My friend Shireen asked me to make a tutorial about a princess cake for the upcoming birthday of her sweet daughter Angelica.I was more than happy to oblige. I have never made a princess cake before and I thought this will be fun and hopefully Shireen and anyone considering to make a fondant princess cake will find this helpful.

Before we get started please do excuse the quality of the final images, my camera broke 😦 right when I was about to take the pictures of the finished cake 😦 (talk about luck!).

I divided the tutorial into parts because of the number of steps and pictures. Part will be about preparing the marshmallow fondant (MMF), while part 2 will be about preparing the cake, carving it and decorating it with marshmallow fondant.

I really love working with fondant…it is really fun and it gives the finished cake a somewhat  professional look. My only problem with fondant is the fact that it is SWEEEEEET. I can hardly manage eating more that one bite and I’ve noticed that most people just set it aside and only eat the cake. So the question that I faced was :

Is there a MMF(marshmallow fondant) recipe that had some flavor to it? something that would offset the sweetness?

Cake central provided the answer. A lady named Rhonda promised a fondant that is pliable, easy to use and DELICIOUS. So in the name of science I decided to try it  🙂 and I’m glad to tell that Rhonda is a woman who keeps  her promises. The lemon added a refreshing hint to the fondant and the salt helped balance out some of the sweetness. Now don’t get me wrong the fondant was still sweet but now it had some flavor to it, the kids actually loved it and were munching on it as we were decorating the cake.

 

Rhonda’s Ultimate MMF

Ingredients

15 oz.  (425 grams) mini marshmallows
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
2 teaspoon light corn syrup (helps w/ pliability)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
2 lbs (1 kilogram) (approx 7 C) confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1/2 Cups Crisco or vegetable shortening or butter

Instructions

Grease microwave proof bowl with Crisco. Also grease wooden or heat proof spoon.

Pour marshmallows and water into bowl. Microwave for approximately 2 minutes stopping and stirring at 40 second intervals.You want the marshmallow to melt completely.

This is what it looked like after the first 40 seconds

40 more seconds (80 total)

 40 more (120 seconds)

After 40 more seconds (160 seconds)

Take out of microwave and immediately add corn syrup, lemon juice, salt and extracts. Stir well.

Sift confectioner’s sugar into mixture, one cup at a time.

 After approximately 5 cups, grease your hands well with Crisco and knead the mixture in the bowl.

 Add the sixth cup and continue to knead. Now grease your work surface well and turn mixture out of bowl onto counter. Sift remaining sugar, regrease hands, and knead well. If mixture seems soft, add one additional cup of powdered sugar.

Shape into a mound and put a coating of crisco on outside. Double wrap in cling wrap and insert into ziplock bag. Press air out of bag and seal. Allow to rest overnight, but, can be used after sitting for a few hours.