Wonderful Fondant

Thank you to my friend Shawn for her easy, delicious fondant recipe!

Here are some pictures of the hamburger cake we made using it: We kneaded the fondant with lots of Crisco on the hands and powdered sugar on the mat, then used gel food coloring (from Wal-Mart) to get the colors we wanted.

Here’s the finished hamburger cake, with shapes made out of the yummy fondant. Sarah made the sesame seeds out of leftover white. The cakes themselves are just a grocery-store brand yellow cake mix, made into two layers and left unfrosted. For the pickles, David made a roll of the green fondant, then used my crinkle cutter (thank you, Pampered Chef!) to make it look like pickle slices. The hamburger itself is just a big blob of thick chocolate frosting, made with the recipe on the Hershey's Cocoa powder container. Dan was worried that the cake would need more frosting (on the outside, mostly), but the chocolate in the middle took care of that!

Here is the recipe, as written by Shawn, the genuine pastry chef:

Marshmallow Fondant
13.5 oz mini marshmallows
3Tbs water
2 capfuls of almond flavoring (yes that un-professional CAPful)
almost 2lb. of confectioner's sugar (note—we used a little more to keep it from being sticky)

Melt the marshmallows and water in the microwave for 1 minute 20 seconds, stir and add flavoring. (if your whole batch will be colored do it now, to save precious kneading time later!)
Pour 1/2 a 2lb. (that is 1 lb.) bag of confectioner's sugar into a well Crisco-ed stand mixing bowl. Make a well and add the marshmallow, water, flavoring mixture. Mix with the dough hook on low until combined adding sugar as needed until the ball pulls away from the sided of the bowl and is no longer sticky or crumbly. (if you made a boo-boo and added too much sugar at once just add teaspoons of water at a time to get the proper consistency)
Take fondant ball from mixing bowl, knead with well Crisco-ed hands and counter until the texture is smooth and pliable. (and whatEVER you do...do NOT where a black sweater when making this icing!) This is the time you can separate into sections and knead in coloring too...see picture below.
Wrap generously in plastic wrap and well, do it again, just to make sure. I then seal in a zip lock, just to make sure, AGAIN. This will store at room temperature for 3-6months. Roll out and cut into shapes as needed, or form flowers and other decorations with.

Mulberry Time!

Here's the recipe we use for mulberry jam out here:
Mulberry Jam

Makes: About 11 (1-cup) jars
5-1/2 cups prepared fruit (buy about 3 qt. fully ripe mulberries)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 box Sure Jell
1/2 tsp. butter or margarine
8-1/2 cups sugar, measured into separate bowl
Bring boiling-water canner, half full with water, to simmer. Wash jars and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain jars well before filling.
CRUSH mulberries thoroughly, one layer at a time. Measure exactly 5-1/2 cups prepared fruit into 6- or 8-qt. saucepot. Stir in lemon juice.
STIR in pectin. Add butter to reduce foaming. Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 4 min., stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.
LADLE immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. (Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add boiling water, if necessary.) Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process 10 min. Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middles of lids with finger. (If lids springs back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.)

Visiting the Capitol

We enjoyed our visit to Pierre for the spring pastors' conference this year. One of the highlights was getting to meet Governor Mike Rounds when he addressed the pastors, and then exploring the state capitol building where he has his office.

Here's the outside front of the capitol.

The governor graciously talked to the children and even posed for a picture.  They’ll especially like their Mike Rounds for Governor shirts now! 

 

The capitol building itself is beautiful! 

We enjoyed exploring all the pretty staircases and looking at the statues and paintings.  There are also 66 blue tiles hidden in the floors by the original floor-layers—we found 18, I think. 

Everybody had a good time visiting the headquarters of our state government!  We hope to go back again!

Late winter scenes

The birds have returned to South Dakota!  There have even been some sparrows around the yard this week, eating out of our Avon bubblebath birdfeeder.  We’re pretty sure spring must be on its way. 

We never did post a picture of the Christmas lights earlier—they’re still up on the house, but unplugged now!  Notice the snow cave for the Nativity scene.  Joseph’s light burned out, but he’s stuck in the ice, so we’ll leave that for next year.  

Here are David’s epsom salt crystals from his book of science experiments.  They grew really quickly!

More Snow

We’ve had so much winter out here! 

Here’s the view from our kitchen window. 

Our little Toyota is surviving the snow pretty well. 

Snow creatures have arrived, though. 

Frosty Days

We’ve had quite an interesting winter out here.  There were a few days with freezing fog that made beautiful frost all over everything.  Here are some of our favorite pictures:

Lilac bush in the backyard

Frosty spiderwebs on the garage

The whole world is frozen!

Also, we have some Army Children in the house today.  They wanted to be like Mr. Wright.  :)

Thanksgiving 2009

Well, I think we’d better update this blog!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving in 2009, with visits from the Bradburys first, then from the Redhages later on Thursday. 

Here’s our first Feast (Dan’s taking the picture)

My old desk from high school is now serving as a buffet in the living/dining room, so it held the rest of the meal:

Notice the traditional scalloped oysters, sweet potatoes, and Mrs. Rickert’s Stuffing (she was our piano teacher in Iowa).  Notice also the mashed potatoes and locally grown sweet corn, so Dan has something to eat!  :)