I've been working with fondant for over a year. I started out with homemade MMF and as business picked up I no longer had the time to make my own fondant so I started purchasing Satin Ice. I have tried different ways of covering my cakes... different fondant thickness, elevating cakes, leaving cakes on flat surface, cutting down my rolling time, even turned on the humidifer to moisten air but, my fondant is still cracking and sometimes even tearing around the top edges of cake and getting elephant skin everywhere else. I did not have this problem with my homemade MMF. I'm trying to figure out why this keeps happening. Let me ask you all a question. Instead of using powered sugar or cornstarch on the surface I'm rolling fondant on I use shortening because I already have a problem with it drying out to fast. I figured if I used shortening instead it would keep it moist longer. In the end I've found that the fondant has ended up with a lot of shortening in it after you trim cake, reuse that piece for next tier which is then rolled in shortening also. I also use shortening on surface as I color so that fondant does not stick so that's alot. Is this maybe why my fondant is being so mean to me? Should I use powered sugar or cornstarch instead? This is killing me because I'm trying to be ever so careful and when I use MMF everything was fine even with the shortening use. PLEASE... I need some advice 
Maybe you need to knead the fondant a little longer? I'm not sure why your having such problems....I usually use cornstarch to dust my mat with, I use Fondx and lately Jennifer Dontz's recipe and have not had any problems. I'm so sorry, I now how frustrating it is. The fondant battle is a tough one sometimes....can you take a break and go at it later or try tomorrow? Good luck.
You should buy Jennifer Dontz's fondant video. She walks you through making her white chocolate fondant and it works great. She adds a white chocolate candy clay to pettinice fondant. I did my first fondant cake last weekend, and it worked like a dream. No elephant skin at all, she says in her video that she never gets elephant skin. It was so easy. Believe me, I was really stressing, I had never covered a cake in fondant, never practiced, and now its the only way to do a cake, I loved it. If you want to take a peek at the cake, its in my photos, second cake.
I know so many people have reported similar problems with SI and I'm just not experiencing them. I do knead it quite a bit and frequently start it out in the microwave, just to warm it up and make it easier to knead.
That said, I've bought PettinIce recently and like it a lot.
You should buy Jennifer Dontz's fondant video. She walks you through making her white chocolate fondant and it works great. She adds a white chocolate candy clay to pettinice fondant. I did my first fondant cake last weekend, and it worked like a dream. No elephant skin at all, she says in her video that she never gets elephant skin. It was so easy. Believe me, I was really stressing, I had never covered a cake in fondant, never practiced, and now its the only way to do a cake, I loved it. If you want to take a peek at the cake, its in my photos, second cake.
Ditto!!!
I've always had problems with that so I've switched to Fondarific. No elephant skin, it tastes better and I can roll it thinner. My customers like the flavor and the fact that it can be so thin.
Mine is a semi-homemade starting with Pettinice. It performs like a dream....NEVER any elephant skin. EASY and fast to make.
Fondant really should be your friend 
Jennifer
PS - Glad to hear you gals like it!!
Hey ya'll!,
After freaking out over the first cake Friday I finally decided to try powered sugar on the table instead of shortening. Was so scared that it would just suck what moisture was in fondant out and make my fondant situation worse. Amazing it worked great! Kinda hard to work with when using dark chocolate or black fondant but most of powered brushes off. I'm going to try to attach pics of cakes (not very good pics though) of cakes I did yesterday. The first one that gave me a fit and probably took a few years off of my life is the white 2 tier. The Sweet 16 and Pops cake were a breeze. Lesson learned... shortening and homemade MMF mix and work well together... Satin Ice and shortening are a nightmare and make it impossible to cover a cake. Thanks everyone!
Hmm, I tried posting my cake pics about 3xs, no luck
Kim -
I always use pdr. sugar to roll my fondant
Jen
Kger - I really haven't. But, that would all depend on if you get the ingredients at retail or wholesale. I charge the same for my buttercream and fondant cakes.
Jen
Weird to find this thread after I just had the exact same experience. Mind you, I have been using Satin Ice for a few years and have never had a problem--'til this weekend. I had a horrible time! Cracking, tearing, too thick, too thin! No matter what I did, nothing worked. I felt like I had never worked with fondant before. Never was I so happy to be a hobby baker instead of a pro. If I was getting paid for that cake, I don't know what I would have done!
And I had nice weather so I couldn't even blame the heat and humidity. Sheesh!
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