Eeyore Plushie Marshmallows

I venture into the realm of homemade character marshmallows not because I planned to, but because there is a request for me to teach character marshmallows in a baking studio. I didn't plan to master marshmallows because to me, they are just nothing more than a candy that is one-dimensional in taste and texture. But when I discovered homemade S'mores from scratch, it is a different story altogether! 

And so for a practice run at home, I decided to try making something that I have been holding off for the longest time --- Eeyore plushie! This plushie (or rather plushies since we have a few of them) has been sitting on our bed for a long time and I have been toying with the idea of making it into a bake/food but haven't found the right medium for it until now. Presenting my squishy Eeyore marshmallows! 

See how squishy it is in this video! 

This isn't class material by the way. Just a practice run for me to challenge myself to create something slightly more complex. 

I have to thank two very talented bakers for sharing their experiences with me on making character marshmallows. Please check out these two Instagram accounts (Gloria of miscellaneousmao and Amy of cookingwithamyy) to see their amazing work! 

I have to stress that a lot of how the marshmallows turn out has to do with practice. I have the experience of working with gelatin, Italian meringues and piping meringue cookies and choux pastry characters. The skillset I gathered from all that can be applied here.

I did a quick survey of the internet and find that character marshmellows are best made using Italian meringue. There are marshmallows made without egg whites but those will be harder to work with especially when you have multiple colours and more complex shapes. 

Gloria kindly pointed me to Claire's blog post on making cute character marshmallows. Please click on this link to view her very helpful and detailed post! I converted to grams so I don't have extra washing to do from measuring cups🙈. 

I did minor tweaks to the recipe and it works well. A few tips I would like to share (without revealing too much of my class material and what the experts mentioned that they would like to keep to themselves for the time being) that you may find helpful:

1. Use only cornstarch for dusting if you live in humid environment like me. Some people use icing sugar or a mix of cornstarch and icing sugar. 

2. Don't use piping tips. That way you can safely microwave the piping bag of marshmallow if necessary when it becomes too firm to pipe nicely. 

3. Use cookie cutters to mark out the area that the character is supposed to cover in your tray of cornstarch. That way you have reference points to indicate how you should pipe when you don't have a template. Unlike macarons or choux pastries, piping character marshmallows require you to do it more or less by freehand. Having reference points really help a lot to keep your characters more or less the same size and shape. You can see my example below. I used a rectangular cutter to mark out the spaces to pipe. 

4. Be generous with the dusting below the marshmallow. All experts stress this and I have to agree. It's a pain to try to release marshmallow stuck to your piping surface. 

Any for tips specific to this Eeyore plushie? Yes! Use a damp toothpick to mark out the indent on his face after the marshmallow has set a little but before dusting. I tried painting a faint line along with an indent, just an indent and without a line down the face at all. See the examples below. 

I asked my kids and hubby for their opinions and they all agree that with the indent alone looks the best. Without the line down the face in whatever form just isn't Eeyore anymore. 

Most people float their marshmallows in hot chocolate but the only beverages I drink are water, unsweetened teas and soup. I prefer them as S'mores instead, which happens to be my class material for character marshmallows! Stay tuned for my next blog post on my character S'mores class! The combination of lightly spiced, sweet and savoury Graham cracker, rich chocolate layer, and soft gooey marshmallow on top that is toasted until caramelized and crisp at the top 😍😍😍. The flavour explosion and combination of textures is amazing!! Here is Eeyore before and after toasting! 

I placed a small bar of chocolate under Eeyore before toasting like regular S'mores. We have a good laugh whenever we toast an Eeyore on homemade Graham cracker 😂. My kids love them and have fun eating even though they are in their early teens now. I use my small and cheap home oven toaster so the browning is uneven but it still tastes yummy! You may use a blowtorch if you have one. 

Follow me on Instagram @phay_shing if you would like to see more of my work as I am more active there than on Facebook and I don't post all my work on the blog either. 

With love, 

Phay Shing