help! I've re-covered my show cakes 3 times and no luck! it is a new bucket of fondant (Satin Ice), a little sticky and it is cracking/falling off the sides! It is pouring out- what can I do??
The only help I can give is to make sure your forms are coated lightly in piping gel or spritzed lightly with water to help it stick. Then can you dust the outside of the fondant with powdered sugar to help absorb some of the surface moisture? Then just before displaying them, take a soft brush and remove any leftover confec. sugar. The cracking and falling off means it has nothing to stick to. Or that you applied it too thinly and didn't crush the sharp corners of your forms to dull the edge.
thats true, I forgot to file the edges! But, water didnt work on my first dummies (and piping gel was a sticky mess), so I crumb-coated them with buttercream. Is this a bad idea? If the fondant is sticky, is adding cornstarch any better/different than adding powdered sugar?
thanks!
Good question. Wonder if the buttercream might be adding to your problems. Standard Wilton buttercream crusts so quickly - leaving the form just as dry as when you started. I use piping gel all the time when applying fondant to a dummy but apply it really lightly using a 2" wide brush. Once again, you're just Blessing the form with it and I find that confectioners sugar is a lot less drying than cornstarch. Another idea you might want to try is to put your fondant coated dummy in your oven over night but DON'T turn the oven on. Put the light on inside the oven (if it's an electric oven) and leave it in there over night. The small amount of heat in the oven created by the light will quickly dry off the surface of the fondant and if it's in the oven, it will be out of the humidity of your kitchen and the rainy day. BUT if you have decorations on the fondant, don't chance the oven idea. I dry all of my gumpaste flowers this way but to be honest I have never tried to dry fondant this way - unless it had tylose in it or CMC.
OK, so I took off the buttercream (italian meringue) on my dummy and filed the edges. It covered better, but because styrofoam has no "give" I have all these tiny finger dents and styrofoam pimples!! How do you do it?? I am fed up!
Official cake forms don't have a pourus surface like you're describing, did you make your own form and cut it yourself? If so, you'll need to cover the fondant with another layer of fondant to get the smooth look you want. Next time you make your own cake dummy (instead of purchasing smooth "official" forms made specifically for cakes, mix up a batch of royal icing and patch the holes with that - but you'll need to make sure it's perfectly dry before lightly coating the royal with piping gel then laying on the fondant.
no, I didnt make the forms, they are from the cake shop. But, when smoothing the fondant down, anywhere I have pushed or held it while applying fondant gets imprinted, a problem I dont have when doing real cake... Maybe I do need another layer of fondant on top of that....good thing I am doing brush embroidery to cover a bit of it! thanks a bunch.
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