Marshmallow - soft, light and fluffy - what's not to love?

I have been playing around with a marshmallow recipe recently with the view of including it as a menu option on our dessert tables.

This one is classic vanilla with a touch of Wintons food colouring and it is finished off with edible rose petals scattered over the top. After cutting it up, I placed it on a white milk-glass cake stand and popped a glass bell dome over the top. I found that the bell dome trapped the scent of the rose petals inside and it actually infused the marshmallow with the soft flavour of rose....nice side effect? 

If you haven't tried making home made marshmallow before, why not give it a go? It is really quite easy and you don't even need to use a sugar thermometer. Once you have tasted it, you will never eat the store bought variety again.

Go easy on the food colouring, if you don't add enough, you can always add more gradually. But if you are to heavy handed to begin with, that soft pink colour you are hoping for will quickly become fuschia!

Vanilla Marshmallow

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons gelatine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• Icing mixture to dust with 

Method

1. Grease and line a 26cm slice or lamington tin, allowing baking paper to hang over sides. (If you can't find a 26cm tin, one as close to this size as possible will also be fine)
2. Place the sugar in a saucepan, add 2/3 cup hot water and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and syrup is clear.
3. Place gelatine in a bowl, pour over 2/3 cup cold water and use a hand whisk to combine. Pour mixture into hot sugar syrup and cook, stirring constantly, until the gelatine has dissolved and the mixture is clear. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
4. Pour cooled mixture into an electric mixer and using the beater attachment, place the mixer on high and beat for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture is very thick. Add the vanilla and your food colour and beat to combine.
5. Pour into the prepared pan, smooth the top with a spatula or butter knife and leave in a cool place to set. Once set (about 1 hour) turn out of the pan and use a wet knife to cut into squares.
6. Dust the marshmallow with the icing sugar and place on a nice plate or cake stand.

Tip: A little trick is to get a plastic bag (a zip lock bag works brilliantly) put your icing mixture in and then pop a couple of pieces of the marshmallow in. Zip up the bag and very gently toss it around. This will thoroughly coat the marshmallow.

The marshmallow will keep for about a day, so it is best to try and make it on the day you want to serve it as it will slowly start to  turn gooey with the humidity in the air.

Now you just have to try and stop yourself from eating more than one piece. 

Enjoy !