M&M Cake

by Gretchen Martini

My daughters name is Emma and has had the nickname Em&EM for a few years now. I always surprise her with a fun innovative cake but was stumped this year. I knew there would be no more Elmos, cute puppies, Barbies or unicorns. So, at the last minute it came to me. I would create a giant M&M. I also knew I wanted to try a cake using fondant. My daughter and I are big fans of the HGTV show Ace of Cakes; and I knew I had to give it a try.

I first started by googling pictures of the M&M characters. I knew I would do the green girl for obvious reasons. I looked for a picture that would work with my cake lying flat since I do not have the expertise of making one stand up. Once I found my picture, then I had to read up on fondant. I choose to make my own fondant so I could get the green coloring right. I found a marshmallow fondant recipe online and went with that. While the marshmallows were melted is when I added the green food coloring. I mixed a neon green and a grass green together to get the desired color. After preparing the fondant I refrigerated. The next day I baked the cake. I used Wiltons 11# x 15# cake pan and doubled the recipe. I added melted white chocolate to the batter to give the cake more density so it could handle the fondant. The cake was frozen so I could then carve out the desired M&M shape. I used a butter cream frosting to glaze the cake and then let it air dry at room temperature for approximately. 6 hours. I then rolled out my green fondant thick in a diameter larger than my shape to ensure coverage. I frosted with butter cream one more time and then quickly, but carefully draped the fondant over the cake. I smoothed the top and sides and used a pizza cutter to cut off excess. The cake was then set aside while I prepared more fondant for the legs, arms, gloves and boots. I made the same marshmallow fondant, separated the batch and colored one batch to skin tone using neon pink and yellow food coloring use very little. I molded the shapes and attached to the body using water and a bakery paintbrush. The black fondant was purchased from Wilton for the eyes. I then painted thinned out butter cream frosting and painted around the cake and sprinkled mini and regular M&Ms.

My daughter was totally surprised and the cake was a hit. I was very pleased with how easy fondant is to work with and cant say I had any problems in the process at all. I just worked slowly and re read directions over and over.