I have definitely had my bouts of both love and hate for this sticky, licky treat. On first try, I nearly threw in the towel and went back to one hundred and one layers of butter cream. Who invented this inherently evil blob of sugar, I thought to myself? How can one handle working with it so often and not want to punch a hole in said cake? I tried and I tried and after nearly four hours of fighting through tears and a confectioner sugar coated kitchen, I finally managed to tame the beast. But it wasn't easy, in fact, I'm pretty sure I almost had a mental break...but I get pretty serious when it comes to baking cake.
I have tried everything in the way of fondant that I could get my hands on: pre-made box fondant, home-made fondant (this is actually treacherous), and finally marshmallow fondant *heaven and angels sing!* which turned out to be the best decision I had ever made.
The trick is to have a really good recipe, unfortunately having a good recipe and finding one are two very different things. The absolute best marshmallow fondant recipe I stumble upon was the Wilton marshmallow fondant. It is definitely my go-to recipe for fondant, although you may have to play with the recipe a bit adding either more icing sugar or more shortening depending on where you live and what your humidity is like. For example, English rain is apparently not so good for making fondant, so if your humidity is super high like ours, don't be afraid to coat your kitchen in icing sugar. Literally, just dump that stuff all over your counter tops and you should be fine.
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Rolled-Marshmallow-Fondant
Ever since, I have been trying my hand at fondant at every possible occasion and I suddenly realized the obvious. Just like baking and decorating, fondant takes a lot of time, dedication and love to really figure it out. And when I say dedication I mean it...it's like deciding to shave your head bald; you kind of have to be committed.
It reminds me of my humble beginnings in baking. Believe it or not, there was a time in my life when I could not even bake a box cake. My sister was always the baker, so I baked under her command until I decided to make the no-fail Crocker box cake...I remember it all so well, and I bet my sister does too! It was supposed to be a vanilla-chocolate marble cake, but for all its claimed ease of baking, the Crocker cake actually turned out more like jelly. I still have no idea how I actually manage this. But you know what? After a lot of practice, you can be good at anything. And years of trials and tribulations, I am actually getting paid to do it.
Nowadays, the dreaded foe that fondant once was is now working companion. I actually find it quite therapeutic to knead and roll out fondant. The more I use it, the more I love it. While it can be tricky at first, the moral of the story is: keep on trucking and don't give up at the first bump in the road! I promise, once you get the hang of it, you can do wondrous things!
Until next time lovelies! Love your baking, it will love you right back!
xoxo Jenn
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