Nemo Cake - for Adya turns 3 !!

Happy Birthday - Adya turns 3 !!

Our little Cuppy Cake Adya turned " Big 3 "  this year. She is no more a baby , she's more of a toddler now than she was at least a few months ago. Time sure does fly fast, may be a bit  faster than i thought :) . 
We celebrated two parties for her, we decided on Adya's Birthday Bash on a short notice, celebrated it with her little friends and their families.  We celebrated it in our Play-yard ; decorated the monkey bar with a huge Spiral Balloon Deco made by her Dad with help from his friend, and the food was from our favorite restaurant. As it was a Play-Yard Party the kids enjoyed playing to their hearts content .   

Our little one loves Nemo, and i wanted to surprise her with a  Nemo Cake , and was sure that i had to make it with fondant, having no experience with fondant before wasn't so sure how the result would be, i really didn't want to mess up my girl's birthday party.  So i started checking on different homemade fondant recipes, heard that store bought ones didn't taste good , actually its a year long search that i started my research on Fondant Nemo Cakes,  well, i wanted to bake a newmo cake for her 2nd B'day but couldn't ,kept on researching on Nemo Cakes , i was sure to make it someday.
 At last i found the perfect recipe on our fellow blogger Manju's blog Manju's Eating Delights. She had some very beautiful Homemade Fondant Cakes in her blogs,  she was very prompt & answered all my questions. I kept on asking her so much, and she was very sweet enough to help me out; thanks a lot Manju.
 I could work on the decos only after Adya went to bed, so it was all a night work. Making Nemo was fun, you can see the lucky fin too !! 

I baked two 9" Chocolate Cakes ( will share the recipe soon ) and used a Chocolate Butter Cream frosting from here .
I made the corals 2 days before the party and made the cake and frosted it a day before and refrigerated it. On the night before the party i covered it with fondant and left at room temperature. It was just perfect when time to cut, and the little girl did feel so happy seeing her fav Nemo on her B'day Cake.


HOME MADE MARSHMALLOW FONDANT 
Receipe Source : here

 Ingredients:
 10 oz Marshmallow Packet ( i used mini marshmallows )
4 Cups ( 1 lbs ) Confectioners Sugar or Powdered Sugar
2 tbsp Water
Vegetable Shortening (opt ; to grease your hands and work place ) ( i did not use this )

Method:
 In a large microwave safe bowl , add water and the entire marshmallow pack and heat for 1 min until all melted . ( i did it in 30 sec each ). Stir until all mixed and a thick paste.
Add powdered sugar and stir until sugar and the marshmallow is some what mixed.
Spread some powdered sugar over your counter top and knead the marshmallow mixture until a dough is obtained. (You may use vegetable shortening to grease your kitchen counter and also your hands , so that the dough does not stick to your hands, but I skipped this).
Wrap your fondant in cling wrap immediately, coated with some powdered sugar or shortening and keep it aside for sometime. Before using, again knead until soft and use as needed.
If you feel your fondant hard to knead, microwave it for 10 sec or so ,NOT more than that.

To color the fondant:

Take the required amount of fondant and using a toothpick or coffee stirrer add some coloring gel into the fondant and knead well until the desired color has spread across the entire fondant ball.
I used the Wilton Colouring Gels.


Notes:  I halved the recipe and did the Nemo and the corals, still had leftover fondant, and the whole recipe worked just perfect to cover a 9" Cake.