Sea Shell Cake

When planning our seashell cake we decided to do a circular cake with two tiers. Before Brigid and I got together, she baked the two tiers at home. She also made the frosting. I was in charge of making the fondant  and any decorations that were to go on the cake. When we both finished our assigned task we got together to make our first cake!

Most people do not like the taste of fondant so I decided to look for an alternative recipe that might taste better. This is the recipe that I found.

4 cups of mini marshmallows (about ½ of a 16-ounce bag)

4 cups of powdered sugar (1lb)

2 tablespoons of water

Food Coloring of choice

This is a very easy recipe and it tastes much better than the boxed fondant. Make sure your working in a clean area with clean hands. First you want to dust your work area with powdered sugar. Place all your marshmallows in a large microwave safe bowl with the water. Put in the microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir the marshmallows. If any marshmallows are still unmelted put it back in the microwave for about 30 seconds and stir again. Once all the marshmallows are melted and well stirred a little at a time add the powdered sugar and stir well. Continue until you have finished stirring all the powdered sugar in. The mixture will be very sticky and lumpy but do not be discouraged. Next knead the fondant like dough. Roll it into a ball. You can store this if you wrap it well and keep it in the refrigerator. Do not add food coloring until the very end. You have to knead the food coloring in – this does take some time.

For the seashell cake we rolled the fondant. You can roll it to about ¼ to ½ an inch thick. Before putting it on the cake we used a layer of frosting underneath for better taste and to seal the fondant onto the cake.

The final product! Our cake was very heavy so we used dowels to support the interior portion of the cake. To hide our imperfections we twisted some fondant into a rope like texture and placed it along the base of the cake and between the first and second layer. The white seashells are made from melted white chocolate and candy molds that you can either get from Michaels or AC Moore. The starfish, sand dollars and other colored shells were made from marzipan. You can buy this in a can and color it with food coloring. It is very easy to shape. Brigid topped the cake with some frosting flowers that she made. The pearls were made from small rolled pieces of fondant covered in edible shimmer powder. They were attached to the cake with frosting.