Hi all,
This is my first attempt at making a fondant mum - please let me know your thoughts. Also if you would be able to help me it would be great - I can't seem to stop cracks in my fondant characters. am i adding too much tylose? is there anything else you can use to not have your fondant stick other than icing? and how do you smooth out cracks? thanks for looking and thanks for helping

Sounds like you are adding too much tylose. Also, I find that I have to roll it alot. I roll everything into a ball to work out the cracks, then make the shape I need...

actually she doesn't look too bad.

You might want to add alittle crisco to your gumpaste to make it alittle softer so you have time to work those cracks out.

Now the first thing i see, is the neck on this little lady, if you form the head and the neck as one piece you won't have that crease where the two meet. It is easier to hide the crease at the shoulders, can be done with a collar or a necklace.

Next thing i see is the ends of her glasses, you will want to move them down some so that they are heading towards her ears.

The last thing i see which is probably the hardest thing to deal with is the hands. If you can't model hands (i can't) hide them, or simplify them more. With a cartoon character you don't need separate fingers You can just score them on (they don't look so awkward when you don't try to separate all those fingers. Ways to hide the hands, have them holding flowers, mittens ....

Thanks for the advice. re. Tylose - how much do you need to use???
re. the Crisco - that is great - I will try that next time and see how I go. So I assume still use the icing sugar on the surface but also add Crisco when forming? or when trying to get the cracks out? I understand what you mean about the neck - unfortunately she had a neck but it cracked so I decided to seperate the neck from the head. The hands I didn't think looked too bad but I did rush them.

Re, the glasses - they were made out of very fine fondant and were a last minute thing ... next time I will try and measure it correctly.

Thanks for all the comments and the help and look forward to hearing from you.

Hi
I dont think you did such a bad job either, one thing I would say though is that when you're making figures you're dealing with very small amounts of fondant so I personally wouldnt use icing sugar as your non-stick substance. I'd roll it out on cornflour instead because it helps the fondant not to dry out. And I agree with the crisco (although I use Trex because we dont have crisco here) knead a little into your fondant and roll into a smooth ball before you even attempt to shape it.

I use Gum tragacanth because i dont have tylose, and I only use a pinch per fist ball of fondant, then sit the figure aside to dry out once it's assembled. I always make them a few days in advance so I'm not in so much of a hurry and if I do anything particularly wrong i can re-do it. on my last cake the legs of one of my figures broke so I had to do another set when I was placing them on the cake. I used extra gum to get them to dry out and the legs ended up cracking a little. Wont do that again! I think we just have to learn by our own experiences as we go along.
The cake is lovely

Thanks for your help and for all the advice. I will try cornflour instead of icing sugar next time, less tylose and some crisco and see how it works out. This is just a hobby for me so I try and do these on special occassions only but being a mum with a toddler it is only between some sleeps!!

Thanks everyone it is much appreciated. Anyone with any further advice/ comments??? Love learning from the professionals.

Sorry I'm not a professional. Im more of a hobbiest. I tend to make one cake a week now though because my family and friends are getting my cakes as birthday gifts instead of an actual pressie. Saves me buying a gift and saves them buying a cake. Everyone wins
I also have an almost 1 year old and an almost 3 year old so i only do this all at night.

Hi .. when I said professional I mean others that have more experience than myself... great idea about the cake and the pressie - i've been told the same thing from family members however I need to get more experience first.