I always see all these pictures of fondant embellishments on butter cream icings and they look so crisp. When i do it the look crisp for a little then they start to sag and look like they are melting. Does this happen to anyone else? or am i doing something wrong.

Are you talking about the round disks of fondant people put on cupcakes? Are you letting the fondant embellisments dry before placing them on the cupcakes? You could also add a little tylose or gumtex to the fondant to give it more body. But drying them should help.

Did you have them stored in a sealed container? Has it been humid there?

I've had the fondant melt on my cupcakes when I've stored them in Tupperware containers or those plastic clam shell cupcake carriers. I guess there's not enough air circulation in them or something, but I've never had a problem with fondant melting otherwise. Don't know if that's what caused your problem or not, but unfortunately I'm not educated on fondant enough to com up with any other solutions. I've learned to store the cupcakes in the cardboard carriers now.

I always let them dry and even when i use gumpaste it happens. I do have them in the clam shells but i don't seal them. If they don't get covered then they get stale.

I may be wrong, but I am thinking that the pictures with the non-melty fondant were just taken fairly quickly after they were placed. No matter what I have done - to the point of having almost an 80/20 ratio of gumpaste to fondant - the fondant gets melty and the decorations sag. I live in an extremely humid climate and thought that might be it, but maybe it's just the chemistry......

Gerle is correct. Putting them into an air tight container will cause them to melt. Probably most cupcakes we see photographed are either taken right after they are decorated like kimmisue said, or they are not stored in air tight containers.

Don't put cupcakes in an airtight container and they get dry.

I prefer moist cupcakes to fondant decorated cupcakes, so I do not use fondant decorations on my cupcakes. The same goes for candy corn type decorations, which I believe is almost the same recipe as fondant. They melt also.

My motto is "an ugly cupcake is a delicious cupcake". And everybody agrees with me. I had one guy tell me that he has never complained that a cupcake looked ugly, but boy he sure does complain when a cupcake is dry.

What I do, now that I know the fondant melts, is just before they go on "display" for eating, I'll put the fondant decoration on the cupcake if it's going to have one. That way they aren't an ugly mess. I don't seem to have the same problem with cakes, though, or I just haven't noticed it yet.

I prefer the clamshells because they maintain freshness and putting together the paper boxes is so inconvenient...to avoid the melting, I mix in some tylose with my fondant and give them plenty of time to dry (they can be made well in advance). I also wait to put the toppers on until just before pick-up/delivery.