I'm new at fondant/gumpaste. I have worked fondant to make little animals, which worked out well. Doing some research, I realise that a fondant/gumpaste combo will work even better.

I recently purchased a pack of fondant (brand I was not familar with but was willing to give it a try), but it was disastrous. Instead of the animal drying out, it 'melted', at first leaving a shine on the surface, then by the next day it was just too soft to even lift off the mat. I have to add that it was a humid day when I worked on this. I called the shop and they suggested adding more icing sugar. But wouldn't more sugar mean more melt?

My question :

1. why did the animals stand well and dry out beautifully with one brand and not the other? Is it the composition? I did expect it not to dry out as well in the humidity but I certainly did not expect it to melt.

2. can I salvage the rest of the pack (maybe some 800+grams) by kneading in some tylose powder as suggested by some? If so, how much?

3. if tylose fails, what else (aside from laying it on the cake) can I do with it.

Thanks for all advise. I'm still learning.

I've moved to a very humid place in the last year and it's made all the difference in the world in my fondant (and I don't mean that in a good way!). What I do now is to add about 1/2 teaspoon of tylose to every 250 grams of fondant and sometimes I put in a little meringue powder (maybe a quarter tsp. for the same amount of fondant). If worst comes to worst, and the fondant is still icky to work with, I add powdered sugar, about a tablespoon at a time, till I get the consistency I want. This will give it more consistency not less, but you have to be careful, because it's easy to overdo it. Whatever you do, don't refrigerate your fondant/gumpaste figures! The condensation when you take it out of the fridge will kill it! Hope this helps some!

Marianna. Thanks for your tips. Armed with all this information will give me better understanding when working on my fondant.

Sorry for the late response to this. I'm a 'newbie' and still trying to 'find my way' around this site. Reading the forums has helped a lot. For some reason, I don't get notified when replies come in even though I have checked the box.

it also helps to work in an air conditioned kitchen

bobbie

I've also moved my dehumidifier from my basement to my kitchen when working with fondant and gumpaste. It does make a difference.

Would that we all had kitchens with AC! But I will confess that I do a lot of my fondant and gumpaste work upstairs where there IS air conditioning. The only thing I do with fondant in my kitchen anymore is to cover my cakes - and that only because it has the only counter big enough to roll out large pieces. But as soon as they are covered, the cakes go up to my "hobby" room (LOL here - it's really the family TV room) for decorating. I made two big mistakes on a cake last week: I crumbcoated in buttercream instead of ganache and I left the cake downstairs (we were going to cut it the next day). When I went down in the morning, the bow on top had fallen apart and the fondant covering was down around the poor cake's ankles! Oh, yeah, that's another thing: crumbcoat with ganache, because buttercream will melt in the heat. It was only a family dessert, but to teach myself a lesson, I redid the whole thing anyway!