I have a customer coming to pick up a cake today after work and I am really unhappy with how dull my fondant looks. There is lots of cornstarch dust on the fondant. The cake is green fondant covered in white fondant flowers.
I have read on here that steaming is the quickest method.
My question is, if I quickly steam it with a garment steamer will it be wet and tacky? Will it dry or does it stay shiny by staying wet? The cake is for a party on Friday afternoon. I am just scared of ending up with a slimy mess.

Thanks so much everybody.

I would rather dust it with green edible dusting powder to get rid of the cornstarch stains. If you have never steamed before it is quite risky to do it so close to the pick up moment. What if it goes wrong? Better stay on the safe side. Just my two cents...

I would have to agree. Sometimes if there is a lot of cornstarch it will just cake w/ the steam. Take a dry brush and dust off as much of the cornstarch as you can, then if you want, go over it w/ green petal dust.

Only other thought I had....if you don't have the dusting powder...would be to rub a little crisco on a paper towel and wipe it over the fondant. It will remove the cornstarch and add a little shine.

Trie story:

Last wekend I had a cake due and hubby did the fondant work (he uses PS... I use shortening) t roll my fondant... so out I pull the clothes steamer that I purchased speificalyy for my cakes.... we put it on... but when I do a test as the steam comes out... water is driping also...so we decided it was too ricky... so DH says... well our iron has the steam settig and when we steam with it... no water drips...so he gets the iron... adds water.. was 2 minutes and as I turn the cake... he pushed the burst steam button on top pf the iron... we put the fan on... (NO DRIPS) wait 5 minutes... touch the fondant to see if it was sticky cause it was so shiny it looked sticky... well it was super dry and very very shiny... we were both like AHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA another tool for our sugar arsenal.

it works perfectly... I reccomend tha tyou do this... if u have the iron with the settings for steam... and NO regrets...so drippings.... just steam and it dries like ib 5 minutes... if u want I will post a pif of the result with the cakes we did...

hth

dalis4joe...

thank you for the hints! what kind of fondant did you use? satin ice, mmf, chocolate mmf, etc.? thanks in advance!

Hi,

The steamer works really, really well as long as you're careful. Make sure that it's not spitting water and that it's ONLY steam coming out of it. Don't hold it too close to the cake - start far away and slowly move in until you get to the right distance.
It will make your cake look super, super shiny and it does not get sticky or stay wet or tacky to the touch. It dries fairly quickly but stays very shiny!
Just make sure it's not spitting water or you will have splotches.

If you look at the Transformers cake in my photos you can see what it looks like after steaming. That was the first cake I ever tried it on - the red and black were very dull and since the cake was for my nephew I figured it wouldn't be the end of the world if the 'expriment' went bad. I was really glad it didn't!!! I wish I had taken a before & after picture!

Good luck!

I always steam individual flowers to get rid of the excess powder colour. The shine does not last but it takes the dull look away. I would be very wary to steam a whole cake. If the fondant is dull rather try rubbing it with a litte crisco. This is absorbed after a while.

Kerbear73 your transformer cake is stunning. You have convinced me! I will try the steamer next time!

Ok everybody, thank you so much for all the great advice. I love cake decorating and hope that I can get as good as some of you. I am so inspired to try things beyond my comfort zone.

I decided to go for it and steamed the cake for only a few seconds on each side. I am sold!! It worked beautifully. The cake wasn't even tacky just seconds later. It just had this fantastic shine.

I highly recommend it. I will attach a picture shortly

Yeah. I steamed a cake today and REALLY messed it up, so I agree to be CAREFUL!!!! The steamer spit ALL over my cake. I had to go over it twice with a paintbrush to even everything out...and the tiny hot drips pockmarked the entire surface that had previously been extremely smooth (I was actually pretty happy with it.) The colors were dark (ping pong table, I actually started a thread on it but no replies) so I wanted to just shine it up a bit.

The cake is okay, and the customer will probably be fine with it (the pockmarking is very even over the entire surface)...but I wish I had been alot more careful or even decided against steaming it.... I think I used way too high of a setting or something.

We tried steaming on my tiger cake and the steamer ended up spitting a lot. We even tried to use a brand new nylon to control the drips, but it didn't work. I'm glad for all of you that have had it work though. I'll try the iron on my next fondant cake though.

I tried steaming a piece fondant and it had a great shine to it but unfortunately by the next day the shine had gone. So I'm thinking that I will steam cakes to get the powdered sugar off but if I want to add a high shine to my fondant I will try something else.

I think it depends on the type of fondant you are using. I usd it on MMF and it was still shiny the next day. I used the steam on a McCalls Fondant covered cake and it was dull as soon as it air drie, I even steamed it mor than once. I ended up painting it with water and vodka to keep the shine.

I haven't tried my steamer yet but I have used a light layer of shortening. Makes the cake nice an shiny.