There is nothing like fresh marshmallow. Once you have it, you will never want the store bought marshmallows again. It is easy to make and definitely worth the time to make it. Place a 1/2 cup of water in your mixing bowl and add the gelatin on top. Let the gelatin dissolve into the water until it become thicker. Add the rest of the water, sugar corn syrup, and salt to a heavy sauce pan; stir until the sugar dissolves than stop. Than only touch the pan to brush down the sugar crystals that form with a wet pastry brush. Heat the sugar mixture until it reaches a firm ball stage (244 degrees). Once the sugar reaches firm ball stage remove it from the heat, turn on the mixer at a low speed and slowly pour in the sugar. BE CAREFULLY the sugar is very hot.  Once all the sugar has been added turn the mixer to a higher speed. The marshmallow will now start to grow with the incorporation of air. It will triple in size. Now that this has happened get a 8×10 pan and spray it with some non stick pan spray and pour your marshmallow in. After a few hours your marshmallow will firm up and will be ready for cutting. When you cut your marshmallow, make sure you remember to dip it into the 10x sugar that we did not use yet; so the marshmallow will be a little sweeter and not so sticky. Enjoy!

Try this as an alternative to the normal almond marzipan.

5 lbs Ground peanuts

2 1/2 lbs 10x

2 1/2 lbs Poured Fondant

Choose fondant 95% of the time! Fondant makes your cakes look perfectly iced, whereas with buttercream icing you may see lines from the decorator trying to get you icing smooth. Also you may see air bubbles because the icing was over whipped or to cold when your cake was iced. Fondant will give you a perfect look with the exact details you are looking for in your cake. While with buttercream nothing will be exactly be the same because everything is being done by hand.

Everyone says fondant taste horrible well that’s just not true! Maybe they have just never had good fondant or even decently priced fondant for that fact. What they sell at convenient stores probably does not taste good, but bakeries do not buy that  stuff. Most bakeries pride themselves on having their icings and fondant tasting good. They do not want to hear that people just peel off the horrible tasting fondant. So if the owners would not eat it, I’m sure you won’t find it at their place. Fondant is like buttercream everyone has their own recipe.

Fondant will cost a bit more than buttercream, however it is not a significant difference. Most bakeries charge an additional $1-2.00 per person for fondant depending on decoration. Now not all cake should have fondant on them. If your cake has a ton of piping or flowers that will cover most of the cake just get buttercream. There is no reason to get a perfectly smooth cake if your going to cover it all up.