If you have worked with gumpaste flowers you know that steaming them after dusting with petal dusts sets the color and keeps it from flaking off on your iced cake, gives the flowers a bit of sheen as well. I have been looking for a small portable clothes steamer to use for the purpose, finally found one I like on Target online, it came today and I really like it. No more waiting for a pan of water to come to a boil, this heats up quickly and emits steam right away. Just the perfect size for steaming flowers.
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-4/qid=1177963186/ref=sr_1_4/601-4478765-7580145?ie=UTF8&asin=B000BO57I0

That is cool, Shirley! Thanks for the tip! I may have to go to Target tonight and see if they have it in store...

Speaking of steaming...I've seen on at least one cake challenge on Food Network, the chef steaming the entire cake. I guess to make it shiny? I've been curious about this because when I make fondant cakes with fondant accents, it's really hard to get off all the powdered sugar residue. Have you ever tried steaming an entire cake?

I haven't tried steaming a fondant cake but I have seen it done. It is especially pretty if the cake has been dusted with super pearl luster dust and then steamed, it deepens the pearl and adds so much shine. I kind of think you would need to get as much excess cornstarch off the fondant as possible before steaming, otherwise I think the starch might get gummy or ball up on the surface of the fondant.

I don't use cornstarch or powdered sugar to roll out my fondant, I use a large Silpat mat called a Roulpat, and just a light coating of Crisco that I apply with my fingers to the mat and then wipe with a dry paper towel. On the dark blue fondant I did for my show entry, if I had used either pwd. sugar or starch it would have taken forever to remove the white film.

Thanks for the input. I definitely need to try a silpat. I always dust most of the powdered sugar off the cake with a brush but it just seems like I can't get all of it off. There's always just a slight dusty layer espcially on the cut surfaces of decorations. I thought a light steaming might shine it up a bit. But I think my next purchase will be a rolling mat.