I don't know why I always having problem rolling my fondant. I need to know what kind of surface do you guys have to work with. I don't have smooth wood table, my kitchen counter is granite so it's porous, the only table I have is the glass dining table. When I roll my fondant I have to put a lot of cornstarch to prevent sticking but still a lot of time I failed and I have to redo it again and again. And due to lots of cornstarch, sometimes I ended up gave my fondant to mr.garbage because the texture wasn't right anymore. It took me 2-3hrs to cover 2 tiers of cake, it's really time consuming. Do you know somekind of extra large nonstick mat out there, please...please let me know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! By the way I usually use Michelle's Foster Fondant which is very sticky in my opinion, but today it's my 1st time using Satin Ice Fondant, the texture is perfect, but back to my main problem, when I rolled it, it's stick to the table and once I got it right it was tearing when I applied it to the cake...Men...what's wrong with me!!!!

Try buying a piece of vinyl to place on your counter or table top. I think you can buy a piece of a roll at Walmart, etc. I read someone else suggest that and I think that's what I'll do too!

Try using either confectioners sugar or crisco instead of cornstarch. I go back and forth between the tow depending on the season here in the desert (ex- it's now monsoon season and humid so I'll use the sugar- but 2 weeks ago I had to use crisco because it was so dry here)

I use either a plastic mat if I'm covering the cake (so I can pick it up and flip, or roll it up and roll out) or I use my corian cutting board to roll out fondant when I'm doing shapes- that way when I cut, I don't cut my plastic mat to pieces.

You can also spray plastic mats with Pam.

Some people use vinyl tablecoth material sprayed with Pam.

You can also knead in confec sugar if it's too sticky before you roll.

Too make rolling go faster make sure your fondant is in a ball, then roll out in all directions to keep it pretty close to a circle (an old pie crust trick from Grandma)

Just keep practicing. The more practice, the faster you will get. Good Luck!

my husband bought a board, almost like a dry erase board from home depot that i put over my table, works great and i can put it out of the way when i dont need it. plus it was cheap!

Thank you sooo much for the quick responds. I'll shop around this weekend, I might ended up buying both vinyl tablecloth and the board, I cannot wait to try them out.

I use to roll it on my granite countertop but now, I lay my blue Ateco silicone mat on my countertop and roll away my fondant.

Is the silicon mat really work??? I see that the size of the mat is pretty big 24"x36" and they say that we don't need to use cornstarch.

The Ateco Mats come in different sizes. I think 2' X 3' is the largest though. I would still personally use a smearing of shortening on the mat before rolling out my fondant though.
To the O.P. if you do buy the clear vinyl don't let them fold it for you and store it rolled so that you don't end up with creases in it (ask me how I know, lol).



http://www.google.com/products?q=ateco+mat&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B2GGIC_enCA225CA225&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=mE1pSu2ODqKBtwfs35jFCw&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4

I bought the World Cuisine Pastry Mat on Amazon, about 31" x 23", and I love it. It was expensive though, about $50. I bought it just days before I read on this forum about the inexpensive vinyl. Nevertheless, I am thrilled with it as it lies completely flat on the counter, does not budge or slide one bit, is so easy to just wipe clean, and I even used a small knife lightly to cut out fondant shapes without any harm to the mat. I will also use it for pie crusts, cookies, rolls, etc. so I don't regret the purchase at all. I also bought a large silicone rolling pin without handles, and it worked very well in conjunction with the mat.

About MFF, I live in a very humid area and the fondant was not sticky at all. Maybe working in more sugar in the initial process might help. Like another poster, I use Crisco for kneading the fondant, and put a light coating of it on the mat as well. For cutting small shapes, I used a cornstarch puff on the mat so the shapes would release without distortion.

I had fabulous results with the fondant, the mat and the pin.

I use PS/CS mix on shiny side of freezer paper. All except the largest (14 and up ) fondant circles can be rolled up on my pin and onto cake from there.

Wow, lots of great ideas and advice on this thread! Glad I popped in here!

I usually just roll out large pieces of wax paper and tape to the table,dab a little p.sugar on it and like some of the other posters said dab a little shortening on it when it drys out.Makes for easier clean up for me and I don't have to worry about somewhere to store a mat.I already have cake stuff overtaking my house and waiting with anticipation to buy lot's more!

I have used the vinyl as other's have suggested but I use Michelle Foster's fondant and I use a little cooking oil to roll it out instead of shortening. I know it sounds gross and you would think that it would be shiney but it absorbs it. I think that I read it somewhere that the shortening breaks down the Michelle Foster's fondant.

I roll on my granite countertops. It is a great surface for it. If you have very pourous granite (not all of it is) you could seal it.

Granite counter with shortening works perfect every time. I'm about to have to start working on a SS table so I'm hoping there won't be much difference. Also if you are finding your MFF is too soft you need to work more PS in at the kneading stage of the process. I have very warm hands and MFF is the only fondant I love to work with....satin ice drives me crazy!! HTH

I just use my cake divider mat. It works fine.

Not to be disagreeable at all, but shortening has not hurt my MFF at all! The leftovers keep well, the fondant and decorations dry well, just not a problem! And I use it with abandon when kneading or rolling MFF.

Vinyl Vinyl Vinyl!!! Go to a fabric store and purchase a few yards. Get clear (think shower curtain liner) and it should cost you under $5! You definitely won't need as much powdered sugar or shortening once you use vinyl.

I bought a big piece of vinyl from the fabric store and keep it rolled up, not folded (see xstitcher's post above!) I also marked the circles off the Wilton plastic mat on the underside of my vinyl so I could kind of gauge how big I need to roll out whatever I was working on at the time. I'm a beginner, so it really helps me.

I bought the thickest vinyl on a roll from a houewares store and actually taped it to my counter (I have a dedicated cake decorating kitchen) it's an 11 foot wide by 3 foot deep piece (you can cut it to any size) if you can't tape it down, just clean up, and roll over a long rolling pin to store. I've been using the same piece for 3 years!

I've used a glass top table sprayed with crisco spray. Now I have a VERY SMALL marble counter that I still spray with crisco spray.

i bought a mat from michael's made from wilton that you use to roll fondant on it also has guidelines on sizes to roll from i just used it last week to do my son;s wedding cake using satin ice fondant.it turned out perfect.

FYI the vinyl mat can be tricky if you have tile countertops. I bought the stuff by I find myself still using my pie/pastry mat. Although I totally wish it was bigger, the thing is, it's thicker than the vinyl; with the vinyl, I get grout lines in my fondant .