Celebration Cake

I made this cake for my daughters 2nd birthday party. It was an ice cream theme.

I tried making homemade marshmallow fondant for the first time and it was delicious and just like working with play dough. My sister lent me the recipe. I flavored it with almond flavoring and the guests swore it was marzipan. I made a simple vanilla cream filling (that I sometimes use as a frosting as well) for the center of each cake and let me tell you this cake tasted like an elaborate wedding cake. The ingredients costs about $8.00 to make and it tasted like a $250 cake. I just used a strawberry and yellow cake mix to match the yellows and pinks in the fondant. I posted the recipes below for the marshmallow fondant and the vanilla cream filling. A little tip I used when dividing my cakes for filling. My mother in law taught me years ago to use a string to slice cakes rather than a knife. You get a cleaner and more accurate cut. I also use the string to slice of the tops of my cakes to make them flat. Give this cake a try.

Easy Marshmallow Fondant

• 16 oz mini white marshmallows
• 2-5 Tbsp of water
• 2 lbs powder sugar
• 1/2 cup Crisco shortening

In a large glass bowl melt the marshmallows and 2 Tbsp of water in the microwave for about 2 1/2 minutes. If you are going to flavor replace some of the water with your extract. Almond extract is my favorite! Take out of microwave and place 3/3 of powdered sugar on top of melted marshmallow mixture. Grease your hands and counter top with Crisco. Dump bowl onto counter top and begin kneading. Add the rest of powder sugar and continue kneading.

When fondant begins to stick to you or counter top, re-grease with Crisco. If mix tears easily then it's too dry and you need to add 1/2 Tbsp of water. It takes about 8 minutes of kneading to become a firm, smooth, elastic ball like play dough. This is when you want to add your food coloring.

Divide the dough into large balls until you have enough balls for each color you will be using. Add drops of food coloring at a time and knead in until it turns the desired shade you want. I combined colors to make purple and teal. It is messy and your fingers will get dyed. You need to work quickly because fondant will begin to dry. It's a good idea to grease the outside of your balls with Crisco and wrap tightly with plastic wrap until you are ready to dye them.

Once you are finished you can store in the fridge for weeks at a time. When you are ready to use, place the fondant ball in microwave for 10 seconds to soften. Then grease your counter and use rolling pin to smooth into a blanket in which you can wrap your cakes and use to decorate.

Vanilla Cream Filling

• 1 pkg of instant vanilla pudding
• 16 oz cool whip

Mix ingredients together and spread over cake. Depending on the cake you are making you can use different flavors of pudding or replace the pudding with jello to get the flavor you want. It stiffens, so you need to use mixture quickly while it is smooth. Place in fridge when finished. This filling tastes great chilled.

If making a 3 tiered cake you'll need to double this recipe.