Marshmallow Fondant

I used this recipe to cover Lillian's birthday cake a couple weeks ago.  The colors were so bright and fun.  As I worked with the dough I thought to myself "the kids would LOVE this stuff!"  Luckily I ended up with left overs of three different colors.  I got out plastic knifes, cookie cutters, spatula's etc and let the kids go at it.  While the dough really isn't to messy or hard to clean up I had the kids work on baking sheets just to make it a little easier and I sprayed the toys, table, and their hands with Pam (I also taped wax paper on the table and we did it in the garage for easy clean up).  Of course they were thrilled that they could eat the dough while they worked.  It was a fun activity to do and the recipe I used follows.  I got this one on line and there were lots of variations so you might want to see what else you can find.  This was really simple and fast to make though.   Note: we storedsome of  the dough in the freezer for 2 months and it still did fine.

Put one large jar marshmallow cream in a mixer and slowly beat in about 3/4 bag of confectioner sugar.  You may want to add up to 4 T water; it depends some on the weather that day.  Add coloring if you wish.  Grease Saran Wrap, roll dough into ball, put it in the Saran Wrap and place in freezer for 30 minutes.  Dough is ready to use.

Exploring with sugar

Any child is going to love this activity and since it is perfect for any age its a good group or after school choice.  The recipe for Edible Sugar Decorations follows.  After awhile I added extra water to the concoction so the children could see that, while the recipe still smelled the same and tasted the same, it had a completely different consistency.  It is perfectly ok to introduce these bigger words - just explain as you go what they mean and don't use a lot of them close together.  Then try using the same word a few times during the next week or two.  I sat a table up outside and gave Cole and Lillian each a cookie sheet for them to make their creations on. If you follow the recipe and don't add lots of water the children can use containers as molds - its like damp sand on the beach.  You can also use food coloring to color the "sand" if you want.  Here's the recipe:
2 cups Granulated Sugar, 4 tsp water, and 1/2 tsp Meringue Powder; just mix together.