I am the least crafty person I know. Years ago, my girlfriends and I used to get together every Thursday night for a craft night and to watch "Survivor" (when it first came on), and I would be the girl who bring her mismatched sock basket to work on as my "craft". I was good at buying craft supplies, just not a doing crafts, LOL. A few years ago I struck up a friendship with a girl who was a scrapbook sales rep, and she got me started scrapbooking. My first two projects involved scrapping all my dd's years of dance pics, and my son's hockey pictures, and I now have two amazing keepsakes for them. Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed - we have so many photos, I don't think I could ever get them all scrapbooked. But I enjoy the work in progress :) Carrie

Carla, I am happy to help There's a great marshmallow fondant on cakecentral.com that I use: Rhonda's Marshmallow Fondant or MMF * 15 oz. mini marshmallows 2 T water 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp lemon juice (fresh or bottled) 2 tsp light corn syrup (helps w/ pliability) 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 tsp lemon extract 2 lbs (approx 7 C) confectioner's sugar, sifted 1/2 C Crisco or vegetable shortening Instructions Grease microwave proof bowl w/ Crisco. Also grease wooden or heat proof spoon. Pour marshmallows and water into bowl. Microwave for approximately 2 minutes stopping and stirring at 40 second intervals. Mixture should be soupy. Take out of microwave and immediately add corn syrup, lemon juice, salt and extracts. Stir well. Sift confectioner's sugar into mixture, one cup at a time. After approximately 5 cups, grease your hands well with Crisco and knead the mixture in the bowl. Add the sixth cup and continue to knead. Now grease your work surface well and turn mixture out of bowl onto counter. Sift remaining sugar, regrease hands, and knead well. If mixture seems soft, add one additional cup of powdered sugar. Shape into a mound and put a coating of crisco on outside. Double wrap in cling wrap and insert into ziplock bag. Press air out of bag and seal. Allow to rest overnight, but, can be used after sitting for a few hours. **Quick note, if you can order the Princess Cake and Cookie emulsion it will be well worth it. It gives this fondant a delicious flavor and I have been able to convince brides who hated fondant to order fondant wedding cakes after sampling my fondant. Hope you like it! Now for the rest. Working with the actual fondant is extremely easy BUT you have to have a perfect cake to lay it on. The stuff is very unforgiving and will highlight every lump and bump in the cake. You will need to spend a lot more time getting a perfect under layer of buttercream than you will laying the fondant. Will the cake be square or round. It's easier with a round cake but with lots of care you can do corners. Mine still crack on the corners sometimes so beware and have extra fondant on hand in case it does. Working with two fondant smoothers helps as well You can color it black. Buy Americolor Super Black gel, it is WAY better than the Wiltons and will give you a true black but expect to use a lot. I get mine on eBay as I can never find it locally. You can put figures on it. It won't crack unless they are very heavy. I love playing with fondant to create the figures I need. It's just like working with clay. You can transport it like any other cake. I glue my cakes to the covered board with a dollop of buttercream as I find this stops them slipping. HTH

I've heard about the clear mat trick and got a mat to try but haven't done a cake yet since I got it. I definitely want to try though! My problem seems to be that the fondant tears. I think I'm rolling it too thin. Thanks for the tip though!!! I'm anxious to try it.

We love fondant!! Maybe we have a better recipe....but that cake was more cake than frosting..so I doubt anyone ate it. It was for display only. There would be no way to cut/serve appetizing portions. My mom was a cake decorator--amateur for her families special occasions and she had a basket weave technique--no fondant-- that looked as good but would have taken 1/4 of the time, I am guessing. Still very impressive work!!