Hi all,

I'm making a cake next week for a friend's daughter's 3rd birthday. My plan is to put a (seated) fondant monkey on the top, and I'm wondering how best to do it. I've done some searching on the site, and haven't been able to find quite what I'm looking for. Here are my questions:

What's the best material to use? Fondant only? Fondant + gumpaste? Fondant + something else?

I'd like to make the monkey about a week in advance. What's the best way to store him until the big day?

Any advice or a point in the right direction would be much appreciated.

Also, whenever I use the search function for something, it comes back with a gazillion hits. I can browse through the first page of search results, but whenever I try to go to a subsequent page, I get a message saying there are no matches. Anyone know what that's about?

Thanks in advance for your help!!

1. I would use fondant with gum paste.
2. Sitting out of the way covered with a thin lightweight cloth.

Try to reduce your search results. Example: If you are using the search function on the forum, be sure to put your key words in the first box and click the radio button beside "Search for all terms"

I have a monkley tutorial on my blog (www icon below my post), it's a really simple one, don't know if it's what you had in mind.
When I make figures I use fondant with tylose powder mixed in, it hardens like gumpaste just not as quickly allowing you time to work with it without it drying out and cracking.
To store I just let the dry on a cookie sheet and keep them in a cake box until I need them. I have a few figures that I've made for practice and they are in a box and in the same condition as the day I made them, just harder

Use 50/50 fondant/GP it's very easy to work with and, for figurines I use the wilton fondant it has a better texture for this and nobody is going to eat it, besides it tastes so bad you won't have an ant problem in your hands, it's easy to keep for later use

Wow! Thanks, everyone! The monkey tutorial is awesome - I'll definitely be using it for reference.

If everything goes as planned (or anywhere even close!), I'll post some pictures of the little critter when I'm through.

Cheers,
paula

Anytime I want to make a fondant figure, I google "polymer clay" and the name of the figure. Basically, working with clay is similar to working w/ fondant/gp.

This tutorial came up, it's a swinging monkey but you could modify it:

http://www.garieinternational.com.sg/clay/mon_swinging.htm

[When I make figures I use fondant with tylose powder mixed in]
Do you add the tylose when you make the fondant, or do you use fondant that you've already made and mix it in? How much do you use?

u-tube has some great videos on figures and cute monkey's

I have been using a fondant/tylose mixture....I would love to know from you experienced molders, how in the worl you make a perfectly round circle, i.e. head. Everytime I do and then set it down, it flattens on the bottom where it sits on my drying board! Also, when making a body and a head, do you put the 2 together before or after they are dry? I usually use a toothpick through my body. Do I need a lollipop stick for more support? Again, the bottom of my figure's body flattens when drying. Of course, the bottom being flat is ok most of the time. Can't figure it out!!

I sometimes dry the head in a round flower former. I have also put the ball on a skewer and then make the face. I then stick the skewer into a piece of styrofoam and allow the head to dry.

I'm a bit late jumping in, but I have found that the type of fondant I use makes a huge difference in how the figures turn out.

If I use MM fondant, I mix it with GP in a 50/50 mixture and it works fine. I haven't tried it with Tylose, but I bet that would work too.

If I use Wilton fondant, I mix it with Tylose powder, and it works great.

I had never used Satin Ice fondant before, but had the opportunity to try it with a Tylose mixture a couple of weeks ago. I made a witch out of it and was so incredibly frustrated with it I couldn't believe it--it kept drooping, no matter how much Tylose powder I added. I put the head in the flower former (I got Aine2's tutorials for people and LOVE them) and by the time I pulled the head out of it (like 5 minutes), it had sunk in and taken the form of the flower former on the back of the head. Even after 24 hours, the fondant didn't really ever get firm the way I was used to with the Wilton/Tylose mixture.

I don't care for the way the Wilton tastes, but since people rarely actually eat the 3D figures I do, I use that. I buy it with the Michael's coupon to cut the cost and a little goes a long way.

It's always possible that I have just adjusted to these materials and that is why they work best for me, but I will never again try the SI for the figures. Covering cakes, maybe for the taste (although I usually go with MM fondant unless the humidity prohibits it), but not for figures.

Good luck with it!!

I hate working with just gumpaste. It droops like what you guys are talking about. I just recently like last week for the first time used 50/50. Thank goodness I read about that here on CC it's wonderful!

The thing that works best for me is the Wilton pre-made fondant with tylose powder added. It really acts like clay and won't droop like the Satin Ice did for me. A little really does go a long way--I think I can get the box of Wilton at Michael's (with a coupon) for about $5.

I don't much like working with gumpaste alone either...mostly because it dries so quickly and ends up seeming so brittle to me. But I don't make many flowers, etc...at least not yet! So maybe that will change in the future.

Good luck with the cake!

ADORABLE!!! I'm glad it worked for you!

.......Gumpaste. I tried to make it with no luck.......

Have you tried Nic Lodge's recipe? It's so eary to make - basical;ly you make royal icing and add Tylose - bingo you've got gumpaste

I will try that recipe next. I got the other recipe off here on CC, but there was no Tylose. I didn't even understand, based on the ingredients, how the stuff was gonna set up. It turned out like royal icing. I saved it and am going to try to use it instead of royal for my writing, etc. I will check out that recipe! Thanks!

Doggy is so cute! I'm glad your fondant with tylose worked. I've never had much of a problem with just fondant figures, but I've not made many either. I was making a high heel shoe last week and the top of the gumpaste shoe just just didn't want to lay right. It keep warping..LOL, that's the only way to describe it. So I got out some left over fondant and mixed it in with the gumpaste and, wow, worked like a charm! Granted it took longer to dry but a beautiful shoe it did make. Maybe it's the wilton gumpaste recipe...I'll have try another.

Amazing puppy! He gives me hope. I couldn't find tylose at Michaels, but bought something called Gum-tex. Can I mix it with Wilton fondant to do something like this? Also, can I attach legs and whatnot with water, or do I need royal icing?

Thanks for the thoughtful replies!

You can use Gum-tex to help make the fondant set up quicker. There's a pack of it in the Course 3 kit for this.

I've not tried just water to glue pieces together, but I have disolved a small piece of leftover fondant in water (just microwave for 10 or 15 seconds), and it's worked pretty well as glue.

definately use modelling pasete:
5oogm fondant
1 tsp CMC
2 tsp eggwhite or dehydrated egg white
1 tsp cream of tartar
if you use real egg white youwuill need to leave it set overnoght, if you use degydrated you can use it straight away, its what i use for all my toppers!! its fantastc i use it for all my gumpaste including all my flowers etc!!!!