Making Chocolate Fondant...

My daughter Paula wanted me to video making fondant in my Kitchenaid as a reference for her, as she is making fondant for a cake that she is doing for my granddaughter's 3rd birthday ...something about a platypus. Those of you who have young children will know the character she is making, I'm sure. She is making regular fondant, not chocolate, so will need to add 6 cups of powdered sugar instead of 3 cups, and leave out the chocolate, of course. You will notice that I have added one more ingredient in this chocolate fondant than what I had previously. I have found that if you add 1/2 cup of melted chocolate chips to your melted marshmallow mixture, and then add the 1/2 cup cocoa to the sugar, that it will give your fondant a richer chocolate taste. I like the Ghirardelli bittersweet chips to give a nice dark finished fondant, but  you can also use a semisweet or milk chocolate chip if your prefer. Anyway...since I'm not experienced in taking videos with one hand while trying to make fondant with the other, there are 8 segments here...hope you get the idea...enjoy watching...

New Friends...

I love making new friends through my blog. During the last week, I have had several conversations with someone who has been reading my blog to get information about making chocolate fondant, this being her first attempt at doing so. Project...a camera cake for her husband's 40th birthday. So, in the process of talking her through the whole thing, she ended up buying a 600 pro model Kitchenaid mixer. That's even larger than my 550 model. Of course, that mixed up the fondant and buttercream icing really well, and she ended up with a great finished product for her first attempt. I was very impressed...and so was her husband.

Thanks Jyoti for reading my blog and becoming my new friend, and again, great job on the cake!

Update on December 3 blog post...

I put all 6 cups of sifted powdered sugar in the new Kitchenaid bowl and let it run on the low speed until it was all combined and pulled from the sides and bottom of the bowl. I let it knead for just a little longer, then took it out of the bowl, covered it with Crisco, and put it into the Ziplock bags to rest overnight. The Kitchenaid did everything...no kneading by hand...what a time and energy saver. Did I mention, I love my Kitchenaids?

I love my new KitchenAid!!

I know, you're probably saying "she bought another KitchenAid?" Well, I have had my other ones for an eternity and yes, they still work, but...this one was on sale at Costco for $50 off...and it's a professional model, so it's more heavy duty...and it has a larger, wider bowl...and it matches my KitchenAid food processor and my KitchenAid blender...and I used my cake money...and I think I deserved it...and, and, and... Anyway, I absolutely love it! It's very easy to work with, and the speeds start out very slow, especially compared to my old ones, which really means less mess. 

So I needed to make a batch of fondant last night for a cake I was doing today, so I thought I would check out how the new mixer would handle the job...oh wow! It was perfect! I first slightly greased the bowl, then put in 5 cups of sifted powdered sugar. I poured in the melted marshmallow mixture after putting on the heavy duty spiral dough hook, and on a low speed, let the mixer do it's thing. You will notice that part of the sugar looks like it will be stuck to the bottom of the bowl, but a little at a time the dough hook will pick up the sugar, and eventually incorporate all of the sugar into the dough. At that point, is when I transferred the dough onto my silicone mat and kneaded the last 1 cup of sugar into the dough by hand. It turned out so smooth and perfect after letting it set overnight, and no air bubbles whatsoever. I'm wondering now what would happen if I kneaded the final cup of sugar with the dough hook instead of by hand... I was always afraid to do that before because the dough gets so stiff, but with this pro model, I may be able to do the entire kneading with the mixer. It would sure save time. I will try next week with my next wedding cake. 

Just for the record, I now have 4 KitchenAid mixers plus my other KitchenAid appliances, and we just bought a classic KA mixer for my oldest son's family for Christmas. Both of my other children have KA mixers. I should have a share in the company.

Here is a picture of the cute shower cake I did today...just so happened that the shower was postponed until next weekend because of inclement weather, so we packaged it up for the customer to put in the freezer until then.

Using Kitchen Aid mixer to make marshmallow fondant...

The last time I made marshmallow fondant, I used my Kitchen Aid mixer for mixing most of the sugar in, since I wanted to save time, and then just added a bit more sugar while kneading it on my silicone mat. It worked well, except the one thing you have to make sure of is that you add enough sugar and knead it long enough, or you will have air bubbles in your fondant when you roll it out. I have found out, that you can add more sifted sugar and knead it longer after you have let it set overnight. This way, you will have a nicer finish to your fondant. Click on this link for the complete fondant recipe:
http://cakeideas.blogspot.com/2011/05/tweaked-marshmallow-fondant-recipe.html

Making marshmallow fondant

Melt mini marshmallows with water in microwave at 40 second increments, stirring after each.

When marshmallows are completely melted, add the corn syrup and flavoring. The mixture will look very soupy at this stage.

Sift powdered sugar into Kitchen Aid bowl. I use a simple metal strainer...works better than a sifter.

Pour melted marshmallow mixture into Kitchen Aid bowl with sugar.

Use dough hook on low speed to mix fondant mixture.

This is the consistency it should be when you are done mixing.

Scrape the fondant mixture out of the bowl with a plastic scraper onto a greased silicone mat.

Dust with sifted powdered sugar and begin kneading.

Knead until you have a smooth and elastic ball and the fondant no longer spreads as it sets.

Cover with Crisco and store in ziploc bag to rest overnight.

This is some black fondant made with Hershey's Special Dark cocoa.