So for those of you who read my grease fire article, this article will hopefully redeem myself in your eyes;). I made one of the greatest discoveries this last week- homemade fondant! I was so excited when I found this. Fondant can be so expensive and doesn't taste the greatest, but it can be so fun to use! And there are so many cute cake and cookie ideas that use fondant. Last week was also my daughter's first birthday. The perfect opportunity to try it out, right?

For her birthday, I decided to make a bird cake. When we go to the pet store, she LOVES the birds. She just points and says "Ooo! Ooo!" the whole time. She definitely likes seeing all the other animals, but hands down her favorite is the bird;). I thought a little fondant bird would be cute.

All you need is marshmallows, food coloring, and LOTS of powdered sugar. It also helps if you have some cooking spray on hand because this is a very sticky project.

First thing you need to do is cook the marshmallows with a tiny bit of water until they are puffy and you are able to stir them into a very gooey mess. (A helpful tip I read is to spray the spoon with cooking spray- it still sticks, but it's a little more manageable).

Once it is completely melted, you'll want to add your food coloring. I added a little more than I wanted because you are going to be adding a LOT of powdered sugar, and the color is going to lighten up a little.

Once you have mixed the food coloring in, you will slowly start adding your powdered sugar. Fold the powdered sugar into your marshmallow mess until you are able to pull it out. You will be kneading it on the table, so make sure it is heavily sprinkled with powdered sugar. You will also want to spray cooking spray on your hands to help the goo stay on the table and not on your hands: ). Keep kneading powdered sugar into your fondant until it reaches a consistency that is not too sticky, but is still moldable. You don't want it so stiff that you can't make any shapes out of it, but you also don't want it so sticky that you can't even mold it.

At this point you could add more food coloring if you wanted a brighter color, but it will take a while to knead it all in (it's probably easier to do it for very small portions only- like the beak and the eggs for the bird I made).

The website I found this on also suggested using flavoring oil to help the flavor. I didn't add any oil and I though it still tasted pretty good- marshmallows and powdered sugar are pretty sweet on their own ;).

When you are done you can make your fondant into whatever you want, or you can store it by wrapping it in plastic wrap that is sprayed with cooking spray.

Here is my end result:

Haha don't judge me! I am not an artist- or a cake decorator ;). But the fondant worked pretty well! (It will probably work even better if you are more of an artist or more patient than I am;) ). See what fun creations you can make with your own homemade fondant!