Alan,

HELP!

Can you give me some suggestions on what to do with my sticky Satin Ice? Do I add cornstarch, powdered sugar, add shortening - what should I do? Knead it more - knead it less, let it rest? Roll it on vinyl (I do not have marble counter tops)? I am afraid to put it through my KA pasta roller.

I am trying to use it to put 1 inch stripes around my cake on one layer and then a ribbon border on another layer. I bought it so that I would not have to deal with trying to color my regular fondant black or red as this is such a problem to get it the right color.

Your help and suggestions would be appreciated.

Do you have some white fondant you can mix in? I find the premade stuff I have bought in the past (different brands over here) were far too soft and sticky from the amount of colour but adding a bit of a stiffer white fondant made it easier to work with without losing the colour. My instructor told me that if I had the problem again I would be better off adding cornstarch to my surfaces rather than icing sugar as the icing sugar (ps) can make it stickier but I don't know if it is that correct because I have heard other advice suggest kneading more icing sugar to firm it up.

I do know that if you coat your bench with shortening and cornflour and turn your fondant 90 degrees after each time you run the rolling pin over it as you roll it out you will experience more success than you would otherwise. It's what I had to do but it took me 2 hours to roll out a piece big enough to cover a 7" cake after all the trouble I had. The last time I had to use the black fondant, I added the white stuff and it became sooooo much more managable.

Hope this helps a little.

Alan is at OSSAS so I doubt he will be responding until monday or tuesday.

I had the same problem when I first started using it. I use a little cornstarch under what I am rolling. Making sure not to get it on the top, once rolled thin I just leave it alone for a couple minutes and it will firm up. If it is too sticky I knead in a little cornstarch.
It is a little tempermental but after I got the hang of it, I really like it. Beats the heck out of trying to make it!!

tylose powder might help too, it will get stiff faster though so don't add it in large amounts.

If the weather is very hot, the fondant will get sticky. I would suggest to add powder sugar. Next time you can prepare the rolled fondant and color with the americolor paint for chocolates, it gets dark in 30 minutes and does not change the texture. and you will only use less colorant.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions and to Heath for letting me know where Alan is. I added some white Wilton fondant and that helped and with my other project I added some more cornstarch and let it firm up a little before I moved it.

Thanks again for all of the help. Now that I have "it" under control I think I sort of like Satin Ice. I just hope I don't get elephant skin. Should I have rubbed some shortening over it when I was done?