So.... After much frustration and a learning curve,I am in love with my Cricut. I could not have said this a month ago, as I was ready to toss the thing. Only the thought of having spent so much money held me back. So what have I learned? I was rolling the fondant too thick. Two ounces (I weighed it) of fondant was enough for the 12" x 12" mat. Roll till you can see the lines on the mat. Be sure that you have brushed the mat well with Crisco. I pre-rolled the fondant on my Silpat mat & then finished it on the Cricut mat making sure it was smooth (I used my marble rolling pin) and stuck to the mat. Make sure that no fondant extends beyond the border lines of the mat or the rollers will go over them and the fondant will get in the machine parts. As suggested by a CC reader, I have a shaker labelled "Cricut" that is 50% icing sugar mixed with 50% cornstarch. I use this mixture to roll the fondant on & to prevent sticking before placing on the greased Cricut mat.Once ready, I placed the mat in the freezer for 30 mins (I used a timer). While in the freezer, I set the cricut to medium speed and medium pressure. I have learned that higher pressure tears the fondant,gumpaste etc and also shortens the life of the mat. Set the size. I got the size right by measuring the width of the cake & deducting about an inch to allow for the trim.I set the blade 1 1/2 inches from the top and also 1 1/2 inches in from the edge.Choose the design from the cartridge. Use the features "fit to page" and also "fit to length". Once the half hour is up,remove fondant from freezer and cut immediatly. Using tweezers,remove excess pieces,return to freezer for 10 minutes,remove & then using a flat tool, remove from mat.Hope that this helps, as the numerous tips on this site have helped me greatly and I now do not feel that I have wasted my money.

Glad it is working for you now. What kind of fondant are you using? I have found Satin Ice works best and I love the Cricut gumpaste and have had great success with it. It also makes beautiful gumpaste flowers. Thanks for sharing and happy cutting.

I am so glad to see this thread. I HATE my Cricut. Like you said, I am about ready to toss it but I paid full price when it first came out! I have used it a handful of times, each one being so stressful that I would rather cut out designs with an exacto knife and a template. But some things you just can't use a template! I am going to save this info and give this a try on a few cakes for the Christmas Holiday. I sure hope I can get it to work~!

i too enjoy using mine, i use satin ice and roll it directly on the mat and use it straight away to cut. I just did all the words and shapes for this cake board, using the Hannah Montana cartridge and font from Curlz using Make the cut software. Ill post the picture in my gallery.

I played with mine at the beginning, but then got too busy , I hope to get back into it soon.. like you said, its not cheap, and its just sitting there..
When I did use it, I loved it.
so maybe soon, hopefully.
thanks for letting us know all your hints and tips.
Jodi

auntiecake. I just used the Wilton fondant that I bought at Michaels with a 50% off coupon. It now tastes a lot better than it used to & I knead in a little almond extract to make it taste even better. I also purchased some of Duffs fondant with a coupon (I would not pay regular price as it is so expensive) & mixed Wilton & Duffs fondant 50/50. Great texture & flavour. Hope these tips help.

Limpy, I have used Wilton fondant and it did work well for me. You are right the taste is much better! They finally realized they had to improve the taste. It always was great to work with, but tasted sooo bad that it ruined it. I have tried Duff's fondant and like it for some things but have never mixed it and tried it in the Cricut. Thanks for the info. Happy Turkey Day!

I love mine too....I dont have 100% luck when usinf fondant, but gumpaste is great........I actually made the fondant a little thicker and set it on high and it worked one day, but its not consistant....so I am still playing with the fondant...but I love it and love the letters for on my cakes big time...I use sure cuts alot software and do not have to buy any cartridges now!

I have make the cut, but haven't learned how to use it yet. I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I just need to take time to sit down and figure it out. I have heard there are a lot of videos on YouTube. I think twice about buying cartridges though. I do want the one for cupcake wrappers from Walmart though.

Has anyone used it on MMF or Marshmallow Fondant?

Wow, what great timing!!! My mother in law got one and can't figure it out so she pawned it off on me to learn. This will definitely help! Thanks

mmf always messes up for me, seems too gooey.....its like the freezing doesnt last long enoough to get the cutting done for me atleast.....but I am gonna add tylose to it and try again....I did that once and it worked but that may have been dumb luck lol so I need to try again before I say yes

It sounds like you are making it work for you. That's great. However if fondant isn't working for everyone, a better medium (one you don't have to freeze) is the gumpaste recipe found on Linda McClure's dvd. It is amazing and stretchy and hard to break. I am now using it for everything. When I first used my cricut, I got it right with fondant, but everything broke and pulled and melted if I froze it. Then I remembered the recipe at the end of the dvd, watched it and thought, now THAT is the reason she made the video and can get the intricate patterns to work.

I was able to use MMF successfully with the Cricut, but probably only because mine was not fresh and starting to get a bit hard. After rolling it out I put it in the freezer for a few minutes and was able to get clean cuts using low pressure. I tried Duff's fondant yesterday which worked out ok too, but I needed to freeze it a little longer and switch to medium pressure. Just practicing so far, but hoping to use the Cricut on a birthday cake for my mom this weekend

I had great success with Duff's fondant this weekend. Rolled it Nickel-thick, then let it sit for 10 minutes or so before cutting. Med speed, med pressure. Stuck in freezer for just a couple of minutes and popped off the mat. I laid everythink on wax paper in a cookie sheet and covered with Saran until ready to decorate cake.

The fondant was more than I really wanted to pay, (thank goodness for coupons) but was the perfect colors. Given that after I had everything ready, I discovered my dogs had destroyed ALL my cake and I had to start over at 10pm, I was very happy that the Cricut had given me no trouble!

The cake turned out great, I think. Just no sleep!

wilton gumpaste works fine for me....I wish someone would post this Mclre recipe so I could see whats in it

OMG I am so happy for you, because right now I hate my cricut soooooooo bad. thank you so much for the tips I hope they work for me

I use mmf with some tylose added to my mix and freeze it for about 5-10mins... works a treat