I have a kid in my life whom I love a lot, and frankly, I try to impress him with my creative skills as often and I can. He’s got a summer birthday, and I usually volunteer to make his birthday cake for him. Most years he has an idea of what he wants, but this year, he just said he wanted it to be “a chocolate rectangle cake.” Okaaayy.
He’s a vegetable lover, so I kidded him, “How about a broccoli cake?” He was not impressed.
I set about making a cake he would appreciate, and one that would have some sort of whimsy. A garden cake! It’s impressive to look at, tastes good, and most of all, was not difficult. Veggies on top were made from fondant, which, if you’re not familiar, is like an edible candy clay. When it’s rolled out, it’s the smooth covering of wedding cakes, and can also be molded into pretty much any shape.
Generally, I’m not a fan of fondant. While it is pretty, I find it to be tasteless. I’ve made this marshmallow version before. I wouldn’t exactly call it tasty, but it’s not as awful as commercial fondant. And it is quite easy to make.
The recipe is below, just heat the marshmallows and water, add some vanilla and powdered sugar, and knead like dough.
While my cake baked, I started fashioning the garden items. Minimizing the number of colors to create (four), I came up with carrots, pumpkin, cauliflower, strawberries, radishes, sweet peas, and of course, the broccoli. And yes, I realize the scale is all off with respect to the relative ratios of the size of my veggies. It’s whimsy, people!
I’ll be the first one to say that my sculpting skills are not my strength. So, believe me when I say, these shapes are easy to make. All the items started out as discs, balls or canes. Carrots = canes that are pointed at one end. Radishes = balls with a patch of white added, then pointed at one end. I used a toothpick to make ridges in the carrots and texture on the cauliflower, strawberries and broccoli.
Once the shapes were all complete — it took me about 90 minutes to make all of mine — I laid them out in a rough approximation of how I wanted them on the finished cake. Then, created layout lines on the chocolate frosting to indicate where I would create the sections. Then placed the vegetables on the cake, added the frosting vines, and it was done!
Here’s my finished cake!
Here is little kiddo, ready to dig into (get it?) his garden cake. It was well received, and I would definitely do something like this again. Enjoy!
Easy, few ingredients, and fun to work with. This not-exactly-from-scratch fondant tastes a bit better than commercial versions, so get making! Place the marshmallows in a large microwave safe bowl, add water. Microwave for 1 minute on high. Remove from microwave and stir with silicone spatula until there are no lumps. If necessary microwave again in 15 second increments. Add 4-5 cups of powdered sugar and stir to combine. Turn out mixture onto a powdered sugar coated board. Grease hands with vegetable oil, and begin to knead. Continue to add more sugar as needed, to get dough/fondant pliable and no longer sticky. Mine took a LOT more sugar to get un-sticky. Once fondant is smooth and easy to work with, cut into smaller portions and add food coloring, if desired. To add color, just place coloring in the center of a disc of fondant, and knead with your hands until all the color is incorporated. Fondant can be stored wrapped in plastic wrap and inside a zipper bag in the refrigerator for up to 2 months. Marshmallow Fondant
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
