Fun with Fondant! Spending Quality Time with Family!

Mishkie and Mom came out to visit in February and we decided to have a little fun with fondant! We've been wanting to play around with fondant lately to practice for my bestfriend's (or maybe I should say other sister's) wedding cake! To stay away from any time conflicts we could possibly have the week before her wedding though, we decided we will just make her a 1-year anniversary cake, which will be put on display at her wedding! So until then, we all decided it's best to keep practicing! 

Previously, I made fondant for the first time from a marshmallow base. It was a little tough to work with, but overall, I had a good experience with it. So for the next homemade fondant, we decided we wanted to try making one that might be a little easier to work with, plus we wanted to see if there was a recipe out there that called for ingredients we had on hand. Leave it to Allrecipes to give us something to try! Yay!

Rolled Buttercream Fondant (Original Recipe)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 1 lb. confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir together the shortening and corn syrup.
2. Mix in the salt and vanilla flavoring.
3. Gradually mix in the confectioners' sugar until it is a stiff dough.  Add more confectioners' sugar until it is smooth.
4. Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator until ready to use.
5. *Note: This recipe is best made with a stand mixer, using the dough hook attachment.

This fondant recipe had it's advantages and, unfortunately, disadvantages. The fondant was extremely easy to work with and mold, making it less stressful on first-time fondant users. AND we happened to have the ingredients already available, so we didn't need anything too special to put this together. But it was a softer type of fondant, so if you played with it too much, it just got softer, almost to the point of melting (but not quite). Now, there are actually solutions to this, but we didn't figure them out until we were done, such as the addition of more confectioner's sugar (but careful on the amount added, as you don't want the fondant to crack) OR the addition of cornstarch (I really wish we had tried the cornstarch!). 

Enjoy!