How do I get rid of those awful brush strokes on fondant? everytime I use food color on fondant I get these brush lines and no matter what I can't avoid them!! I use soft and better quality brushes. Help!!

I have this problem too! I was using lemon juice and Wilton petal dust. Not sure if it was the lemon juice or my powder/liquid ratio... I noticed when I used mostly powder and less liquid to make a thicker paste I avoided brush strokes (But it felt SO wasteful to use that much powder), and painting on fresh marshmallow fondant took much better than day old mmf which blotched up and got spotty....

I ended up having to settle on a watercolor effect because making a thick paste wouldn't last more than 1-2 cookies and 7 dollars per vial of powder was too expensive. I also had a problem with like... grainyness?

I'm thinking the trick would be using alcohol, higher dust per liquid ratio and fresher fondant.. but need tips from someone who really has it down.

Are you painting the fondant? If I need to color fondant I either actually color the fondant. Or I airbrush it. HTH

Don't go over the same area twice unless you let it dry in between.

You can blend in brush strokes with a little vodka on a paintbrush.

I've never mixed lemon juice and luster dust, I'm not sure why you'd want to...why lemon juice? I've heard of using lemon extract (although vodka is cheaper) because the alcohol makes it dry faster.

The quality AND materials of the paint brush can make a huge difference as well.

The alcohol is supposed to evaporate. The idea is to keep the fondant from starting to melt while the paint dries, so the faster, the better.

I keep a small bottle of vodka with a dropper, and add drops to the cup of paint to replace what dries out as I'm painting.

I guess I'm impatient. LoL. It was driving me nuts adding the vanilla over and over.

Well I was reading how they get rid of brush strokes with normal paint and the suggestion was to use pain conditioners...I don't know what could be used that would be food safe!! So I did some experiments. I thought If I seal the previously painted fondant, then I can paint over it and cover the brush strokes. So I bloomed some gelatin and melted it and painted a piece of fondant and let it dry. Then I painted over that but it caused the gelatin to clump so no success here!! I also painted the fondant with a layer of confectioner's glaze and let it dry and apply paint over it but it took off the underlying color
I wish there was a food safe sealer for this purpose. I don't know....I can't think anymore I am HUNGRY and I need CAKE So what are your thoughts....

When I paint fondant, I use lemon extract and powdered food colors or luster dust. Don't load up your brush with too much color at one time. Too much can make it run and can causes streaks and spots of built up color. Let the color dry a bit before adding more if you want to deepen the tone. Also, use VERY light pressure. Too much pressure also causes streaks. Make sure your color mixture is also pretty thin. I use paint brushes that are not expensive, but that have very fine and soft bristles. Thin, soft bristles make for nicer application of the color.

Here's cake I just did a little painting on:

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2253231/sun-and-moon-stained-glass-cake

Have you tried different brushes?

I use artists brushes, the ones with the plastic handles. I only use them for food and I clean them with vodka when I'm done.

The reason that the gelatin didn't work is that the liquid in your paint melted it. For the confectioner's glaze, do you really want to put that on stuff people eat? I know they use it on candy but it's applied differently, methods that aren't available to us at home, and I think we end up putting more on with a paintbrush than we should expect anyone to consume.

Maybe if you're that obsessed with smooth painting, an airbrush is in your future It would be a good excuse to buy one and some aren't that expensive.