The cake itself was a simple recipe that I found on kevinandamanda.com. A deep, rich, chocolate chocolate cake that (surprisingly) isn't completely from scratch. Sure I guess that's cheating, but I figured since the outside of the cake was going to take me forever that I could cheat a little on the inside. Am I right? Definitely. The icing was regular buttercream icing, and made (yes, made) the fondant.
This cake was hard to make. It took me 4 hours. 4 hours non-stop. But I had to make it. And I did. And I'm glad I did.
First, I made the cake:
Recipe adapted from kevinandamanda.com
Ingredients:
I found that the amount of time on the cake mix box was about right, but check it after the minumum time (not before or it will fall!)
While the cake was cooking, I made the buttercream icing, which is super simple
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
2 tablespoons milk
Cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed.When all sugar has been mixed in, add milk slowly and beat at medium speed until a good consistency is reached (should be smooth and not dry). Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.
Fondant time. Oy vey.
For this, you will need:
16 ounces of name brand white mini-marshmallows
2 to 3 tablespoons water
2 lbs of brand name icing sugar
1/2 cup of all vegetable shortening
1 tablespoon of flavoring (if you want it)
Put the Marshmallows, 2 tablespoons of water and a tablespoon of your favorite flavoring in a big bowl, and stick it in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Take it out, stir the marshmallows and put it back in for another 20 seconds. Keep doing this until the marshmallows are completely melted (about 2 minutes).
Remove your marshmallows from the microwave and stir in half the bag of the powdered sugar using a big spoon (not your hands)
While it's cooling, line a flat surface with parchment paper and tape it down well. Cover the parchment with shortening and also coat your hands.
Dump your marshmallow mixture on the counter.
Start kneading like you would bread dough, slowly adding the rest of the powdered sugar. Add more shortening to your hands if they get sticky. Knead it for about 5 minutes or until its not sticky anymore. When it was about the consistency of bread dough, I added some color. All you do is flatten the ball of dough, and put about a teaspoon of gel food coloring into it, and knead like crazy.
1 tablespoon of flavoring (if you want it)
Put the Marshmallows, 2 tablespoons of water and a tablespoon of your favorite flavoring in a big bowl, and stick it in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Take it out, stir the marshmallows and put it back in for another 20 seconds. Keep doing this until the marshmallows are completely melted (about 2 minutes).
Remove your marshmallows from the microwave and stir in half the bag of the powdered sugar using a big spoon (not your hands)
While it's cooling, line a flat surface with parchment paper and tape it down well. Cover the parchment with shortening and also coat your hands.
Dump your marshmallow mixture on the counter.
Start kneading like you would bread dough, slowly adding the rest of the powdered sugar. Add more shortening to your hands if they get sticky. Knead it for about 5 minutes or until its not sticky anymore. When it was about the consistency of bread dough, I added some color. All you do is flatten the ball of dough, and put about a teaspoon of gel food coloring into it, and knead like crazy.
(p.s. The frosted cake should not look like this. It should be perfectly smooth and white and crumb-free. But I suck at frosting cakes. And it's gonna be covered in my purple fondant anyway ;p)
Okay, now the hard part. The really hard part.
Take that fondant out of the fridge.
stick it in the microwave for ten seconds if it seems a little stiff. Then re-grease your parchment with shortening. Using a big rolling pin, roll out the fondant till it's about 1/4 inch thick. It should be a large circle, large enough to cover that whole cake (and then some).
Once you have a smooth, even layer of fondant, take a deep breath, and start to slowly peel it off the parchment paper CAREFULLY!! Be extremely careful not to rip it. Then, place it over the entire cake like this:
Trim the edges of that sucker with scissors, and smooth out all the air bubbles so it looks pretty.
And there you have it. Your fondant cake.
Now you can decorate it however you choose. I used ribbon and rhinestones cause I love things like that. But you can do whatever you want at this point. It's like a blank canvas.
Here is my finished cake. Gorgeous, isn't it? ;]
And here's Brittany opening her box to reveal her gorgeous cake
And here's her cutting it
and eating it
Ahh, sweet success.
