Alright, enough pirate talk. If you ever walk to talk like a pirate though, you can use the English-to-pirate translator…seriously! It be a lot o’ fun!
Last year I used a homemade fondant to decorate the boy’s Cars cake, and I really enjoyed working with it. It coloured well, shaped well, and held up well. This year, I just wanted to try something different. So, I scoured Cake Central for recipes, and ideas. If you are ever looking for ideas for ANY themed cake or cupcakes, you should definitely take a peek through the gallery there, there are a ton of ideas!
Looking through the recipes, I came across one for a marshmallow fondant that tastes like buttercream. I’m in! The recipe was simple, easy, AND it tastes like buttercream! Perfect!
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup Crisco, used for kneading the dough
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, used for greasing the bowl for melting marshmallows in
- 8 cups mini marshmallows, very loosely packed
- 2 1/2 tsp clear vanilla extract (gf)
- 2 1/2 tsp clear butter flavoured extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp water
- 1 Tbsp white corn syrup, helps with pliability
- 2 Lbs powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 Tbsp powdered Dream Whip (optional)
Directions:
- Grease the inside of a large microwave safe bowl with butter
- Place marshmallows, vanilla & butter flavoured extracts, salt and water in the bowl. Microwave on high for 60 seconds. Stir. If marshmallows are completely melted, you are ready to proceed, if not, return to microwave in 30 second intervals until completely melted. Add in corn syrup.
- Fit stand mixer with the dough hook and pour in powdered sugar, Dream whip and salt. Mix well. Carefully add the melted marshmallow mixture to the powdered sugar mixture. Mix at low speed until incorporated. Turn mixer up to low/medium speed to knead until most of the sugar is blended in.
- Turn fondant onto a flat surface that has been lightly dusted with powdered sugar. Knead fondant until smooth and pliable. Coat hands with Crisco if the fondant is too sticky, and continue adding powdered sugar until you have a smooth dough.
- Wrap tightly in plastic wrap followed by a zipper seal bag. Let dough rest for at least an hour before using it. If the fondant has become too stiff to work with, you can soften it by microwaving it for 10-15 seconds, then rub your hands with Crisco and knead until pliable again.
- The fondant can be made up to 2 weeks in advance, as long as it it wrapped and sealed properly, to prevent drying out.
To Change flavours, use different extracts:
Coconut - add 2 tsp coconut extract, and use 3 Tbsp coconut milk in place of the water
White Chocolate – Use 7 cups of marshmallows and 4 oz. melted white chocolate in place of the 8 cups marshmallows.
Chocolate- Use 7 cups marshmallows and 1/2 cup melted baking chocolate in place of the 8 cups marshmallows. Use 1 tsp each vanilla extract and butter flavoured extract instead of 2 tsp.
Source: Cake Central
Thanks for sending this recipe to me!! I made this recipe for a baby shower this weekend. I LOVED it and so did everyone else! I made 24 little turtles to use as cake toppers. I had enough left over I could have made about 15 more, but I didn't have the extra two hours.
The only change I had to make to the recipe was to add about 2-3 extra cups of powdered sugar to get the fondant to a non-sticky smooth texture.
Last night the kids and I sat down and played with the leftovers. Good, sweet, fun!
WOW. These are so cute! I've never had the opportunity to try fondant, but it never looks very good. I'd rather try this first! What a lucky boy!
oh those lil pirates…they're beauties!
My biggest beef with fondant is that it doesn't taste very good. You've obviously solved that! Yay!!
I will have to try this. I've worked with packaged fondant and never cared for the taste.
Your pirate cupcakes are so adorable.
Thanks,
Amy
Adorable cupcakes! My oldest had a pirate party a few years back, these would have been perfect!!
This is very impressive! And the thing I dislike about fondant is the taste; so I bet I'd love this!
Thanks for submitting to Gluten Free Feed, too
Those pirate cupcakes are amazing! Glad I met you on Tasty Kitchen.
Awwww – these lil pirates could not be any cuter.
