I am very new to decorating and especially fondant. I have done a few fonant accent decorations recently and they look great on the countertop..until I have to lift and move them, the dark colored pieces get smudged with the powdered sugar or more recently, cornstarch I use to "flour" the rolling surface. So all of my pieces have white, dusty backsides. How do you clean them up? Most times it doesn't matter too much..but I'm working on my high school reunion cake ( due tomorrow) and am in tears because the stupid cornstarch is ruining the maroon and dark grey letters I'm cutting out by hand. Also, i made MMF and colored it maroon, and it's been very difficult to work with, very stretchy and sticky..I'm not sure it's supposed to be that way. Any advice anyone is willing to share would be greatly appreciated.

Hi! When my fondant pieces get ps or cornstarch on them, I take a dry brush and brush off what I can, then I take some shortening on the brush and sort of lightly "paint" on them. This takes the ps or cornstarch off and makes them shiny, but the shortening will soak in and they won't stay really shiny. I'm sorry I can't help you with the mmf issues... I've never made it successfully, therefore never worked with it.

Some people use a steamer - very carefully though. You don't want your fondant to get goopy.
I sometimes use a little shortening or else try to brush it off with a slightly damp paint brush.

Brush Vodka on. It will remove your excess powder and dry quickly without leaving a shine. as for your MMF you may need to add some more icing sugar to it, also add some tylose or gumpste to it then once your pieces are cut out leave them to dry for a bit. If you use gumpaste they will be dry within a couple of hours and will move easily and maintain their shape.

Thank you all for the helpful advice!! I was in tears last night around 2 am when, after the THIRD try at cutting out the letters, I had the darn things stick to the paper template I was trying to use. I have to manhandle them so much, that I end up with smudges on the fronts and it ruins the whole thing. I will try all tips I have been given, thank you so very much, the cake is due tomorrow and I will be traveling about 2 hours away, finishing it up at my mother's house and then transporting it over steep hills and gravel roads to the reunion. I will post pictures when I get back from the weekend, regardless of how it turns out. I have small artist brushes and vodka ..I'm thinking that vodka might come in handy AFTER I get this 150 serving cake delivered, if you catch my drift.
Thank you again for the quick and very helpful responses!!

Oh! And thank you for the advice on using gumpaste in the fondant...that's a great idea, I had not thought of it before and I will definitely try it the next time I do fondant decorations. That makes lots of sense, to let the pieces dry a bit..and yes, I think my MMF was just too soft as well.
Thank you once again!

You probably had to add quite a bit of color to achieve the maroon you wanted, therefore your MMF was sticky. More powdered sugar will take care of that!

Good luck finishing up and transporting the cake. Have fun at the reunion!

Yes, I did have to add alot of color to get the maroon..and after letting it sit overnight, it got very saturated with the color, which is great, but I now know that I could have used less color and still achieved the shade I needed. Lesson learned! I will work in some extra powdered sugar tomorrow as I need to make a few more small accents..I bet there will be a world of difference! thank you!

Sorry about the problems you have encountered. To answer your question, on which accents or lighter gumpaste/fondant, I just brush them off with a small brush. If it is darker, I rub it with a very thin layer of shortening. For small and delicate pieces, I use a brush with a bit of shortening. The gloss will not be as glossy after a while.

With MMF it is always best when wanting to achieve a dark color to add the color in stages with a good long wait time in between (at least 8 hours). It seems as though the color needs to "cure". Doing this also insures that you have not added so much color that it affects the taste. I can achieve true red, black, dark purple, green, etc. using this method and the MMF still tastes great.