Fondant Part 2

So, the marshmallow fondant was fun to make and tastes good...very sweet...but yesterday I tried to use it. That proved to be harder than it seemed. I added a lot of confectioners sugar to the marshmallow mixture to try to get it as smooth and non-sticky as possible. It stored well and when I first rolled it out, it worked well. The first few cupcakes, I used a glass to cut circles in rolled fondant and place them on top of cupcakes that I had pre-iced with a touch of buttercream that works as a glue. They worked really well and look great, but the fondant was a little too thick and make the cupcakes way too sweet. The next few, I tried to roll thinner, but as the fondant warmed up, it became more and more sticky. It got to the point where when I rolled it out, I couldn't pull it up from the table or the rolling pin. I got a bunch more done, at a slow pace, but finally gave up when it became extra sticky.

Th cupcakes themselves taste good, and the fondant does look good, but I don't know if I'd bother with it again. I think they still taste better with regular icing. They may not look as perfect as well-done fondant, but they are much easier and taste better.

Marshmallow Fondant!

I've been saving recipes to Pinterest for a while and am just starting to get through some of them. Today I decided to try to make fondant out of marshmallows and confectioners sugar, which I pinned a few weeks ago.

I use to love working with fondant. I bought a special cake pan and a bunch of colors of rolled fondant back in college and tried to decorate a few cakes with it. They always came out looking wonderful but the fondant tasted really weird and ruined the cakes. I thought about making my own but the recipes online at the time seemed really complicated and I never got around to it.

The recipe I just used was really easy. All you do is grease a bowl and pour some mini marshmallows into it. I used about 3 big handfuls. To that, you can mix in some water or some flavoring. I used vanilla extract. You microwave them for 10 seconds at a time, stirring with a greased spoon each time. It took about 4 10-second increments until it was all melty and easy to stir (very sticky of course). Once it was done, I added food coloring to the goo. The first batch I did was purple and the second was green.

Once it's all colored, you start adding confectioners sugar. I stirred it with the spoon for a little bit but once it started coming together, I tried to get as much off the spoon as I could and then used my hands for the rest. All you do is keep kneading in confectioners sugar until it starts to feel like fondant, until it would be easy to roll out with a rolling pin. I had to knead in a lot more sugar than expected.

Anyway, once the fondant was done and no longer sticky, I saved it by wrapping it in greased plastic wrap and I put that into a tupperware container.

Tomorrow I plan to use the fondant, so stay tuned to see how it worked out!

Wall Art

I just saw an idea on Pinterest that caught my eye. If you mount 12 x 12 scrapbook paper onto a square piece of styrofoam (or I guess any square, sturdy object), and frame it, it looks like a piece of art. Get 3 or 4 or even 5 or six of them and hang them next to each other and it can look very cool! As a scrapbooker, I am definitely tempted to try this out. 

The apartment is really starting to come together, and I think once we get some things hung up on the walls, it will really look good. I have a ton of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper, which is a good start at least. I was thinking of using this idea as an over-the-bed piece, but our bedroom is burgundy and gray. The burgundy was handed to us since that is the color of the carpet, but I'm really starting to like it.  Of course, it seems that the only color of scrapbook paper that I don't have is burgundy. I guess I would have to go to Michaels or A. C. Moore for the styrofoam and frames anyway, so I could pick up some burgundy paper too. That might just be the plan, unless I find other paper that would work in one of the other rooms instead. 

My other fun art idea is to go through all of our old photographs and pick out some favorites. We can get these printed and framed and have our own art on the walls. I actually like this idea even more and think it would work well in any room. Going through photos might just be my project for the day tomorrow. Pinterest is also great for this because there are a lot of pins about hanging up different size photos in clusters. There are some really nice layouts that would look great. 

Of course, we both already have a lot of wall art from our previous places. Mine is, of course, a lot of Beatles art -- I only took the good ones - framed, signed, and/or numbered pieces. His is also a lot of music and pop culture related art as well. All of it is pretty neat and luckily now we have plenty of space for it all. It's hard now to picture exactly where everything is going to go, but hopefully we'll get that figured out soon! Wish us luck! 

Been a while

I haven't posted in a while. Over the holidays, my boyfriend and I finally found an apartment together and we are in New York City now! Between the move and job hunting and the holidays, I haven't had much of a chance to blog, but hopefully I'll be able to update this more regularly.

We've been buying lots of furniture and doing some decorating, so hopefully future posts will involve some decorating ideas and tips as well as other stuff I learn as we get our new place together. Currently, I'm waiting for UPS to deliver an entertainment center that we ordered about a week ago. I'd love for it to come soon so I can start building it today.

I'm also hoping to do a lot of cooking while I have some time at home. I love to cook and am excited to share some recipes on my blog!

I'm also looking forward to sharing some blogs about my current job search. At the moment, it's kind of discouraging because I have applied to a lot of positions without ever hearing anything back....except for one rejection which I received less than an hour after I applied, which was pretty disheartening (they couldn't have looked too hard at my application). I have a lot of experience, but I feel like employers won't be able to look past the fact that I left my last job to try teaching. It's something I'm glad I tried, but turned out not to be for me. I'd love to get back into my marketing roots, especially being in a city with so many truly interesting and fun companies, but it's not easy to get that across in a resume and cover letter. I know I'm smart and I know I can do pretty much any job, but it's hard to get anyone to give you a chance, when there are so many people with lots of focused job experience competing against you. I know I'll find something -- it's only been a week of actual job hunting, but it's definitely going to be hard.

Anyway, that's my update for now. I'll be back soon!