I have an opinion question. I usually make my own fondant, however, I recently bought a tub of satin ice black fondant because making black is such a pain, and I can't lie, the convienience is wonderful....so I wanted to buy some white just to have at hand for figures and such. The local supplier only carries pettinice, no satin ice. She told me that it is harder to work with than satin ice but less expensive. Does anyone have an opinion, is it worth it to buy (just a small amount) or should I just make my own? (Reason I can't order satin ice is because I don't want to pay for shipping and I have a cake this weekend).
Thanks!

I have/do use it. It's very firm to work with, but I just zap mine in the mirowave for 10-30 seconds (depending on the amount), to soften it up. I personally don't care for the taste but it's not nasty tasting like Wilton. I love Icecraft for the taste, but it's a royal PITA to work with so I usually mix the two to get a better tasting more workable paste.

I have found Pettinice to have a rough texture - no matter how much I work it and with a tad of shortening. I have tried different batches from different stores and it's very 'chunky'/crumbly. But, because of knowing that and having some on hand, I used it on my tomb cake for the competition - it worked with the theme.
Also at the competition, I bought some FondX since it was a veritable steal, but so far, the one time I used it, I was utterly out of shortening and it said not to use corn starch (which is all I DID have) - I used a wee bit of it to roll it out and unlike the other fondants, it didn't have any 'play' in it once on the cake. I couldn't massage it to finish the porsche cake I was making. It could well be the lack of shortening to use. I have the rest of the 20lb tub to mess with. I also found it to be too marshmallowy-tasting and very VERY chewy. Again, I'll finish out the tub and give it a serious chance. But thus far, SatinIce is my friend...and I think I saw that GSA has it on sale for 25% off - so I may well stock up! The savings even w/shipping is cheaper than driving to the local cake stores and paying their outrageous prices.
Cheers!
Wendl
(and anyone know what the deal was yesterday w/cake central? I couldn't log in for the life of me - anyone else have trouble? PM me - so that I don't hijack the thread)

Off topic, but who is your supplier?? Twin? I didn't think there was anywhere else around here...

Just wanted to say I use Pettinice on my cookies, and love it... I like the taste. But I've never used it to cover a cake so I'm no help!
If I remember correctly, Ski really likes Pettinice. You may want to PM her.

Pettinice works but I think its harder to knead and get workable....

I used to use FondX and liked it but now I just use Satin Ice.

There's actually some lesser known company brands that work well too, sometimes sold through food suppliers.

I use Satin Ice. But recently I purchased a large tub of Pettinice because the store I purchase from was out of Satin Ice. I was disappointed...it seemed dry and crumbly. I definitely had to knead like mad and add lots of shortening. I also didn't like the taste as much. Since I've never used it until now, I just figured I had an old batch or something.

If you're going to use it figures only (not covering cakes) then I'd say okay, but you'd need to work a LOT of shortening into it to get it workable. I would never cover a cake in pettinice, because I think it tastes horrible. It's Satin Ice, for me!

I thought it was a happy medium between the workability of Wilton(taste aside, Wilton fondant has been, by far, the best in workability), and closer in taste to Satin Ice. I use Satin Ice(or homemade if I run out) now because of its' availability...Sometimes, Pettinice wasn't in stock and I'd have to hunt it down through another vendor....aaaaaaaaargh.

foxymomma,
I get some things at bakemark, although I don't think its called that anymore. I called them and they only carry pettinice. I don't think there is anywhere local that carries satin ice. but i went on global sugar arts site and saw that the satin ice was pretty cheap so i ordered it. I figure the shipping cost is worth the saved aggrevation in both the drive to get it with my busy schedule and the possible trouble working with it.

thanks for all the imput!

Call Twin Bakery Supply- see if they have it for next time. Thanks!