Super Mario Brothers Cake and Fondant

Good things come in pairs, I think.

It was like any other day, nothing to make today special. It was breezy and sun-shine-y. Little did I know the disaster that awaited me.

I baked my chocolate cake as usual. I had all the ingredients and even added a vanilla bean.

350 degrees and fifteen minutes later, I smelled burning chocolate.

I ran to the oven and sure enough, my cake was singed on the edges. It was crusty and it was nothing but crumb. It broke when it came out of the pan. I was upset. Thoroughly.

I decided that I would not let this small failure set me back from making a fantastic Super Mario Brothers Cake. I baked another chocolate cake, different recipe.

This recipe turned out much better. It didn't burn and it was just perfect.

I froze my three layers of chocolate cake and made a batch of my mom's wedding frosting *very rich!* I slapped a dab of that good ol' frosting on a cardboard circle and started layering my cakes, putting frosting in between each. I ended up making two batches of frosting to get the job done. After I smoothed it out, I let it freeze to harden.

I made a batch of fondant from corn syrup, shortening, and powdered sugar. I followed the recipe as written and came out with a hard clump of sugar. I tried to roll it out so I could cover my cake but it kept breaking and flaking off. Not again, I thought. Do I really have to make a second batch of fondant as well as chocolate cake? Of course I do.

This time I used a marshmallow fondant recipe. It took half the time and was far easier. I got amazing results.

Marshmallow Fondant

1 bag mini marshmallows

2 tbsp water

1 bag (2lbs) powdered sugar

Melt marshmallows and water in microwave. Heat for 1 minute, let rest after stirring, and then heat for another minute. Stir in powdered sugar. All of it. I would highly recommend greasing your spoon with crisco/shortening as well as heavily greasing your tabletop. No joke.

Pour/dump marshmallow-sugar mixture onto greased surface and knead until smooth and soft. You shouldn't need more sugar than 1 bag allows.

Let sit in the fridge until ready to use.

Once ready to use, set to room temperature. If the fondant is too hard, heat it in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time until it is soft enough to knead and use. *should take about 20 seconds if its cold cold, if room temp, only about 10.*

If you want to add color, add it now. Knead in a bit of color. It will take a lot of kneading to get it uniform in color. If you do not knead it fully to incorporate all the color, you will have a tie dye swirl effect in the fondant--which is fine if that is what you are going for.

If you want white fondant, do not add food coloring. Grease countertop with shortening/crisco

and sprinkle just a bit of powdered sugar on the counter over the grease. Put the fondant on the table and roll it out thin, to about 1/4 in or a bit more in depth. If you get it too thin, you will see every bump in the cake below. If you get it too thick, I'd imagine it would be harder to work with. Your call!

How big you roll the fondant depends on how big your cake is. If you have a cake that is 10 inches across and 3 inches high, you'll need to make a circle with a diameter of at LEAST 16 inches across. (10 across, 3 on one side, 3 on opposite side) Remember, it's better to have too much and have to cut it off.

You are ready to put it over the cake! I found it easy to roll the fondant lightly onto the rolling

pin, set the cake on the table and unroll the fondant on top of it. I worked towards me. In other words, I put the cake down and the rolling pin was at arms length away from me. I lifted the fondant so that the edge of the fondant was a bit below the bottom of the cake. Unroll it on top of the cake. Remember-- your cake should be frosted and hard.

Once you unroll it, start at the top, moving your hand in circular motions pressing lightly down to adhere it to the cake. Move fast as to not make indents in the cake! As you are doing this, start gently pressing on the sides of the cake to set that. As you can see, there will be ruffles! To get rid of these, start at the top, rub the fondant down onto the cake and gently tug on the fondant at the bottom to stretch it out.

I found that once I reached the bottom of the cake and the sides were smoothed down, I took the cake and put it on top of a cd stack so that it would be higher up and I could cut the excess fondant off easier.

After you cut off the excess, smooth it down with your hand gently. If you have a fondant smoother, GREAT! I didn't and I didn't want to pay the money... I know-- I'm cheap. It still gives a great finish.

I started coloring small bits of leftover fondant and shaping them with a knife. To attach the pieces to the cake, I mixed about half a cup of hot water with 1/4 cup sugar. I brushed the back of the piece I was attaching with this sugar mixture and pressed it on lightly. Beware that you don't leave fingerprints or indents!

Excuse the crude cutting and shapes--this was my first time with fondant and the next time will be better!!

I'll finish the Mario cake today and post more pictures! I'm almost done shaping a Yoshi and have Mario yet to form!

Working with fondant isn't as bad as I thought it'd be. This marshmallow recipe tastes good compared to the first batch I made. I hope you try out fondant! If you don't want to roll individual shapes, use a cookie cutter to shape them!