little feet living: Batter's Up

Our little boy was turning 5 and I was trying to find an easier theme than the fire engine theme we've had for the last 3 years for his birthday. When we do the kids birthday cakes we try to do something special and really cool cakes with fondant. But this year I did not want to do a huge cake, something a little more simple. So I thought why not baseball, he loves baseball. So we made him the cutest baseball cupcakes and had baseball food with the Philadelphia Phillies colors for the decorations. I cheated with the cupcakes and just made boxed cakes, but I did use a Southern Living Buttercream recipe and added my own flare of extra confection sugar and almond flavoring. I thought this recipe was a little to buttery but test it before adding extra, you may like it this way.

Vanilla Buttercream

1 1/2 C butter or margarine, softened

4 Cups of Sifted powdered sugar

2Tbsp Milk

1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

Beat butter until creamy, gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add milk and beat until there is a spreading consistency. add extract. { I added my extra 2 cups of confection sugar a 1/2 Cup at a time. Test (with different spoon every time, if you have baby spoons they are perfect for testing.-you are feeding this to others!!) it before adding in another half cup. do this until you've reached the taste you are going for.}

Again this recipe was from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook By: Julie Fisher Gunter

I colored the icing green for the cupcakes to look like a green ball field.

about 25 drops of green and 8 drops of black

Added 2 extra cups of confection sugar

looks spreadable!

Also I found great videos for applying the icing. I have never been to baking school but these youtube videos are great! Check out this one for the fluffy top look. I thought this was perfect for the baseball cupcakes since a big fondant ball was going on top.

The day before the party I made 44 cupcakes and a half batch of fondant, since all I needed was 44 baseballs that my amazing and talented husband would do the morning of. I use a great fondant recipe that I love and get positive feedback every time I use it. It is the simplest recipe and takes 30 minutes to make a batch. I have timed it before when I was doing my best friends wedding cake. And if you do a double batch it will still take 30 minutes! The plus to this fondant is that it does not taste like the fondant you buy in the store. I have used wilton and satin fondant and had no luck, I am sure I was not using it right but the taste was not great, it was definitely just for decoration. Here is what I use for the yummy fondant I make for all my fondant cakes:

1- 16oz bag mini marshmallows(white)

1/2 cup of crisco (leave it in the scooper)

2-5 Tbsp of water (I keep in a cup with T. measure for easier use)

1- 2lb bag of confectioner sugar

corn starch

Large glass bowl

Long wooden spoon

Apron...this will get messy

plastic wrap

1. Toss the marshmallow in the large bowl with 2 Tbsp of water and microwave for 30 seconds, take out and stir and repeat this step 4 more times.

2. Add 1/2-3/4 of the powdered sugar into the bowl of melted marshmallow.

3. Make sure you have a large smooth surface area to work on and that at least 16 inches is covered with a thick amount of crisco and your hands are well greased too before working with the fondant. ***This gets extremely sticky so make sure your greased above youe wrists a bit***

4.Then dump the bowl of marshmallow and powdered sugar onto your greased surface.

If you have ever kneaded bread dough, this is the same technique. knead a few times working in the powered sugar. You may need to reapply more crisco onto your hands (If this does not work I have washed my hand and reapplied crisco to them).

5. When it seems to be well kneaded dump the remaining sugar on the fondant and continue to kneed until you have reached a stretchy dough-like consistency. If it seem to get dry and tearing then you can add 1 tbsp of water to the fondant. knead it in and see if it changes back to the stretchy dough. Add another tbsp if still dry.

6. Once the powdered sugar is completely mixed in (best time to add color if coloring your fondant) and formed into a ball, of sorts, you will use a little crisco to rub all over the ball of fondant and wrap in plastic wrap and place in an air tight storage bag in your refrigerator. This stores for about 2 weeks.

When you are ready to roll out the fondant you can use a rolling pin or one of those bakers rolling sticks. I use my wooden rolling pin and it works just fine.

1. toss a little bit of corn starch over the surface you will be working on to keep the fondant from sticking to your counter.

***Make sure your surface is smooth or whatever texture your surface is that will be the texture you get for your fondant.***

Check out this site here to get more information on how big your fondant should be and other great tips. This is where I found my recipe for fondant and other great tips.

After John rolled out the fondant he cut 45-2inch circles for the baseballs and then added their stitching with a the same circle to make the imprints and a knife. Once every ball was done he added the red color to the stitching to make them look like real baseballs. this was so cool!