How do you attach fondant , or whatever, to a cake dummy?

I have to make 36 small cube shaped cakes for a display, and will have styrofoam cubes to work with. Does it need to be coated with something? I have a vague memory of someone mentioning royal icing, then buttercream, then fondant???

Piping gel works very well.

piping gel, corn syrup, crisco, or water

Thanks for the replies.

Just piping gel, corn syrup, crisco or water right on the naked styrofoam? That seems too easy-lol

I rub the dummy with crisco and then apply the fondant. The crisco fills in some of the imperfections in the styro and allows repositioning of the fondant, if necessary.

Rae

i lightly mist my dummy with water. Water is super cheap

They asked me to do 30 dummy cakes...They want the cakes just for decoration. Ìy fear is that the fondand will come of the dummy if i coated just with corn syrop...What do you think?

All of the advice you've been given above is accurate.

You can use vegetable shortening (crisco), water, thinned piping gel, or corn syrup to adhere the fondant to the styrofoam dummy.

There is no need to use anything else.

Rae

With all the confirmations, I feel much more comfortable with this project! I'll be posting pictures when it's all done. I'll try water first--I have lots of that!! LOL

Thanks a lot!

Cyn

As an aside, be sure that you shave and sand the top edges of your styrofoam. If you don't you may have problems with your fondant tearing. If you need a little more guidance with this, there are a couple good tutorials posted on youtube. Good luck!

Thanks a lot..!

I've done many of these and have always used crisco. Just make sure the corners aren't too blunt. Otherwise it will rip the fondant.

I successfully covered my first cake dummy today with fondant. I got them from Brian Loucks,The Foam Studio, bkloucks on Ebay. They came so fast!!

He also told me to just put a bit of water and to soften the corners--which I of course had not yet done, so the fondant tore on the first try. Then I draped it on a little thicker, pinched the corner folds and cut straight down each corner, pinching and gently rubbing to smooth out the seam. It worked fine. I made lids the same way to cover the bottom (now the tops) and added pale blue fondant ribbon and bow.

Considering the time it took me, though, I'm doubting now that I'll have time to finish the remaining small boxes in time for the cake competition I wanted to go to. A typical newbie, I over reached a little with my plans, but there's always next year. I'm going to try to finish my one original cake plan, then if I have time, I'll do this one for a display at the bakery.

Thanks for all the great help!

Does anyone know if using poured fondant would work for covering these 3" cube dummies? I keep thinking if I can do something a little faster, I may still have time. I'm so wishy-washy! LOL

Any other quick ideas?

When are they needed? If you have weeks till they are due, start now. It is better once they dry out a bit. There is less dimpling due to fingerprints. I always let them dry a day or two before handling and decorating.

We really need much drying time as I see .... as I said I have been asked to fix 30 Round Cakes (22 cm perimeter and 14 cm height). They want to have white fondant coating and colored polka dots). Should be ready in April. I have two questions: When should I start and how much to charge each one?

Start now. You can do them at a leisurely pace.