Well I finally had a succesful run with MMF. Thanks to TexasSugar I made an entire batch and it was the right consistency, rolled out beautiful etc. It's a little softer for me than traditional fondant but it was supper forgiving and never dried out even though I started over like 4 times.

Why did I start over 4 time, because I was trying to practice with The Mat by Sweetwise. I really like the Mat but I don't feel I've gotten the hang of it. I'm wondering if it's the fondant I'm using. My first run with the Mat I was using Choco-pan which is known to be soft and sticky. Second run was with Duff and it stuck as well but I was able to fake it because it was for the road on my Cars cake. But this time with the MMF it just really had issues. I could roll it out...that part was fine but when I went to remove it from the Mat, the top and bottom both stuck. The top was splotch where parts had stuck to the Mat and parts hadn't. The bottom wouldn't come off the Mat the way it was supposed to. That said I rolled it out and applied it the old fashioned way but I really want the Mat to work for me. I love that it keeps the fondant covered and gives me the extra roll out time. I just can't seem to get it to work.

Does anyone use MMF and the Mat and what tips can you send my way?

Thanks in advance

I use The Mat with homeade MMF all the time. It is cool where I live so I don't have to deal with humidity. Maybe it's humidity? Did you season the mat with crisco really well? I don't really have any tips, mine worked out from the get-go.

Sounds to me like you don't have enough shortning on your mat. I have one and I love it! For smaller cakes I just use a rolling pin, but for larger cakes I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Kathie-d do you shortening your Mat each time you use it or only the first time you use it?

I've heard mixed thoughts on this. I'm so glad other people have gotten it to work. That means it will work for me, I just have to find my tricks

Thank you both for your replies.

I use Michele Foster's Fondant, and it works great. I only greased it the first time with minimal shortening to cover the entire side of the mat. (This is my second mat. On my first one, I added too much shortening, and I seemed to have a lot more problems with it.)

However, I do have the problem of when I set the fondant on the cake, the weight of the fondant and mat squishes the frosting on that side of the cake and so I get a lump on the side of my cake. Very frustrating. Other than that, I love it completely! =) It makes everything so much cleaner !=)

Until this week I had only every used MMF, I bought the Mat mostly because I hate all the mess when rolling it out the old fashioned way.

Anyway, I've yet to be successful using the Mat with MMF. I can get it if I peel the "stuck" mat back, add some powdered sugar and re-roll, then flip then do the same, and even so, it sometime will stick. I've found this to be too much trouble, so I had pretty much given up on using the Mat.

This week, I had some renewed interest in trying out my Mat, as well as the desire to try a ready to use fondant because I was rushed on a couple of projects. I tried using my Mat with Satin Ice and it worked perfectly. I definitely think issue is MMF, or at least the recipe I use.

Although, MMF is so much cheaper to make than buying Satin Ice, it was such a time (and back) saver to use the ready-made with the Mat, I may not go back to MMF!

I too use MMF and have trouble with it. You can contact SweetWise (Kathy) and she will give you tips and things to try. People have been successful using it with MMF, but I just haven't yet. Not going to give up, but haven't had time to play around with it. She does suggest rolling cookie dough on it and letting the fat from the cookie dough help season it. Haven't tried that yet.

I do think a lot of it has to do with the MMF though. I know mine seems too moist most of the time. I can usually get white MMF to work, perhaps because it doesn't have all of the coloring (and moisture) that colored MMF has. Good luck and let us know if you have any luck

Also, how was TexasSugar helpful? Was it her recipe or what?

JustGettingStarted,
Yes I used her MMF recipe which uses butter and is made in the kitchenaid. I was very pleased with the results but MMF is definately softer than regular fondant. It was also pretty sweet so I think I'm going to add some lemon juice to the next batch (ala Rhonda's MMF recipe) and see if that cuts the sweet. This recipe has no glycerine or corn syrup but it rolled out great.

I'll keep at it. I'd be curious for the people who have had success which MMF recipe they're using..Thanks for all the feedback.

OK, maybe it's because of beginner's luck with the Mat but I just used it for the first time and it worked unbelievably well! I bought it several months ago, but was afraid to use it before now. I used Satin Ice fondant (always used Wilton before) and it rolled out like a charm, didn't stick to the mat either!

As an aside (don't mean to hijack the thread), the difference between Wilton and Satin Ice is like night and day. I won't go back to Wilton!

Gramof5, I'm glad to hear it works for Satin ice well. That's the fondant I usually use but was experimenting with my options

I love the mat! It has changed my caking dramatically! First, duff fondant sticks to it so badly I cant stand it, as does pre colored MMF once in a while (meaning color added to the melted marshmallows).

I have,however, had no problems using the mat with MMF whether it is white or colored (kneaded in to it)! Here is what I can offer:

I shortening the mat every few times
When I put the circle of fondant (flattened) down on the mat, I shortening the top of the fondant.
Place the mat on top and press down to seal, smooth on top of the fondant and around it
Roll and it works like a dream.
I never have to powdered sugar the MMF or mat
When I remove one mat and flip onto the cake, i do as she does on her video and lift the mat up while slowly rolling back and letting the MMF fall gently on it's own. Hope this helps, once you get used to the mat, you will
Love it!

I just watched the video on the mat. I am going to buy it. Too bad I can't teach my students this (Can only use Wilton products in class)

I can see this solving so many issues I have with fondant

ok kinda new to fondant cake world, what is "The Mat"? where can I get it? Do I need it? haha
Where can I order it from? Trying to learn fondant but hard cause I live in South Korea right now, and not a lot here. When I come home to the states I load up!

Check out www.sweetwise.com. It's called The Mat and you will love it!