Sea Foam Marshmallows

One of my favourite sweet treats to make (and eat!) is marshmallows. Most people don’t believe you can make marshmallows yourself, let alone how easy they are, so I’m going to share, with a mermaidy twist!

SONY DSC

You’ll need: 450g caster sugar, 9 gelatine leaves, 2 eggs, water, 2 tbsp golden syrup or glucose syrup, and a candy thermometer as well.

First of all, get your gelatine soaking in 140ml water.

SONY DSC

Mix together the sugar and golden syrup with 200ml water in a saucepan, and start boiling, with the candy thermometer. You don’t need to stir the mix at all.

SONY DSC

Separate your eggs, you only need the whites. Whisk them until soft peaks form.

SONY DSC

Once the sugar mix hits 127°C, take it off the heat and add the gelatine, water and all.  Stir, and it’ll bubble up a lot at this point, and its really hot, so watch out!

SONY DSC

Slowly pour the sugar/gelatine mix into the egg whites, with the mixer running.

SONY DSC

Turn the speed up, and it’ll take about 9-10 minutes for your marshmallow to fluff up.

SONY DSC

This is when your imagination can take over! I coloured some of my mixture a pale blue/green, and some purple..

SONY DSC

In a square cake tin, I layered blue, then purple to create multicoloured cubes.

SONY DSC

I used a madeleine mould to create these cute shells..

SONY DSC

And piped the rest of the mix into shell shapes..

SONY DSC

Marshmallows take an hour or two to set, and you can dust them with icing sugar to prevent stickiness once you’re done.

They keep really well in sealed bags or jars, and make for a perfect hot chocolate topping!

°o°

Sea Shell DIY

In keeping with this week’s Little Mermaid theme, I’ve been crafting away with sea shells.

Shells are a great craft supply; if you live near a beach, you’ve basically got a free supply right there and a lot of fancier seafood you can buy from the supermarket comes with shells now too. Cleaning them up is easy enough with hot soapy water in the sink, but you can also put them in the dishwasher too!

So here are just a few quick little DIYs to add a little under the sea to your home!

 First of all, you could spray paint them..

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

Or turn them into cute hair accessories..

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

Or miniature trinket boxes..

SONY DSC

Or fill a decorative vase..

SONY DSC

Or make into cute little tealights..

SONY DSC

And large shells would make a great jewellery dish..

SONY DSC

Or key dish..

SONY DSC

Or even a soap disc..

SONY DSC

°o°