Super Mario Brothers Finished Cake

Here is my Mario cake! It's not perfect, I know. I was just so stoked to be able to make figures that halfway resemble the actual characters. I'm most proud of Yoshi... but I know the others need work. Someday I'll re-do this cake and make it glorious in it's nerdtastic form.

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!

Creamy Chicken Calzones

When you're broke and hungry, bread seems to fill a person up quite well.When you have bread, cream, and chicken, creamy chicken calzones fill up a person even better.

I wanted pizza, I tell you! Alas, no cheese or pepperoni in the house. Although I did have soup, I didn't want to eat it. I wanted something bread-y and delicious.

Creamy Chicken Calzones

6 chicken tenderloins

2 cups cream

a few tablespoons of flour

all the spices your heart desires (garlic, onion, chives, parsley, pepper)

Any veggies you want (onion, mushroom, spinach, artichokes, peppers)

pizza dough (recipe to follow)

Mix the flour into the cream. Cook cream in a large saucepan with all the spices. Cook on medium heat (you don't want to burn the cream!) until it is very thick. This will take quite a while...10-20 minutes. If you are brave, turn up the heat but stir often! If it gets TOO thick, thin it with a bit of milk.

Boil the chicken tenderloins until they are white all the way through (perhaps about 10 minutes. Cut one open to check it.) Cut up chicken into small chunks and add to the cream and continue to cook. Once very thick, remove from heat.

Roll out pizza dough to a 1/4 - 1/2 inch thickness. Place a spoonful of creamy chicken mixture onto the pizza dough. Cut a square around the creamy chicken mixture big enough so you can fold over the dough to the other side and make a pocket. Pinch the edges of the dough together tightly and roll up to resemble a pizza crust if you wish.

Then, I sprinkled more spices over the top of the dough. For a little extra flavor, I added a small spoonful of pizza sauce on the top, just to give it zip.

Bake for about 15-25 minutes, depending on how crusty you like your dough.

Cut and enjoy!

Be sure to taste test the cream sauce. The one thing I regretted is not being able to add cheese (didn't have any at the time) and that it wasn't heavy enough on spices. Go crazy! Add onions, peppers, mushrooms, spinach! Give it more zip!

Quick Pizza Dough:

3/4 c warm water (105-115F)

4tsp sugar

1tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic

1 tsp active dry yeast (1 pkt)

2 - 2 1/4 c flour

Sprinkle yeast and sugar over warm water. Let bubble up (takes about 5 minutes)

Once bubbly, add yeast to the flour, salt, and garlic in a large mixing bowl. Use a mixer initially to mix it together. Once it starts to get thick, take out and knead by hand (fold it over itself many times, pushing out the air and making it smooth and elastic).

It should not be overly sticky or dry. If it is really sticky, add a tad more flour. If it is really dry, add a bit more water. Be warned---going overboard with adding ingredients will alter the texture/end result! You should be fine.

Once dough is smooth and soft, place in a bowl that has been smothered with the olive oil (easier to get out once it's risen). Cover and place in a warm draft free place until doubled in volume.

Once doubled, it is ready to use. Roll out to desired depth.

(for pizza-- add toppings and sauce, bake about 10-20 minutes depending on how you like your crust. more time for crusty crust, less time for soft crust.)

ENJOY!

I'm not one to like intricate recipes. I look for simple ingredients with many spices. Hope you enjoy.

On another note, I made a chocolate cake today and homemade fondant. I'm excited to see how it all comes together into a chocolate layer cake. *Mario Brothers Themed Decoration?!*

Have a grand day!