So!  Valentine’s Day was on Tuesday, and as usual, I used a holiday as an excuse to bake things.  Huzzah!

This holiday I decided to try something that’s been on my to-do list: fondant!  Specifically, marshmallow fondant, as I heard that it’s tastier than…uh, non-marshmallow I guess.

I’ve never messed with fondant before other than occasionally peeling it off of a cake, but I thought it’d still be cool to learn, especially since I learned that this marshmallow (IE, less-gross-tasting) version exists.  These little hearts I made were a combination of several recipes I perused in search of a way to make fondant hearts to perch atop some red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (naturally, it being Valentine’s Day and all).

It turns out marshmallow fondant is actually super easy to make, just a little messy.  The bottom line: melted marshmallows and a butt-ton (metric) of powdered sugar.  Seriously, that’s it.  Everything else is flavoring – vanilla, cream cheese, almond extract, whatever.  Pretty neat, yeah?

   

From left to right in these pictures you can see the process of making, kneading, and splitting the fondant (love my cooking scissors).  I added a little bit of vanilla extract and cream cheese to the melted marshmallows to get a flavor that would reasonably match the cupcakes.  After it was all thoroughly mixed together, I dumped it into a bowl of powdered sugar where I started to knead it together.  This actually wasn’t nearly as messy a process as I was expecting because, just like with dough, I was able to fold the powdered-side of the marshmallows on itself, keeping my hands mostly goo-free.  The biggest issue I ran into was that I wasn’t actually sure what the final consistency was supposed to be, so I think I may have over-kneaded it a bit.  I think I was expecting it to be a little sturdier, but when I think about it now I realize it’s supposed to smoothly cover an entire cake so it makes sense for it to be pretty flexible.

   

After splitting the fondant into 2 pieces, I tinted half and left the other white.  This was so I could marble them together to have some variation in the heart color.  Thanks to Katrina from In Katrina’s Kitchen for the idea for this!  To tint the fondant i simply added a few drops of color to the fondant and folded it in.  It worked pretty well, though it did leave some red food coloring stains on my counter. >.>  To marble them together I split each fondant color in half again, rolled them into snakes, and then folded a few times for variation and rolled it out into a flat sheet for cutting out shapes.  Voila!

Some of my hearts came out a little mushy because I didn’t cover my counter with quite enough powdered sugar (as you would with flour when cutting cookies, for example) but mostly it went very well.  The little discs I made with my leftover fondant scraps.  All in all, pretty awesome!

Would I make this fondant again?  Actually yeah, I think I might!  While I still would never prefer fondant over actual frosting in a cake, this was easy enough to do that I would consider covering a small cake with it, just for the experience.  New techniques are always a good thing, amirite?

Marshmallow Fondant Hearts (with Cream Cheese)

For more tips/recipes, try Wilde in the Kitchen or Clockwork Lemon!

Ingredients:

• 8oz mini marshmallows
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 oz cream cheese
• 3 cups powdered sugar (I ended up using less, but think this is still a good amount to have)
• food coloring (optional)

Instructions:

1. Microwave the marshmallows, vanilla, and cream cheese in the microwave in 20 second intervals until they start to inflate.  Watch carefully!
2. Fold/mix together until relatively smooth.
3. In a separate large bowl, put all the powdered sugar, then add all the marshmallow mixture on top.
4. Fold in the bowl, scooping from underneath and folding towards you to limit the amount of goo you get on your hands (you will still get messy)
5. Continue folding  until the fondant is no longer wet and sticky.
6. If you want to color, add ~3 drops of coloring to the fondant and fold it in until the color is uniform.
7. Roll out onto a well powdered sugar’d surface to ~1/4″ thick sheet and cut your shapes out.