Marshmology - The art of Marshmallows

The rise in artisan food trends has grown rapidly over the past few years, becoming ever more popular as we now look to supporting local and shopping local. As new businesses begin to pop-up all over the North-east, one in particular caught my eye. After seeing an array of scrumptious photos of marshmallows I just had to find out more about an up-and-coming company called Marshmology.

Launched at this year's Taste of Grampian event, Marshmology has been popping up all over the city offering up some of the most delicate, artisan, gourmet marshmallows the city and shire have ever seen.

With a range of six core flavours including Bakewell Tart, Coconut Rum, Salted Caramel, Peppermint, Lemon and Vanilla Chocolate Chip, which are all handmade by owner, Jill Tough, and numerous limited edition flavours coming soon - especially around Christmas time - these marshmallows are miles away from the chalky marshmallows you would usually find in a supermarket.

All of the marshmallows are freshly handmade on a daily basis, and it takes around two days to make each batch. Light as air and packed full of high quality ingredients creating the most intriguing flavours, Marshmology caters for all tastes.

When I caught up with Jill, she mentioned how much of a sweet tooth she has and wanted to find a niche in the market to offer up something completely different. With no one making their own marshmallows in the area, and the food trend becoming extremely popular down South, Jill jumped at the chance to offer up the tastiest marshmallows to the people of Aberdeen.

With potential toasting kits to create the perfect hot chocolate in development, Marshmology has thought of everything. As well as online and stockist trade, the company also offers a mallow gifts service for wedding favours, celebratory events, and corporate gifts.

Created in Jill's family home kitchen, which has achieved industry standard tests, these little puffs of air make the perfect on-the-go snack.

Lucky for me, I got the chance to try out the gourmet marshmallows, and disappoint they did not.

Eton Mess:

What I love most about these marshmallows is the fact that they aren't sticky to handle, due to their consistency. You can bite into them very easily, without having to worry about getting gooey marshmallow all over your hands - meaning they are a great car snack and perfect for kids too. The Eton Mess flavour was delicious. With strawberry mallow made with fresh, locally sourced strawberries, topped with crisp meringue and crunchy freeze-dried strawberry pieces, this marshmallow captures every aspect of a traditional Eton Mess.

*This flavour of marshmallow is gluten free, dairy free and naturally low-fat.

Salted Caramel:
A definite favourite, this marshmallow flavour has a real kick of sweetness. To me and my tasting panel, it definitely tasted more like sticky toffee pudding, which I wasn't complaining about at all, but it also boasted strong notes of salted caramel within. I'm not sure if our tastebuds were playing tricks on us, or what was going on, but they were utterly delicious and very, very soft.

With a rippled salted caramel sauce throughout the marshmallow, which is topped with caramel curls to finish it off perfectly, this marshmallow is a definite must-try, especially for those with a sweet tooth.

*This flavour of marshmallow is gluten free, egg free, and naturally low-fat.

Bakewell Tart:

With a very strong, sweet layer of cherry marshmallow on top, and a syrupy almond marshmallow on the bottom, this pairing creates the perfect toast to a traditional British classic, the cherry bakewell tart. This flavour is definitely one you will want to get their teeth into.

With a real hit of cherry and almond across the flavour board, this marshmallow was extremely popular with the tasting team.

*This flavour of marshmallow is gluten free, egg free, dairy free and naturally low-fat.

Vanilla Chocolate Chip:

These creamy, indulgent vanilla marshmallows topped with delicious milk chocolate are the perfect addition to any hot chocolate. Gooey and smooth when toasted, they are utterly divine.

I really liked these marshmallows, but found that their real vanilla taste was released when toasted and added to a hot chocolate. A real melt-in-the-mouth delight.

*This flavour of marshmallow is gluten free, egg free and naturally low-fat.

All of the marshmallows are available to purchase online, and are stocked at a numerous local deli's and cafés too. A box of nine costs £5 (featured in the photos in this post), a box of 15 costs £7 and a mallow party-pack of 100 marshmallows costs £40.

With quirky stand-out packaging and a delicious core range of flavours, Marshmology is one to watch and definitely one to get your hands on!

  For Now...

Just Julia

Somewhere over the rainbow: Rainbow Cake recipe

Baking has never been my forte. It's one of those past times which, if I'm being frank, is the bain of my life when I try and attempt it- exactly why I never do it.

So when I do bake something, and it actually turns out like what it's meant to, there's no chance I could miss the opportunity to scream, shout, and let it all out, about this once in a lifetime experience. Fancy impressing your family and friends with a show stopper even Mary and Paul would be proud of (if they were judging a child's baking competition that is), well then, this Rainbow Cake recipe is for you...

What you'll need for the cake mix:
The following ingredients create seven cake sponges (which need to be seperated out equally throughout the baking process)

• 437.5g butter (softened) with a little extra for greasing the tins
• 337.5g plain flour
• 525g golden caster sugar
• 11 medium eggs
• 3.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 3.5 tsp baking powder
• Edible food colouring in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink
• A few pinches of salt

And for the icing:

• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 350g icing sugar
• 3 x 250g tubs cream cheese (or mascarpone)

Ready, set, bake!

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180C and grease two 20cm round sandwich tins well. Pour all of the sponge cake ingredients, except from the food colouring, into a large mixing bowl. Beat the ingredients with an electric whisk until smooth. 

2.  As quickly as possible, weigh out half of the mixture into another bowl. Choose two of the colours and stir a little into each mix. You can add as much colouring in as you like - the more colour, the brighter the cake, and if you're anything like me you'll add lots!

Pour the different mixtures into the cake tins, spreading the mixes as smoothly as you can. Bake both cakes on the same oven shelf for 10 - 12 minutes (bake until you can poke a skewer into the middle  of the cake and it comes out clean).

3. Once the cakes are baked, gently turn the cakes out onto a wire rack, allowing them to cool. Next, thoroughly wash the cake tins and the bowls and start from step 1 all over again - using two different colours of course! Repeat one more time, and then use the final cake mix left over to create the last cake. Leave them to cool off.

4. Now on to the icing...

Briefly beat the vanilla extract and cream cheese with an electric whisk until smooth. Gently sift in the icing sugar, slowly folding in with a spatula (although I used a wooden spoon). It's important to be careful with the icing, as the more you work it, the runnier it will get!

5. Place a wee bit of icing on a plate, or a cake stand if you have one, to stick the first sponge too. Starting with the red sponge, spread icing all over it to the edge and repeat, sandwiching the other colours on top. Following a 'traditional' rainbow the next colour should be orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink to finish it off. Spread any remaining icing all over the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle hundreds and thousands all over the cake to finish it off nicely. You can even add edible glitter if you're feeling adventurous!

6. Finally, slice, plate up, and devour. Job done.

  For Now...

Just Julia