Working on a red race car cake and the fondant is very dull looking. I saw recently where someone said something like mixing vodka with gel paste color to shine up black fondant. Can't remember exactly. I also when doing an internet search for this saw someone saying that they spray their cake with Pam? IDK - has anyone tried this?

Besides steaming (cuz I don't have a steamer and don't want to go buy one right now), what are your suggestions? What have you had success with?

Thanks guys!!!

There is a recipe for edible varnish here on CC. Search the recipe section. Don't know about spraying with Pam.

Painting it with gel color and vodka will give it a shine. You can also paint it with plain vodka but adding some gel color will help the color pop and the shine stay for a long time.

I wouldn't spray it with pam spray...my pam spray comes out yellow, even the one that's not butter flavored. It comes out in little dots too, not a solid mist.

Confectioner's glaze is another way to get the shine but it stinks and you have to buy thinner for it so you can get it off the paintbrush. It makes a glassy shine though.

I had great success making my fondant shiny by mixing vodka and corn syrup 50/50 ratio and just painting it on the fondant. It gave the fondant a high gloss look. It was so easy.

You can use a steam iron... just let it steam heavily and put it near the cake... otherwise you'll have to spray it. I don't like brushing as it gets really streaky. but there are sprays for that.
Mike

I just did this for my lego cake, I used my Iron. Set the stream and put it near the fondant -- it makes the surface kind of wet-looking. It will also be very tacky to the touch, so be careful to let it set.

Okay, so I won't spray with Pam. I was a little leary of this as well. Cakewhiz, did painting on the vodka and corn syrup leave streaks/brush marks? How long did it take to dry? Mike, I'm a little concerned that some of my details which are made of gumpaste and "glued on" with piping gel may come loose with the steam? What do you think?

Thanks so much guys - you're AWESOME!!!

Painting on vodka/corn syrup left no streaks and it was dry in 24 hours and was not sticky. I painted them on roosters that were put onto a cake and it gave the roosters a high gloss shine. If you want a photo of my finished cake ....email me at [email protected]

I never get streaks when I paint with vodka and gel colors. I know some people say that they do, but personally it just doesn't happen. I use artists paintbrushes rather than the ones that Wilton makes, maybe that's why.

Texas Rose, I definitely think that you're right about using a good quality brush!! Thanks again guys. I'll let you know what I end up trying and how it turned out. These are all such good ideas, I don't know which one to do!!!

You can try different ideas on a scrap of fondant. That's how I test things...roll out some of the leftover fondant and then use the different methods on the different areas and wait a few hours to see what looks the best when it dries. When you see them all side by side it's really easy to tell what you want to do for the particular cake you're working on, without having to test them on the actual cake.

If you wanted to- you can look in my posts on the 2nd page there's a few pages about "how do you make fondant shiny". Hope this helps!

Great idea Texas Rose - that's exactly what I'll do!

Kitcae - what posts are you talking about? How do I find this?

CWIL- Just go to my profile, click "find all posts by kitcae" and go to the 3rd page. Then click on a thread called "how do you make fondant shiny". It has 20 posts in it.

Thanks Kitcae.

Can you paint it with something besides vodka. No alcohol in this house, but I'm trying to get something shiny...

Clear vanilla extract might work in place of the vodka but a cheap bottle of vodka would probably be less expensive. LOL.

I used the 50/50 split of vodka and corn syrup and it worked amazing! I didn't have any brush streaks and it dried in just a few hours. Maybe you could use lemon juice in place of the vodka. I've used lemon juice before mixed with dusts to paint flowers. Don't know, but may be worth a try.