Hi, my name's Candes and I'm a fondant phobic

I've been staring at my MMF that's been in my fridge for 2 to 3 wks (I hope it's still good). I've NEVER had any experience w/ fondant. It's always been my dream and here I am on threshold of fruition and I can't make myself touch it. (Okay, I briefly messed w/ Wilton's during a class but the majority of my supply is still in it's pkg.)

When I made the MMF, it didn't stretch like I've read it's supposed to. At that time I had never felt it before so I had no pt of ref. I even posted about the texture and got a little response but nothing that helped my situation.

I'd HATE to cave in and use Wilton's fondant for my final cake for Course 3 but it sure is looking that way.

Why decorate a beautiful cake that doesn't taste good? Seems like a wasted effort to me and I don't want to do it.

Should I keep working the mass, kneading it until it's more elastic? Will it come together? Right now it has NO elasticity. I would say it wasn't dry but what do I know? It breaks if I try to pull it. The one "daring" time I knead it it became a bit sticky only after a few short minute or two.

I've already added an extra 1 or 2 tbl spoon of crisco. Should I knead it longer? Add some PS?

HELP!!! Can someone come to my house and look at this stuff?

It's so hard to determine texture through the internet. Do you remember how much powdered sugar you put in? Usually any more than 6 cups will make it dry. Try heating it in the microwave about 15 seconds and then knead with a little crisco on your hands. Keep spreading a thin layer of crisco on your hands when it gets sticky. you can also sprinkle a little powdered sugar on the surface. Making fondant takes a little practice so don't give up.

I used what the recipe called for ... um 2lbs (Peggy's recipe).

The full 2 lbs. is about 1 cup too much. You might try adding a couple of sprinkles of water. It also needs to rest for several hours before you can use it. I don't knead the full 1/3cup ? of crisco in. I just keep coating my hands until the texture is right. If you can't save this batch, it's worth trying one more time.

Put a 16 oz bag of mini marshmallows in a bowl with 2 Tbs. water.

heat in the microwave 45 seconds at a time stirring in between until the marshmallows are melted and the mixture is soupy.

stir in 2 tsp. corn syrup

Mix with 5 1/2 cups powdered sugar.

Add the extra 1/2 cup of powdered sugar gradually until fondant is soft and stretchy but doesn't spread too much when it sits for a few seconds.

let rest several hours.

I mix my fondant by making a well of powdered sugar on clear vinyl and using a bench scraper to get the stuff that sticks. Some people use their kitchenaid mixer but I'm afraid of burning it out.

I am in CO and am convinced that MMF doesn't work here. I had the same problem with it just breaking apart and I've tried MANY times. I decided to use the MM cream stuff in a jar and added PS to it, bingo!! Works SO much better and not nearly as much trouble to make it. You can try adding a TINY TINY amt of corn syrup to the batch you have made to get some elasticity. Only do a drop at a time though.

I am in Calgary Alberta, and the MMF does get dry, but I learned to not add so much icing sugar at the begining. After I play with it a bit, then I decide if it needs more. I personally feel like if it doesn't stretch enough then it needs some water worked into it, and if it stretches too much then it needs more sugar.
I used to be afraid of it, but now I LOVE it!
Good luck!

Candes, you shouldn't give up. Keep working at it; it will pay off.

I had trouble when I first started using fondant, too, but I kept at it and tried different recipes until I found the MMF recipe. It works very well. For a point of reference, have you ever worked with bread dough? MMF is kinda like that, it becomes elastic and pliable when you've worked in the right amount of powdered sugar/crisco.

And a cake covered in fondant is beautiful (thus worth the effort) but can also taste good, too. It just needs some flavoring added to it. I use an extract in place of or with the liquid called for in the MMF recipe. You should play around with it, try adding flavor to your recipe, etc. until you become comfortable with it before you have to do it for "real". Give it a go on some cake dummies to see how the fondant behaves and what you need to do to tweek things. Good luck and let us know how you do!

i'm in CO and havent used anything but mmf... i really overly grease the bowl i melt the mm's in.. then scrape the melted crisco into the mixing bowl, which is overly greased as well.. i also add about 2-3 tbsp of water in the the mm before cooking along with my extracts... i dont have to knead too much with my hands cuz i use the dough hook on low for a long time and add the sugar slowly.. i also find its easier to use my mmf fairly quickly after i've made it.. easier to roll out when slightly warm...

Elasticity comes in large part from your corn syrup. I tried to find your recipe but I have no idea what "peggy's" fondant is and it isn't on cc under that name. I know at least one recipe here omits the corn syryp, and it flat doesn't work for me, so that may be your problem if you didn't have any (or enough) syrup. Adding the entire amount of PS will also cause lack of elasticity, and 2lbs is too much for one 16-oz bag of marshmallows. Usually the recipe will say to start with 6 cups and knead in the rest until it reaches fondant consistency.

Throw it out and try again, but don't feel bad - if the recipe didn't tell you to work in those last couple of cups and stop when you had enough, how were you supposed to know?

Great info!! I used the Fondant 101 recipe online and no mention of corn syrup. The recipe did say to use 3/4 of the PS but I didn't pay attn and plunged right in.

The recipe I used:
16oz MM
2lbs PS
2 to 5 TB water (added 2 TB to MM)
1/2 Crisco - mainly for greasing hands and such

No CS

I gather a good MMF recipe is here on CC that mentions the CS measurement? Off to search for it.

I now have some hope.