Baker Brian: The use of the right ingredients is underated. That, and the perfect fondant recipe.

The quelm I have with store-bought, commercial fondant is that it tastes plasticky and awful. In humid Singapore, that quality is made worse by the fact that the commercial fondant tends to crack and melt into a gloop, as evident from the numerous heartaches I have had. Hence, I started on a quest many years back to find a recipe that would somewhat withstand the heat and the humidity of Singapore and also taste good.

I began this journey literally from scratch and when I first started, went the glucose dripping into icing sugar route, however that took too much time to come to frution, so I searched for alternatives and started making marshmallow fondant - not without its own nail-biting moments.

With marshmallow fondant, it was always a hit-or-miss affair - the texture would turn out clunky, there would be lumps in the thingy, the texture would be too soft - it was a date, many dates with Chance. (Although I can't say I am all that lucky with love even.)

So after many misadventures, I had an epiphany and a breakthrough today - The use of the right ingredients is underrated. For years I had been using Sun Lik's icing sugar, because I thought (well, okay, okay... I did take it for granted) that given the hefty price tag, it would be pure, unadulterated confectioner's sugar. However, I thought wrongly. It was in fact mixed with cornstarch. Now, as you know cornstarch does funky things when it comes in contact with moisture and in Singapore, it is mostly 90% humidity. The other brands that I have tried, SIS and Redman also contain cornstarch and it is in fact this cornstarch that causes the most problems - glunky texture, lumps and fondant not holding its shape. Then I recently (I have no idea which hole I have been hiding under all this time) discovered Sunflower Icing Powder. The difference? It is pure cane sugar without any cornstarch added. The test of the pudding is this: Sift it. It takes about half an hour to sift about 500g of icing sugar with cornstarch. It feels tacky and it is lumpy too. Here's the *jang jang* moment: When I sifted Sunflower Icing Sugar, it took merely 5seconds to sift all 500g. If you cannot find Sunflower Icing Sugar where you are, then find a brand that does pure confectioner's sugar.

The other ingredient - the marshmallows. I made the mistake of using Corniche marshmallows and the fondant did not turn out too great, however, when I switched to Hello Mello Marshmallows, the difference was crucial.

As you can see, the texture's awful even when the marshmallows are still in their packet. The right kind of marshmallow is firm and springy to the touch. Compare the above with the brand of marshmallows that saved my life:

It really is the minute details that make a difference. The reason I have posted the pictures up is to allow you to find a similar brand, if you do not have Hello Mello where you are, with a similar texture to save you the heartache, as I have experienced of trial and error.

Here's the recipe if you feel like making your own fondant or if you are a stickler for taste and quality like me:

Baker Brian's Perfect Fondant (yields 3kg; time needed: approximately an hour)

Ingredients:

2kg Sunflower brand icing powder (or pure confectioner's sugar)

1.2kg Hello Mello marshmallows

224g Good quality French butter

1pinch Fleur de Sel

120g Additional Sunflower brand icing powder

Sift 2kg of icing sugar. Set aside.
Melt marshmallows on High in the microwave oven for 2 minutes at intervals of 30 seconds. Take the marshmallows out from the microwave oven and stir at every interval.
Fold melted marshmallows into sifted icing sugar. Fold until a sticky douch forms and the sugar is roughly incorporated.
Melt 224g of butter in the microwave for a minute at intervals of 30 seconds.
Pour melted butter into icing-marshmallow mixture.
Continue folding until sugar dough pulls away from the mixing vessel.
Dust 120g of the remaining icing sugar into the mix. At this point the sugar dough should be warm to the touch.
Add 1 pinch of Fleur de Sel
Knead the sugar dough by hand for 10 - 15 minutes.
The fondant is ready when it cuts cleanly.
Store in an airtight container and let it settle.
After the sugar dough has rested for a day or two, dust icing sugar on the counter and knead the cooled sugar dough again for 10 - 20 minutes. It is at this point that you should add the colouring that you desire. Any other point and the texture of the fondant goes wonky.
Let it settle in the airtight container again for at least a day before using it.
It is recommended you make the fondant at least two weeks before using it, to give it enough time to settle.
The fondant will keep in a cool and dry place for about a month.