Working with either rolled or poured fondant is a fun activity to do. I will try to make different variations of design using fondant! The cupcakes sure are lovely!
Thanks, guys! I liked the taste of the fondant (compared to some others), and I liked how it worked out, plus, it was super easy to make.
Fondant really comes very handy to create unique and cute designs for cakes and pastries. I wish I have same hands and creativity as yours. The pirate is super cute and adorable!
I've just spent an hour wandering through your past recipes…it's been time well spent:) These cupcakes are so darn cute! I can't wait to try the fondant, the packaged stuff is not the best.
@Rhonda Thanks, Rhonda! I'm glad that you enjoyed your time, there are quite a few recipes to go through.
These cupcakes were a lot of fun to put together, pretty easy to work with.
LOVE your pirate cupcakes – what did you use to cut out the nose and eyes? – such a cute idea -
@Holtnotes, Thank you! The nose, eyes & pupils were all just little bits of the fondant rolled into balls and then flattened slightly with my hands. My little guy (and his friends) sure thought they were cool.
Have you ever tried mixing this fondant with gumpaste to create stiff(er) details?
Brooke, I never have tried it, but don't see why it wouldn't work.
I have never made fondant before or even tried working with it. I know the stuff in the store is no good as my mom tried it for my sisters wedding cake…they ended up not using it thankfully. Thinking about trying now and like the looks of this recipe since you say it tastes like buttercream. However, I have never heard of Dream Whip, I know you say it is optional but was wondering what it does for the fondant and how much difference it actually would make. Also, I will be covering a single layer 10″, 8″, and 6″, would this recipe make enough for that.
The first fondant cake that I tasted was not that good compared to buttercream icing, sure the cake look good and the centerpiece of the party, that’s why I googled “delicious fondant” and here I am. I will try your recipe for my daughter’s 7th b-day and IT WILL BE my first fondant cake! Just two questions I hope you will reply… only large mallows are available here, I’ll go ahead with 8 cups? Is extract the same with essence?? Because that’s what in the store here too, flavourings are all labeled essence…
Khen, if you can only get the large marshmallows, I would just take and cut them into 4 pieces and measure them that way. As for the essence, is that what you use in all your baking? Whatever you use in your baking is what I would use for the vanilla. Happy 7th birthday to your daughter!! My son is turning 6 soon, so time to think about what kind of cake to make him again.
I have heard that fondant cannot be refridgerated because the moisture will disolve the fondant. Is that the same for this recipe, or can this recipe be refriderated?
I’m not sure, I haven’t tried to refrigerate it, sorry!
I was thrilled to find this recipe! I’m planning to make a castle cake for my son’s 5th birthday next week and wasn’t sure how I was going to do it with regular icing, but I can’t buy fondant here (we are living in West Africa for a few years) and have never liked the taste of it anyway. One question…do you know if there’s anything I could use in place of the clear butter flavored extract?? I know that’s important, but I won’t be able to find that there. Any ideas? Thanks!
Hi Lauren, I’d try using either almond or coconut extract if you can’t get the butter flavour. It obviously won’t taste like a buttercream then, but it would still be delicious!
Thanks, Jeanine. I’ll see if I can find either of those. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
For this recipe, how big of a cake would it cover, do you know?
I would say for sure a 9″ round, 2 layer cake,with extra to colour and decorate the cake with. Good luck!
What do you use to colour the fondant?
I used gel food colouring, I believe it’s from Wilton.
When do you add in the food coloring?
You can leave it white, or you can add colour as you use it, at the end. I take off a piece at a time, and colour it the colour that I need it to be. I find gel colours work best. HTH!
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My cake decorating teacher gave us this recipe last week…I made it today…LOVE LOVE it! I m about to color it and prepare for my final cake. I was surprised at how much it made. The taste is wonderful…I ran out of clear vanilla so I used mexican vanilla which has a stronger taste than the typical vanilla…it still came out very white and with a wonderful wonderful flavor.
I LOVE Mexican vanilla, Cindy! Great substitution!