I have made homemade marshmallow fondant before and feel like it is very wet/sticky compared to the Satin Ice I like to use from the cake supply store. BUT, a customer requested the marshmallow fondant because they like the way it tastes. UGH!! LOL! It's a pain to make this stuff...it's soooo messy and in my opinion hard to work with!! I feel like it has this wet feeling to it and I can't smooth it like I can the Satin Ice...does that make any sense? Maybe I'm not making the recipe correctly and that's why it turns out like that for me?? Perhaps I need to add more powdered sugar to make it drier?? ANY tips on this would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to make the fondant tonight and apply to the cake tomorrow morning.

Oh, and I wanted to add...I don't feel like it hardens the way the satin ice does either. I use a lot of shortening when I am mixing it because it sticks to my hands so bad. Is that part of my problem maybe?? I got some dummies back from a customer the other day so i could re-use them and the fondant was stilll kinda soft!! WEIRD!!

Also, one of my three tiers on this particular cake is going to be white fondant and then I want to pipe (with buttercream) a brocade/scroll design over it. Is there any way to get edible glitter/shimmer/iridescence to that icing so the scrollwork/brocade has shimmer? I can dust it on there after the icing crusts, but I was kind of hoping it would JUST be in the buttercream and not brushed all over everything.

Thanks in advance!! If you have any tips for me please respond at your earliest convenience because I am going to start working on the project as soon as I get out of work this evening.

~Amanda

Sounds like you need to knead more powdered sugar into your mmf. If you add enough it shouldn't be very sticky - you should be able to stick a finger into it with the tiniest amount of sticking. It is very humid where I am today, and if that is the case where you are, the recipe as written might not have enough powdered sugar. If it is very humid, you might want to consider adding some tylose to the mmf to make it dry faster. Also, did you let your mmf rest before using it? It does need to sit for at least an hour (or better still, overnight) before using it as it stiffens up as it sits. There are a number of good mmf recipes on cake central and you should have a look. Some are very simple ones (marshmallows, water and powdered sugar only) and others like Macsmom's recipe also has glycerine.

I have added glycerine to mine when it gets "funky" It is amazing how quickly it fixes the fondant!

Thanks Deuceofcakes and Millermom!! I will remember your recommendations. I think I will also look up a couple more recipes. I'll post pictures of the cakes when I'm done!

If you use add too much liquid to melt the marshmallows with or if you use too much shortening, your MMF will take forever to dry, be too soft and too stretchy/saggy/droopy etc...

I only drizzle a tiny bit of water over the marshmallows before microwaving it and try to use no more than 2 Tbsp from beginning to end with the shortening (including the amount you use to spread around the bowl and work surface). Don't dig your fingers in the marshmallows and always keep a layer of PS between your hands and the melted marshmallows and you knead it.

I have a bunch of tips on making MMF under my signature link.

The texture should be almost, if not the same, as the store bought fondant.

HTH!

Do you have a stand mixer like a Kitchenaid?
If so you can make No Mess mmf. There is a YouTube video of a woman who makes it in her mixer. I have made it a couple of times and it's so much better than on the counter and no sticky hands.

By the way this is the recipe I use. It was posted here by either Texas_sugar or Texas Rose. I love it because you just dump it all in. It's not this 'add sugar until it's right' I never know when it's right. Also don't forget to let it rest.

Mmf
When I make MMF I use the mixer with the dough hook. I use 2lb powdered sugar, 1 lb marshmallows, 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup butter (not margarine). Sometimes I will use 3tbsp water and 1 tbsp clear vanilla extract. I don't grease the bowl or the dough hook. It comes out the same every time. I can make ten batches and the consistency is the same in all of them. 

I melt the marshmallows with the water. Add extract after the marshmallows are melted, if you're going to. Add color at that point, if you're going to color the whole batch one color. 

Put the melted marshmallows in the mixer, add the powdered sugar on top, then add the butter, cut into small pieces. Mix on stir or 2, never any higher, until the consistency looks right and all the butter is blended in. 

If you're using it on a cake, at that point wrap it up and let it rest 24 hours. If you're using it on cookies, you can use it right away. 

I think the reason most recipes have a range of water amounts is because you're mixing it by hand and may not be able to get all the sugar into it. I've experimented with different amounts of water to figure out what works best for me. Also, I used to grease the dough hook and the bowl with a lot of crisco. I had read that you should do that to keep from burning out the motor in the mixer. Then I started making bread in the mixer and realized that when you're using the dough hook, you want whatever you're mixing to stick to the hook and to the very bottom of the bowl, so all I was really doing by greasing up the bowl was to mix in Crisco. I'd rather eat butter than Crisco any day (and I've noticed that using butter in my bread recipes makes it mix more easily) so I tried using butter in the MMF and it works well for me. I haven't tried it in the summer yet...I have trouble with butter in buttercream during the summer months, so it may be an issue in the MMF but I don't know yet.