1. Fondant is fun! It's like playing with play-do or clay. Don't be scared to try it, because you can make things as simple or as elaborate as your patience, time, and skill will let you. And practice really does make perfect.
2. Marshmallow fondant (MMF) tastes nice. I hate "real" fondant. Even when it's homemade, "normal" fondant is just sickeningly sweet and basically flavorless, but MMF, while still quite sweet, has a nice flavor, and can be altered. I love adding a little lemon extract to mine.
Those two points being made, I know that there are some people who still aren't interested in fondant, even if they do want something sculpted for a cake or cupcake. It may be that they don't have time to make fondant from scratch, or they just don't want to. And if that's the case, and you hate the flavor of store bought fondant, what can you do? I think I may have an answer, but another reason I wanted to experiment with fondant alternatives is the humidity here. My fondant tends to just melt and sweat...it's so sad.
I've been thinking about those issues for a few weeks now, and I've come up with a partial answer. Besides fondant, there is modeling chocolate. I've never worked with modeling chocolate, although I have a recipe for making my own, and obviously, it would be more limited than fondant, as it's already brown, so coloring it is basically out the window. But it can be painted with food coloring and luster dust, so I thought it'd be a good jumping off point to finding fondant alternatives. Whenever I thought of it, my mind kept going to candy. I thought that there might be a fun option, that's readily available and easy to use: like tootsie rolls.
Admittedly, I couldn't find them anywhere on my island. Tootsie rolls! Nowhere! But the hubster recently had to do a little traveling, so he grabbed a couple of bags for me to experiment with. Man, am I glad that he did! The results turned out so fun!
See? Didn't they?! I know it probably made sense to do something holiday themed, but I decided to make steampunk themed cupcakes, because...well...I wanted to! I love steampunk stuff, and there really aren't a whole lot of steampunk themed cupcakes out there, but also because the brown color wouldn't be much of a hindrance with them. I kept things relatively simple with just an adorable top hat and goggles, accented with little golden gears. Is it wrong of me to say that I freaking love how they turned out?! Seriously, I just think they're so cute! Plus, they were shockingly fast, once I figured out just what I wanted to do!
