Butterfly and Blossom Birdcage cake putting it together

Sorry for anyone reading these posts that has no interest in this cake but I needed to break it down into a couple of days for my sanity. This is the last one.

I promise in a couple of days I will have a lovely non birdcage related post ready...........

Now that all the hard work has been done comes the fun part, finishing off the Butterfly and Blossom cake.

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe - Oh no it can't be that easy

The pink covering this cake is marshmallow fondant

 A long, long time ago I came across a recipe for marshmallow fondant which can be used to cover a cake in place of rolled fondant.

This looks too easy to be true I thought to myself, and it was relatively easy to make, but surprisingly it worked well, tasted good and ever since that first time I have been a convert.

It is made up of....... yup you guessed right........marshmallow, and sugar and it will taste pretty much like the marshmallows you make it out of. I like to use pascals and where possible the pink and white mix ones. If you use nasty tasting cheap marshmallows, your fondant will taste like those same nasty marshmallows.

These happy little bees are marshmallow fondant with chocolate modeling paste stripes and eyes

It's not suitable for all cakes and situations, but for this butterfly and blossom birdcage cake it worked well.
It is also the recipe I use to make the lollipop cookie pops.

So if your following my instructions on the birdcage cake pictured at the top of this post, I made this fondant on day 2 (night) along with the cakes so they would be ready for icing/decorating the next day.  (Part one consists of making the decorations click here to link)

 This lollipop cookie is made by twirling different coloured marshmallow fondant together

 

Marshmallow fondant recipe

Half recipe will cover the birdcage cake which was a dome shape 14.5 cm (7 1/4 inch) tall and 19 cm  (9 1/2 inch) diameter

750 g ( 1 pound 10  1/2 oz) icing sugar sifted
475 g (1 pound) marshmallows
Crisco (available online from USAfoods in Australia)
3 tsp (1 US Tbsp) water

Pop marshmallows and water in a LARGE microwave safe bowl (this is gonna get messy and sticky). Melt in 30 second increments for 2 1/2 mins total stirring at each interval.

Scary night time photo with poor lighting, but you get the idea. Melt those marshmallows!!

Add icing sugar and mix well.

Grease surface and hands VERY well with crisco, have more ready to regrease as necessary. Knead until smooth and stretchable. If fondant is tearing add 1/2 tsp water at a time and knead again.

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Microwave for 10 seconds when ready to use.

To use roll out on surface lightly sprinkled with cornflour (or icing sugar).

Notes for colouring

If you use pink and white marshmallow your fondant will turn out the pink colour of the birdcage cake. I sometimes make half batches separating the pink and white so I can colour the white however I like. It is possible to buy bags of all white pascals marshmallows.

You can add colour at the mixing or kneading stage, or leave plain and colour smaller batches as required.

I use gel colours.

Recipe update - make sure to keep the fondant in a ziplock bag or wrapped with plastic wrap when not using as it will dry out and go hard. If that happens microwave again and add a little bit more crisco. Try to work very quickly.

Tweet, tweet, this is so very very sweet......Butterfly and Blossom Birdcage Cake

I'm adoring this cake I made for a 40th Birthday. Bluebirds, blossoms and butterflies what a sweet combination.

I have come up with a bit of a basic tutorial on how I made it which is pretty long winded and will be broken into a few days, but here it is the first  installment of the Blossom and butterfly birdcage cake epic.

I received a request for a 40th birthday cake which was not specific, just that there were about 100 people coming. After some questioning, I found out that the birthday girl likes chocolate, her favourite colour is purple and that some of the family are gluten intolerant. Follow up questions determined there would be a number of desserts served and not everyone would have cake so serving 100 was optional.

Eeeek - so it was up to me. I looked through my many books for inspiration and came up with a 3 tiered design topped with a faux cupcake with layers of pink and purple. Then I considered the Planet Cake 40th Birthday Cake in their book and popped over to their community and then I saw it...........

Bellasmommy  had as her avatar a birdcage cake and I had to try it. No instructions just a pic of a perfectly cute cake.

Luckily I had so much leeway that all the plans I had already made were turfed and I redrew my decorating schedule for the week.

Yes that's right, for just one cake I do up a schedule after I have drawn a design of the planned cake. This is not just for time management but to ensure that I will have the required equipment and ingredients at each step and in this case to allow time for the bird and tops of the cage to dry/set a little.

My schedule pretty much went roughly like this:

Day 1 make bird, pointy top/handle for cage, blossoms, butterflies and leaves
Day 2 make marshmallow fondant and make both cakes
Day 3 make buttercream and ganache, cut and fill cakes, crumb coat (cover with the ganache or buttercream). Cover the birdcage with fondant and add all decorations.
Day 4 place dowels into bottom tier. Assemble cakes and add any finishing touches such as ribbon.

(Day 3 and 4 could easily be combined)

Day 1 Make bird, handle, blossoms, butterflies and leaves
(where I have used chocolate modeling paste you can just use gumpaste coloured black or brown)

Bird, colour a small amount of rolled fondant blue and shape a flat oval the approx size of the bird required, manipulate the head and tail until shape resembles bird. Make a second smaller ball, flatten and shape into wing, adhere to bird body with tiny amount of water.

Make eye and beak out of small amount of chocolate modeling paste, a tiny round for eye and very tiny and thin log folded to make beak. Adhere to bird and pinch into shape if required.

Place bird on parchment paper to air dry.

Handle shape chocolate modeling paste into log and pinch into a point at middle, manipulate with fingers to make required handle shape pinching together at bottom. Cut excess off with knife.

Make another long log and twirl around in a type of snail shape to make base of handle. Place both pieces on parchment paper to air dry.

Pink Blossoms colour fondant as required and roll out with rolling pin. Cut blossom shapes, place onto non stick foam and using a ball tool with gentle and even pressure rub in small circles to thin out each of the blossom petals. Gently lift into a flower former. Pipe a small dot of royal icing in the middle and pop decorating pearls into the center. I used 3 on the large blossom and 1 in the small.

Small blue Blossoms are made using a small plunger cutter and ejector set with royal icing dots in center.

Leaves colour fondant green and roll our with rolling pin. Cut leaves with PME plunger cutter by pushing down once to cut shape and a second time to indent leaf veins. Place finished leaves on parchment paper.

Butterflies using remaining blue and pink fondant and a PME butterfly plunger cut the butterfly shape and place on cardboard folded into a M with parchment paper and allow to air dry.

 Ok this is a pic of chocolate fondant butterflies but you get the idea

Variations if you do not have the equipment required - 

you could purchase already formed sugar flowers and butterflies from a cake decorating store or supermarket. 

blossoms and leaves could be replaced with buttercream flowers and leaves piped directly onto the birdcage. 

A non edible bird could be purchased from a craft store to replace the edible fondant bird. 

A clean draw handle could be sourced to used on top of cake.

Handle could be made by piping chocolate onto parchment paper (although the chocolate would be very delicate and care would be required.