Ace of Cakes Wannabees

Yep, that's us. :) We've watched enough Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes that we thought we'd give it a try. We researched it some on the internet (and by watching a Cake Boss marathon, of course :)) and then tried our hand at it.

This recipe seemed to be the easiest to make yourself (and really didn't taste bad either) and was surprisingly easy to make. All you need is 16 oz mini marshmallows, 1/c cup Crisco, 1 tbs water and 2 lbs of powdered sugar.

First, you clean off a flat surface to work on and grease it with Crisco so that nothing will stick to it.

Then, dump about half of a normal sized bag of powdered sugar onto your greased surface (and you'll probably need more as you begin to mix in the marshmallows)

Next, pour your marshmallows into a microwave-safe bowl, add the water and then microwave for about 21/2 minutes, in 30 second intervals, stirring quickly between each interval.

When they're thoroughly melted, pour the sticky marshmallow mess onto your greased counter top and powdered sugar.

Now here comes the fun part: begin kneading the mixture until it becomes dough-like and not sticky. It will take a while and you will probably want to add some more powdered sugar periodically until it is not sticky anymore.

When it looks like this, you are done.

Wrap it in saran wrap and place in the refrigerator and leave for 24 hours. Or, if you're short on time (like us) leave for 2 hours or so and you should be fine. Just don't touch it any more than you have to, because the more you touch it, the stickier and harder to work with it becomes.

When you take it our of the freezer, roll it out to about 1/2 inch thick (using the same manner that you would roll out a pie crust if you are making a round cake like us). Make sure that your counter is still greased and that you have powdered sugar on both the counter underneath the fondant and on the rolling pin, and that you reapply often, or the fondant will begin to stick. Also, because it will take some force to roll the fondant out since it will be hard from being in the refrigerator, make sure to pick up the fondant and rotate it every 2-3 rolls or it will stick to the counter and you will have to start over (speaking from experience :)). When you have measured it with the cake pan and have a large enough fondant surface, carefully place it on your cake (which has been iced with icing, preferably buttercream, to give the fondant something to adhere to). Using the outside edge of your pinkie finger, smooth the fondant over the cake and then use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut away the excess fondant around the edges.

Lastly, use food coloring or food paint to color leftover fondant and decorate the cake. This was our first attempt--we liked it, even if it did end up looking like a baby shower cake! :)

Oh--and don't be surprised when you look around your kitchen after you admire your finished cake, and it looks like this! :)

Because it's all worth it when you have family over to share the cake with,

especially when they're cute munchkin nieces


and fun, Iphone game challenging brothers like ours.