Making Fondant with a 5-Year-Old

Making fondant with a 5-year-old...and the mess wasn't his fault!

So I’ve been wanting to learn to make fondant for quite a while now.  Everything I’ve read about it says it’s super hard to make, but that the pre-made stuff tastes like crap.  So what the hell are you supposed to do?  Anyway, I typically don’t like pre-made stuff.   I like to know how to make things from scratch and tweak them so they fit my tastes.  I found a recipe on Pinterest (which by the way, IMO, is THEE BEST!) for marshmallow fondant.  It said that marshmallow fondant was way easy and that there was no way you could mess it up.  Sounded great for a first attempt so I gave it a shot, with my trusty assistant J  Here’s what we used:  a bag of powdered sugar, a bag of marshmallows, some Crisco, and a few teaspoons of water.  And you need a Pyrex bowl, or something else that will be able to be microwaved.

By the way, check my new apron:

Okay, I let my son pour the marshmallows into the bowl.  And I let him eat a couple, too.

Then we added a couple teaspoons of water.  We melted it in the microwave.  It takes about two-and-a-half minutes total to melt (if I remember correctly) but we stopped it about every twenty or thirty seconds to check it and stir a little. 

When it was all melted we added ¾ of the bag of powdered sugar.  The recipe I had said to pour it on top, but I think the next time I try this, I’m going to stir it in a little bit before dumping it on the counter which is the next step. 

The next several minutes will have you in a panic.  I could have sworn that we forgot something or left something out.  Like a dummy, I didn’t print it out or have my laptop up and was instead looking at my phone.  But you get so incredibly sticky with the next step that you can barely pull your fingers apart, let alone grab your phone.  Hence, no pics from this stage.  Sorry!  Anyway, slowly but surely it all came together.  The Crisco is for greasing your hands and your working surface and trust me you want them extra greasy!  Add in a little more powdered sugar, too.  It will eventually come into the texture it is supposed to be.  Then you can dye it.  I have gel food coloring and it takes a while to work it in there for an even color and not a marble-y looking thing.  Keep your hands greased and when you put it up, grease the lump of fondant and the plastic wrap you’ll store it in until you are ready to use it.  Grease your rolling pin and your surface when you roll it out.  Once it’s flat you can lay it on top of your cake.

Trim the excess.

Make something out of the leftover fondant.  We did this Valentine's Day weekend so we made a pink cake and put hearts on it.

Success!  Tastes sweet, like marshmallows.  I think my next attempt will be much better and less messy. And now I’m dying to try to make real fondant.  So I survived a completely sticky mess with my 5-year-old helper.  And when I say sticky, I mean sticky.  I couldn’t even exaggerate how sticky it really gets.  I used a caulk scraper to remove the aftermath from my counter and the chair my son was standing in.  But we had a great time making it and I would totally suggest it for an afternoon project.  We made a strawberry cake from scratch that morning to put it on.  Speaking of strawberry cake, do you have a recipe for a from-scratch strawberry cake?  Because I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I should have and I have found that it’s hard to find a from scratch strawberry cake recipe.  Let me know!

Hello!

Hi guys!

It's been quite a while...I haven't lived up to my personal goal of writing at least once weekly.  :(  But I have been doing some new things!  I learned to make marshmallow fondant & I have started some interior decorating.  Lots of fun!

Again, my decorating is on the cheap.  Beyond cheap.  I've tried to get everything on sale or clearance.  And a lot of stuff is just reused or repurposed.  Like my living room furniture for instance.  I've had it since 2008.  It was stuff my parents bought in 1999.  I've painted the walls and bought curtains to match it.  I can't wait to post pictures of the before and after of all the rooms!

DIY: My Backyard

I have some DIY projects coming up around the house.  In order: Second bathroom remodel, organize guest bedroom, backyard, my bedroom.  The one I'm most excited about is my backyard.  I can't wait to fix it up so I can have summer cookouts.  I have a fairly large yard, almost half an acre, and I have lawn chairs and a grill that are begging to come out.  I have tiki citronella torches for the mosquitoes that plague us here in the Southeastern United States.  I have nice green grass and bushes and trees and flowers.  

My preparation included fertilizing the grass before it got too cold.  The last time I cut the grass before winter, I spread fertilizer and weed killer on the freshly cut grass.  It rained a couple of days later so that was good.  I have a truckload of mulch (anyone want some?  Seriously, you can have it.) to spread on the very back of my yard.  Grass doesn't grow well there because of all the trees back there.  They are old trees and the combination of their shade and the fact that they take pretty much all nutrients from the soil mean that grass just doesn't stand a chance.  

My next step is going to be to buy some sort of vegetation killer.  I have lots of vine/ivy/kudzu-type foliage growing wild in the very back, which makes things look very messy.  I'll follow up with some pictures later this week.  After that, I have to remove the remainder of an old and rusty chain link fence since my next-door neighbors put up a wooden fence.  I need new stepping stones because one is now cracked in half.

I also need a solution for this piss-poor grading job.  They graded my land so that a moat has formed around my house.  It's so stupid and it makes me mad every time I have to jump across it to reach my house in order to not get my feet wet!  My dad suggested pouring sand in a little bit at a time because he says the grass can grow up around it and that it will level the land.  Do you have any suggestions for me?

Finally, I want a vegetable garden.  I don't care what's in it.  Just something that will grow successfully.  I think I have the opposite of a green thumb so something very hardy would be in order.  I learned last year that I had two fig trees.  I don't like figs, but I am excited about having fruit trees so I will definitely pick them this year.  Who knows, I might take them up to the farmer's market and sell them!  Haha :)  I'm going to buy another fruit tree this spring, haven't decided exactly what, though.  

If you have any landscaping tips for me, or if you know of any plants that grow well in the South, let me know!

Decorating My House

Something I’m working on right now (one of my million unfinished projects) is decorating my house. Fun, you say. Yeah, but I’m really tardy. I’ve been a homeowner for a year now. I still have unpacked boxes and the feng shui just ain’t there. I hadn’t decided what I wanted to do and I didn’t want to purchase all of my furniture and then have to move it back out once I decided to paint. So the kitchen and living room have been painted, but aren’t completely decorated, and my bedroom, as well as the bathrooms, is still bare. The guest bedroom is a whole ‘nother story. It’s more like a storage unit at this point. It stays closed so I’m saving that for last. T’s bedroom looks good…I just need to have a few things framed that I painted for him and probably rearrange the furniture since his toys are taking over the room and spilling out into the rest of the house like The Blob. I think that’s going to be something else for me to “blog” about. Haha, I put that in quotes because it’s not like I “blog” on a regular basis. I can’t even call myself a “blogger”. I’m not quite sure that anyone is even ever going to read this. But, I will show you my decorating skills on a budget. I furnished my house for the low and everything was extra cheap. I’ll have to take some pictures of some of the things that I got. I’m all about recycling/reusing/repurposing…all that. Building off of what you already have and getting new pieces to bring the room for life. That can sometimes put narrow your color choices, but that’s where your creativity comes in to pull it all together.