Granted I don't cover cakes in fondant so I don't work with it much. But the few I have done have been slightly but not extremely difficult. This weekend I tried to cover an 8 in cake with black Satin Ice fondant. DISASTER!

I kneaded it the night before with greased hands, not too much grease, let it sit well wrapped until the next day and then lightly kneaded to make it pliable again. I rolled it to the thickness of the gold rolling pin guide from Wilton, sorry can't remember the depth, but it seemed almost too thick! My cake was chilled and I was ready to cover. The fondant course pleated at the bottom which I tried to work out, but then it started getting that elephant skin look on the edges and then it started tearing. Finally it was so bad I just had to start over. No matter what I tried it didn't work. We ended up not even using that tier!

I have used different colors of fondant suscessfully, minus a few flaws, but this was bad. The fondant had a different texture from the start. Does black fondant feel different? I thought maybe I didn't knead enough grease into it from the start?? Any suggestions?

I've noticed the black Satin Ice is sometime more sticky. But that is the only problem I've run into with black. Maybe someone else will be able to give you more info.

Satin Ice is my absolute favorite fondant to use. I've found that when I do use it, I hardly have to use any shortening at all. The biggest difference I've come across when using colored fondant versus the white is that I have to leave it a little thicker than I would the white in order to get the results I'm wanting. I get the best results when I use a nonstick mat, and a nonstick rolling pin with a tiny bit of powdered sugar to keep everything from sticking to each other. You have to move the fondant around and flip it a few times. On the colored fondant, if you take a slightly damp paper towel, you can wipe the excess powdered sugar off before you decorate it.

Hopefully this helped you!

I'm just curious as to why you pre-kneaded the fondant the night before?
I also use Satin Ice and love it, and I have noticed that when it is over worked the air that gets into it dries out the product and that's when you get cracks and elephant skin etc...

When I roll my fondant I use a bit of shortening on a silpat with a silicon rolling pin and 9 times out of 10 I get sucess.

Also maybe the room you were working in was to hot or cold? Humidity and fondant are mortal enemies ( sticky melty ... just gross ) but cold air doesn't fare any better...

There are other brands of fondant than Satin Ice that are black.

I've had problems with black Satin Ice from time to time. My main problem is it dries too quickly and cracks. I mentioned this to the head of Satin Ice at teh ICES show, and he said if it happens again to add just a tad of glycerine to it. Maybe that will help you.

can you get pettinice chocolate fondant where you are? We can't get satin ice where I am, so I've no idea of a comparison. But if you can get it, I can honestly say it makes a perfect black fondant. I did a basic four night cake decorating course, and on our very first night one of the girls wanted black icing. The instructor just whipped open a pack of chocolate, added a bit of black gel just as you would for any other colour, and voila, it was perfect.

Duff's black is great.