Worked with fondant for the first time while baking my son's birthday cake for his second birthday party in March 2012. Fondant, as a rule, tastes like garbage but looks fantastic. A Facebook friend suggested 'marshmallow' fondant instead. I looked up the recipe to discover it's about the simplest think one could make, if one had the patience that is.
1 bag of small marshmallow
1/2 bag of powder sugar
1 teaspoon of water
Crisco
Grease your work surface with Crisco. Add half a bag of the sugar in a mound to the greased surface. Place the marshmallow in a microwave safe bowl and add the water, mix well, and microwave for 30 seconds on high. Stir and repeat until it melts (maybe 2 minutes or so). Put on latex gloves, and then grease your hands with more Crisco, and empty the bowl of melted marshmallow onto the mound of sugar. Using your hands, knead the sugar into the marshmallow over and over until it forms a dough.
Once the dough is formed, cover it with more Crisco and wrap tight in Saran Wrap. Refrigerate overnight. DONE! :-)
I made mine successfully on my very first try. I let it rest for a week before I worked with it again. When I did, I tore off a small piece using a fondant roller and some powdered sugar to prevent sticking/tearing and I rolled it out like a pizza-dough. Once I was comfortable with the consistency, I added some food coloring. I use coloring gel but regular coloring would work too. Just add some, ball it up (I rolled it out on a baking pad so I wouldn't stain my work surface) and the more I rolled, the more the color worked it's way through. The less you roll, it appears more "tie-dye" in nature. Then I used a metal cookie-cutter to cut out the "Easter Egg" shaped fondant.
Once the shape is cut out, place it on the cake, or place immediately in a storage bag for later use. (If you leave it out, it'll harden)
I also made little fondant carrots by molding the carrots by hand and making the details with the dents from a butter knife. I made the leaves but cutting out the pieces and then carefully connecting the two. I left the carrots out to sit for a couple of hours to they could harden slightly to hold their shape.
Next I attempted a fondant Bunny Rabbit head. I had to look one up online to get an idea of what I wanted. I just shaped the face in my hand like puddy. Once I was happy with the shape I set it aside to harden. Then I worked on the ears. I had to stretch them and fold them, and then paint the inside carefully with food coloring. Later I added small fondant eyes. I left the Bunny out for five days since he was was edible but never intended to be eaten.
Since fondant is made from marshmallow, sugar, water and Crisco, it essentially has no expiration date. You can make this weeks or a month in advance and leave it in an air-tight container. Once it's left out and exposed to air, it will harden but still taste the same, assuming you want your teeth intact ;-) This bunny was firm but not solid after five days being left out. I decorated the cake and left it out overnight and noticed the thinner fondant pieces were a tad rubbery in texture but tasted just like marshmallow the next day. Still tastes worlds better than traditional fondant.
When it came time to decorate, I baked a four layer cake and filled the layers with homemade butter-cream frosting. Once the cake was frosted, I simply adhered the fondant Easter Eggs, flowers, and bunny to the cake. The frosting acts as glue and holds them nicely. I used cookie-cutters to make different shaped and sized flowers of varying colors. I had a cookie-cutter bunny as well and used a 'fondant marker' to draw on eyes and other features. I hand carved stripes and dots to adorn the Easter eggs.
I also rolled out white fondant and wrapped it around a hollowed out, store bought, plastic egg that I separated into two halves. Once the fondant was settled onto the egg, I cut out little rivets and let the fondant set for five days. After five days I carefully removed the fondant from the hollowed out plastic egg halves and placed them on top of the cake to create the illusion of a "hatched egg". In-between the two halves I placed a peep, the only non-homemade part of the cake (other the cake itself, yes, it was a boxed cake).
In all I suppose I spent 4 hours or so baking and decorating this cake from the frosting, making the fondant, coloring, cutting out, and hand molding the pieces. Not bad considering last year I invested 29 hours on his cake. :-)
Overall I'd say the fondant was a success. I will work with it again. It was not as foreboding as I thought it would be. Now, will I ever cover an entire cake in fondant? Um...well, never say never ;-)
Still working with fondant, all left over from his 2nd birthday cake. I baked a strawberry cake and homemade chocolate butter-cream frosting. I made up the recipe, two sticks of butter, 1/4 cup of shortening, and I have no idea how much unsweetened cocoa. Possibly 2/3's a cup. Also no clue how much powdered sugar and water, I kept adding until it was chocolaty, sweet and the right consistency. 
