I am planning on making Anxelis Christmas Eve cake.

She says she uses MM fondant for the front walls etc, but I dont know what that is. Think it is what US use.

Can anybody recommend some other recipe that I can use that will work just the same.

Thanks

Its marshmallow fondant. I make it using 2 bags of mini marshmallows, place them in a greased bowl, add 3 T water and a tsp vanilla, then microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between with a greased spoon, after its all melted I stick it in my greased kitchen aid mixing bowl with my greased dough hook and then add 2 lbs of powdered sugar as its mixing, then I turn it out onto my greased surface and with my greased hands I knead it adding more powdered sugar until I get a playdough consistency, then I wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest a day. Its messy to make but its cheap. And if you dont grease up everything with crisco it will stick to everything!

I take it powdered sugar is what we call "icing sugar". So would you add colouring to get the wooden effect and does it dry completely so that you can stand it up?

Thankyou for your help, it does sound quite messy, but I hope someone might be able to help me with a gingerbread recipe Thanks again.

I guess its the same. The toystory cake in my pics is all marshmallow fondant. It wont dry hard, but if you roll it thick enough it will stand freely. For wood effect (the fence around my farm cake is done this way), I mixed a little cocoa powder in it to turn it brown, then rolled it out, cut the fencing, scored the woodgrain into it with a toothpick, then using a soft brush, brushed cocoa powder over it to show the grain I scored. Ive also seen where you can mix brown, yellow, and beige and roll each into a log, twist all the logs together and keep stretching and folding it over on itself and this gives it a wood appearance.
Marshmallow fondant colors easily with icing gel color kneaded into it.

Thank you for your help, I see how you mean from your picture, i have marshmallows here so think il have practice. Thanks a lot

Can I just ask if you have a tutoriol on how to make your xmas ornaments. I just saw them in your photos and they are fab.

mo63~~Here's a Wilton tutorial on Christmas ornaments made using the Wilton mini-ball pan. It will give you an idea of how they are done.

You can also gain a wealth of information by going to Youtube and doing a search for "marshmallow fondant" or any other term you have a question about.

I used the mini ball pan. I put two halves together with filling then stuck in the freezer (easier to ice this way), then I Iced with buttercream and got them as smooth as possible, then stuck in the freezer again
(easier to handle this way), then I rolled out fondant and covered them. I used my airbrush to color them in americolor sheen colors and used a snowflake punch for the snowflakes. I used fondant for the tops of them, just hand molding them into shape. They are pretty easy.

you can use anykind, I just used buttercream. Just make sure you freeze them after you fill them and after you ice them, makes them so much easier to handle.
I looked at the wilton tutorial. They use melted candy melts to cover the cake, I dont think I would be able to pour it on that smooth. Covering with the fondant would be easier for me. When you cover the balls, keep fluffing the fondant out like you fluffing under a skirt and smooth down a little at a time, basically fluff, smooth, fluff, smooth, that way you get all the way down without the wrinkles, and if you get some, they are under the ball.
If you dont have an airbrush, you can just cover with colored fondant and brush on super pearl luster dust to give it the shiny appearance.

Thank you Apti and Bakinatthebeach for all your help.

Couldnt do it without you

Can I just ask you one more question? Do you know what the UK equivalent of your "candy melts" are?

Would they be like hard candy or chocolate?

Yay! That recipe tastes really good and makes the house smell fabulous! I made cookies out of it last year, not houses. Apparently you have to leave it set out for a week or two to harden up. I don't remember hearing that information in class, so I'm off to google and see what I find out.

Keep me informed please

ok....apparently you don't have to let it dry out, but the dryer it is, the easier it will be to handle. So, to me that means I'll be baking my pieces for the houses and letting them dry out for at least a few days before starting assembly.

Here's an excellent site with tips in the comments area. Read all of them.

http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/gingerbread-houses/detail.aspx

Here's a fabulous site for "Ultimate Gingerbread"

http://www.ultimategingerbread.com/

Thanks Apti for all your links.

Just managed to have good look through them all and there is some great advice in there

Hope any projects you do work out well.

Do you happen to know what "candy melts" are in the UK?

Thanks again.

Mo63

There are only 3 huge companies in the entire world that have a near monopoly on chocolate in all it's forms. You should be able to get any or all of these products in the UK:

Merckens
Guittard A'Peels
Wilton Candy Melts (I don't like these, but you can use them if you can't find either of the above. They taste ok, but they don't thin properly.)

Contact any of your UK specialty cake/candy suppliers and type in candy melts and see what comes up. I would also strongly suggest that you purchase some Paramount Crystals at the same time so you can thin your chocolate if needed.

From: http://chocolate-affairs.com/help_me_help.shtml

"Chocolate coatings are similar to real chocolate (couverture) in that it contains cocoa solids, sugar, milk solids, vanilla, and lecithin. However, either the amount of cocoa butter is reduced or it is entirely exchanged for vegetable fats. Vegetable fats are much cheaper to use than cocoa butter, have a higher melting temperature, and allow the chocolate to be molded without tempering."

Candy melts can be called by these names: CONFECTIONARY COATING or COMPOUND COATING or DECORATORS CHOCOLATE or PATÉ GLACÉE or SUMMER COATING