DH and I went to a Scary Movie Party.  My task was to bring the cake in a spooky theme, and so I searched online for some caketastic ideas and found this cake design on the Wilton website.  It resembles the famous The Scream painting by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch:

There have been many great parodies of this chilling painting such as:

I figured if Homer can make this, then I can too, with cake!  The only question was, how was I going to make a tasty cake when it is going to have so much fondant on it?  I'm not a huge fan of Wilton's playdough tasting fondant so I researched and discovered marshmallow fondant.  

I decided to make my marshmallow fondant, which tastes a thousand times better than Wilton's fondant and costs a sixteenth of Wilton's $20 per 2lb tubs.  You can make marshmallow fondant (mmf) up to a month in advance, just store it in double wrapped cling wrap and then place inside a ziplock bag.  Do not refrigerate or it will break down due to the moisture in the fridge.

Here is the recipe for marshmallow fondant:

Ingredients

   16 oz of mini marshmallows
   2 to 4 Tablespoons of water

   2 LBS powdered sugar
   1/2 Cup of Crisco (for fingers and counter)


Instructions 

1.  Melt marshmallows and 2 Tablespoons of water in microwave until completely melted (approximately 1 minute 30 seconds).  

2.  Once melted, stir until completely smooth.  (Note: you can add food gel coloring at this point and stir to mix.  Much easier than kneading it in later.  This only works if you want one color for the whole batch.) Then add 2/3 of the powdered sugar. 

3.  Mix with a spoon unil you can't anymore, and then put Crisco on your hands and start kneading. 

4.  Once it's mixed well, put Crisco on your counter and knead until completely smooth.  

5.  It works better if you let it rest in an airtight container or zip lot bag and let it cool down for 24 hours, then use.  If it is necessary, it can be used immediately.

6.  If you find the fondant is tearing easily, it is too dry.  Add 1/2 Teaspoon at a time of water and knead it in until it is stretchy again.

The trick to making black fondant is to use the recipe above but add in some mini semi-sweet chocolate chips after melting the marshmallows and stir until melted and blended.  Then you can add your black gel food coloring and mix in until it reaches the blackest it can be.  This will be about 2 tsp per bag of marshmallows.  Here is the recipe from Cakecentral.com but note the recipe is calling for a 10.5 oz bag of marshmallows in the recipe instead of the above 16oz bag.  

Black Marshmallow Fondant

Ingredients

   6 oz. of semi sweet chocolate chips (about half of a bag)
   1 10.5 oz bag of mini marshmallows
   3 tbsp. of clear Karo syrup
   3 tbsp. water
   1 1lb. bag of powdered sugar
   gel black food coloring
   Crisco

Instructions

1.  Put your marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl, add the water, and microwave on high for 1 minute and 30 seconds. When marshmallows come out they will be HOT.

2.  Stir, scraping the sides with a scraper. Immediately add your chocolate chips, and stir until the chips are completely melted.

3.  Add your Karo syrup and stir again, this time with a butter knife, making sure that all of your syrup is incorporated.

4.  Add a good amount of black gel food coloring, and stir again with your knife, making sure that you scrape around the edges. 

5.  Once your mixture is the blackest black that you can get, (I added about 2 tsp. of the gel coloring) then add about half of your bag of powdered sugar, and stir until the mixture is thick, with your knife. 

6.  Grease your hands liberally with Crisco and add the rest of the powdered sugar to the bowl. Knead your fondant until all of the powdered sugar is gone. 

7.  Store for up to a month wrapped in plastic wrap, sealed in a gallon Ziploc, and stored in an airtight container.

I also made my own own apricot filling called Lekvar (Hungarian).  The apricot Lekvar was so easy and tasted great.  I am now inspired to make my own Hamentashen when Purim rolls around in March.

The following Lekvar recipe yields about 2.5 cups of Lekvar.  You can use either prunes or apricots.

Ingredients

  1 1/2 cups pitted prunes, lightly packed

  2/3 cup water

  1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

  3 tablespoons lemon juice

  1/3 cup brown sugar

Directions

1. Simmer all ingredients, except brown sugar, covered 25- 30 minutes until very soft and most of water is evaporated.
2. Uncover last few minutes if necessary.
3. Remove from heat and mash.
4. Stir in brown sugar.
5. You can keep Lekvar in the refrigerator for a long time.
6. Store in a canning jar.

Unfortunately I made the cake with a boxed chocolate cake mix and the containers of chocolate frosting that you can buy from Duncan Hines or the like.  This made the cake taste cheap and overly sweet, and completely overpowered the delicate flavor of the apricot.  Next time I will make my own cake batter and use a light buttercream to hold the fondant on.  I'm considering making an orange cake to go with the apricot filling next time.  What flavor cake do you think would taste best with an apricot filling?  Comment your thoughts below!

***UPDATE:  I have submitted this recipe as November's YBR submission.  For more information of what YBR is, click on the button below which will take you to Spicie Foodie's site:

Pin It

Caketastic

Here is a cupcake cake I made for a colleague's son's first birthday party:

The Elmo cupcake is for the birthday boy who is turning 1.  The other cake is a jungle themed cake and I had to make four of them.  The animals are made purely of fondant and the palm trees are piped royal icing on top of pretzel rods.

The four cakes took me three entire nights after work, but after it was all said and done, I think it was worth the work. 

For those of you in need of a laugh, check out Cakewrecks, a funny blog that makes pithy comments about professional cake disasters that blog readers submit pictures of.  They also sometimes show awesome cakes that are so impressive it's hard to pass up the opportunity to share the pictures.
Pin It