Posts Tagged ‘Gender Reveal Party’

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

May 6, 2010

Remember this beautiful cake that Evalie made for Amy‘s Gender Reveal Party?  Did I meantion that Evalie made the cake?  The entire cake? Yes!

Well, while making the cake, she was wondering what to do about the fondant.  If you’re like Evalie, Amy, and I… you hate fondant.  It tastes gross.  But let me tell you, this fondant that Evalie made was amazing.  It was like candy! We ate it all by itself.

So, do I have you convinced yet? Are you chomping at the bit to know the recipe? Well, here it goes:

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

  • 8 ounces miniature marshmallows (4 cups not packed, or half of a 16-ounce bag)
  • 1 pound powdered sugar (4 cups), plus extra for dusting
  • 2 tbsp water
  • Food coloring or flavored extracts, optional

WHAT TO DO:

Step 1. Dust your counter or a large cutting board with powdered sugar. Place the marshmallows and the water in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute, until the marshmallows are puffy and expanded.

Step 2. Stir the marshmallows with a rubber spatula until they are melted and smooth. If some unmelted marshmallow pieces remain, return to the microwave for 30-45 seconds, until the marshmallow mixture is entirely smooth and free of lumps. If you want colored or flavored fondant, you can add several drops of food coloring or extracts at this point and stir until incorporated. If you want to create multiple colors or flavors from one batch of fondant, do not add the colors or flavors now. Instead, refer to step 6 below for instructions.

Step 3. Add the powdered sugar and begin to stir with the spatula. Stir until the sugar begins to incorporate and it becomes impossible to stir anymore.

Step 4. Scrape the marshmallow-sugar mixture out onto the prepared work surface. It will be sticky and lumpy, with lots of sugar that has not been incorporated yet–this is normal. Dust your hands with powdered sugar, and begin to knead the fondant mixture like bread dough, working the sugar into the marshmallow with your hands.

Step 5. Continue to knead the fondant until it smoothes out and loses its stickiness. Add more sugar if necessary, but stop adding sugar once it is smooth–too much sugar will make it stiff and difficult to work with. Once the fondant is a smooth ball, it is ready to be used. You can now roll it out, shape it, or wrap it in cling wrap to use later. Well-wrapped fondant can be stored in a cool room or in the refrigerator, and needs to be kneaded until supple before later use.

Step 6. If you want to add coloring or flavoring to your fondant, flatten it into a round disc. You might want to wear gloves to avoid getting food coloring on your hands during this step. Add your desired amount of coloring or flavoring to the center of the disc, and fold the disc over on itself so that the color or flavor is enclosed in the center of the fondant ball.

Step 7. Begin to knead the ball of fondant just like you did before. As you work it, you will begin to see streaks of color coming through from the center. Continue to knead until the streaks are gone and the fondant is a uniform color. Your fondant is now ready to be used or stored as outlined above.

And that’s it.  Amazing, right?

Happy Thursday!

Gender Reveal Party Part III

April 21, 2010

Amy and Travis really wanted the party to be celebration with family and close friends.  They didn’t want people to bring presents or have to worry about prizes and games.  So Amy asked me for a way to keep the guests occupied while they mingled and waited for the cake to be cut. 

I thought it would be really fun to have a photobooth set up with some props and boy or girl was it a hit! 

We even had fun setting it up.

This is team “Genital Reveal”.  Haha. Oh, nursing students… what can you do?

Evalie made up signs for the photobooth for “team boy” and “team girl”.  Which really played up the competition for who was right about the gender.

The photobooth was a hit.  We got some pretty amazing photos out of it too.  Here are just a few of my favorites from the day. 

This one is most definitely my favorite from the entire day:

Happy Wednesday!

I’ll be taking off for the rest of the week in preparation of finals.  So, I’ll do my best to blog next week as well.

Happy EARLY weekend, too!

Gender Reveal Party Part II

April 20, 2010

Okay, I know you’re all dying to find out what the baby is and how Amy and Travis decided to show everyone, so here we go!

Evalie, Amy’s best friend, came with them to the ultrasound and found out the baby’s gender.  Evalie then made this amazing cake (let me tell you right now, this fondant was AMAZING– and I hate fondant.  I’ll post the recipe soon).   

Evalie was told to make the color of the actual cake the either pink or blue based on the gender that was given to her by the technician.  Then Amy and Travis would cut into the cake, lift up a piece and find out in front of all their family and close friends, what they were having. We were all very anxious to find out!

Evalie even made some blue and pink cupcakes for all of us to enjoy.

After some good food and photo booth fun (more on that tomorrow), we all headed to see the cake cutting. 

Here’s a little photo session of how it happened:

It’s a GIRL!!!!

If you want to check out the video, click here.

Gender Reveal Party Part I

April 19, 2010

When I found out that my co-worker Amy, was pregnant I told her, “You HAVE to have a gender reveal party!”

I showed her a few examples and she absolutely loved it.

Amy and Trav went about two weeks ago to find out the gender of the baby and I can’t believe they were able to go so long without knowing!  Amy has a cute blog post about their trip if you want to check it out.

Finally, after two weeks it was time to start getting ready for the party.  We went and got our nails done, bought new outfits, and at 10:00 am on Sunday we started getting ready for 30 people to come over and find out what Baby Cotsenmoyer is!

Here are a few pictures of the set up we did: 

Check back tomorrow to find out Baby Cotsenmoyer’s gender and how they let everyone know!

Happy Monday!