My fiance and I have made a few cakes with mmf and when leaving it white had little issue but when coloring it seem to be having problems. I have done a batch before and added only a little color and it seemed fine but this time we tried to get the fondant red and green and added a lot of color.

On the red batch it just stayed sticky and though we were able to eventually use it it came apart easily and tore on the corners. The green batch was the same but had another issue I haven't seen before. When rolled out it ended up with tiny sort of hard bits in it. Again, we were able to use it but only because this was for a practice home project. It tore and wouldn't "stretch" the same way it would if it were just white.

SO, my question is has anyone else had the same issues when coloring mmf? Does adding a lot of color cause problems like this for everyone and what should I do to prevent this sticky issue? Should I just buy premade colored fondant when I need more than slight color? Does anyone sell premade colored mmf?

Thanks for your help.

Getting anything red is difficult without using an enormous amount of color. I always purchase precolored red. Depending on the type of color you use it makes sense that the extral liquid would make it sticky.
Your green issue sounds like you had bits of dried fondant mixed in with the fresh. Just be careful when mixing that you keep it away from dried bits in the bowl and board. You won't be able to get them to mix in, it'll just cause problems.
I'm not sure if you can buy MMF colored, but Fondarific has an ok tasting fondant.

We used clean bowls to make the green fondant in so I thought maybe my fiance hadn't made sure the marshmallows were completely melted before he put them in the powdered sugar and when I checked the bowl the marshmallows were melted and colored in I saw those hard bits there... I don't know what happened. It did look kind of cool like an old type of paper (you know the kind that looks more natural).

Anyway, thanks for your input

Could it be that the powdered sugar had gotten moisture in it before and then dried and hardened into the little bits?

No, it was a brand new bag and the way we mix it is to microwave the marshmallows and then pour them into a new bowl that has the sugar already in it. When I looked at the bowl used for the marshmallows it had those hard bits and no sugar had touched it. Kinda weird. Oh well I guess.

This has happened to me before. I've thought that maybe I heated the marshmallows a little to long in the microwave.

Now that kind of makes sense...heating them too long and cooking parts of them till they get hard. I thought he only put them in there for a minute or two but he may have reheated them when I was busy doing something else.

Take a look at this your tube video. Its not with mmf but store bought fondant. But maybe some of her methods can help you!

http://www.youtube.com/user/SweetWiseInc?v=nu6QpimDDDQ&feature=pyv&ad=16767889434&kw=covering%20a%20cake%20with%20fondant#p/u/7/JqSl_Xh5dlw

I make MMF all the time...love it! For darker colors (anything past a pastel shade) I always add a few drops of corn syrup to it (no more than a teaspoon). Adding lots of color makes the MMF loose it's elasticity and by adding some corn syrup or glycerine to it, helps. Don't use too much shortening either, it breaks the MMF apart.

Also, for darker colors, add melted candy melts in the color you want right into the melted marshmallows. It only takes a few additional drops of color to get the right shade. Check my blog, I have an entire page dedicated to coloring MMF with tips and hints.

HTH!

Thanks AngelFood, adding the glycerine is a great tip!

I use Angela's method with the candy melts for ANY dark color fondant. Sometimes I think it's more workable than fondant without candy melts. Tastes good too!