Oh Martha, how do you do it all? Not to undermine her incredible talent (she really is a genius) but I know a big part of the answer is she surrounds herself with lots of creative types who share her vision and even more minions to actually help get all the work done. I’m not crazy, I know I shouldn’t hold myself to Martha’s standards.
But every now and then is it so wrong to think maybe I can pull off something extra special in the kitchen? Especially when www.marthastewart.com makes it look and sound so easy. Over the weekend I learned the hard way that the answer to this question for me is yes. Sigh.
With Easter fast approaching, I thought I would try making Martha’s Homemade Marshmallow Bunnies for my nieces and nephews. The instructions seemed straightforward enough and I felt confident I was completely capable of the project.
I started with the Marshmallow for Piping recipe. I had to sprinkle gelatin over water and then boil sugar and water to make a simple syrup, easy right? Everything really was going well until I realized I don’t have a candy thermometer. Oops. Not too worry, I found an article on cold water testing candy doneness. Admittedly not as accurate as the thermometer but I managed to achieve the results required (or so I thought).
Then it was time to whip my marshmallow liquid for eight to ten minutes. So I whipped away and T. took a turn whipping and in no time our liquid became gooey and marshmallow like. It was actually quite amazing. Once this happened I transferred the marshmallow to my piping bag and everything just went downhill from here.
Failure 1: I put way too much marshmallow in the bag. I don’t know what I was thinking. Every time I squeezed the bag to make a bunny shape, marshmallow oozed out the top.
Failure 2: The consistency was off. Though very marshmallow like, each time I tried to make my bunnies heads, tails and ears everything just melted into one big blob.
Failure 3: When I finally was able to squeeze a few bunny-ish blobs out I realized that my coloured sugars were just not fine enough. As I sprinkled the bunnies they once again became unrecognizable blobs.
It was at this point that I gave up and declared the recipe test beyond hope. It’s hard to say if the problem was with my marshmallow syrup not getting to the soft ball stage or if I didn’t whip the mixture enough to get the texture quite right. I’m hoping someone who’s attempted marshmallow making before can give me some pointers in the comments section below. I really need them.
As for my nieces and nephews, don’t worry they’ll still get treats. I just won’t be the world’s most impressive aunt this time around. Darn you Martha.