I had the pleasure of making some cupcakes for a sweet sweet friend’s baby shower. My friend Sara is the world’s most amazing woman, friend, mommy and wife! Everyone she knows LOVES her!! She is having another baby girl and so a few friends threw her a shower. The invites had a little nest with a pink egg on it and the baby room colors are blue, pink and red. The fondant covered ones are lemon poppyseed and the nest ones with the swirled buttercream is a dark chocolate cake with a ganache center. I found a bird’s nest made of katafi online, so I decided to use katafi (shredded phyllo dough) for the nests. I put butter, sugar and cinnamon all over them and baked them to carmelize it. The egg is a little ball of fondant. This was the first time I made fondant covered cupcakes. They have a dome of buttercream frosting under them to give them that smooth domed shape. The red cupcake topper is white chocolate modeling clay, the chocolate colored cupcake topper is semi-sweet modeling chocolate, the pink and blue cupcake toppers are fondant. The blue one was a new recipe I used and ABSOLUTLEY LOVE! So, here is my new MMF recipe (Rhonda’s Ultimate MMF recipe from cakecentral.com) below…I will be using this every time I make MMF from now on…it’s THAT good!| 16 oz. mini marshmallows 2 T water 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp lemon juice (fresh or bottled) 2 tsp light corn syrup (helps w/ pliability) 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 tsp lemon extract 2 lbs (approx 7 C) confectioner’s sugar, sifted 1/2 C Crisco or vegetable shortening |
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Grease microwave proof bowl w/ Crisco. Also grease wooden or heat proof spoon. Pour marshmallows and water into bowl. Microwave for approximately 2 minutes stopping and stirring at 40 second intervals. Mixture should be soupy.
Take out of microwave and immediately add corn syrup, lemon juice, salt and extracts. Stir well. Sift confectioner’s sugar into mixture, one cup at a time. After approximately 6 cups you’ll barely be able to keep mixing, so grease your hands and work surface really well. Put the remaining sifted powdered sugar on top of the greased counter top and turn the marshmallow mixture out of the bowl on top of the remaining powdered sugar. Knead well. If mixture seems soft, add one additional cup of powdered sugar a little at a time. Shape into a mound and put a coating of crisco on outside. Double wrap in cling wrap and insert into ziplock bag. Press air out of bag and seal. Allow to rest overnight, but, it can be used after sitting for a few hours.
Thanks mom!
I have to send a big thanks out to my mom!!!!!! She came up and helped me watch my kids all day so I could I bake and decorate the cupcakes. She even sat and helped me cut out and paste over 200 polka dots!! I love you mom…thanks so much for your help!
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You are too too sweet Jess, thanks so much for making the not only DELICIOUS, but BEAUTIFUL cupcakes. One of the most important things to me in eating cake is moistness and you mastered it! Then the decorating to boot. LOVED THEM LOVED THEM! Thank you for your kind words and your gift I am so blessed by you.
Hey it’s me Brandi again. I was writing to bug you. I am using your MMF recipe for the first time on a cake order due Friday. Is there any tips you can give me that you’ve learned from using it? I’ve read diff things about MMF having a slightly diff texture from store bought fondant. I was wondering having you noticed anything of the sort. Also, I was curious to know what you do to store your cake until you’re ready to assemble it. If I wrapped the cake in fondant on a Thursday, but didn’t need it until Friday would it be ok to keep it in the fridge? What would/do you do? Hope you’re able to get back to me soon. I plan to make the MMF today, but I won’t use it until later this week on the cake. Thanks!!!
MMF seems to be more pliable than store bought stuff. It has more “stretch” to it before it cracks. It is softer at the beginning, so it’s nice to let it set up for a few hours/overnight and then knead it and roll it out to cover your cake. Try to roll it about 3/8″ thick. Use cornstarch to roll out…makes it much easier than powdered sugar. There is much debate on covering a chilled cake or a room temp cake. The problem with covering a cooled cake is that you’ll get more air bubbles. It’s easier though because the buttercream holds it’s shape when cooled. But, with MMF, it will sweat. So, I’d recommend using ganache for the crumb coat (you can still use buttercream on the inside) and let that sit overnight at room temp to settle, then cover with fondant the next morning. Or if you cover it with ganache in the morning Thursday, cover it with fondant, and decorate it Thursday evening. That way the ganache hardens and everything is room temp. The cake will be totally fine covered with ganache, sitting out from Thursday morning through Friday. You’ll need to brush/lightly spray the ganache with a little water or simple syrup before covering it with fondant so that the fondant sticks to it. Also, the fondant recipe has a light citrus aftertaste to it…kinda a fresh taste. I’m not sure what type of cake you’re making, but you might take out the lemon juice or lemon extract to tone that down a bit if you’re making a cake where it’s not advantageous to have the citrus taste to it. Good luck!!
Thanks so much. I made the MMF earlier and it was kinda fun! LOL! I really want to do the ganache, but they were pretty specific in saying they wanted a plain cake with buttercream. Not sure if that would be a problem or not. I’m going to start baking the cakes Thursday after work. Hopefully…fingers crossed…I can get them all baked. I have to do a 10″, 8″, 6″. I’ll be sure to let you know how it all turns out. Thanks so much for your help!
p.s.
using the spray bottle for the simple syrup is such a good idea! glad i saw that on here!
I haven’t used a spray bottle for the simple syrup before. I’ve only used it with water. I would brush on the simple syrup. However, I guess you could spray it on, I just wonder about it getting clogged!? Good luck!
Also, you can email me with questions at jessicakes33@yahoo.com