I'm feeling extremely frustrated right now. I'm making ornament cakes and I'm having the most horrible time. My fondant is crumbling, They don't look nice at all. Will post a picture later...if I'm not too embarrassed.

It's days like this I wonder why I do this.

Sigh, thanks for listening just needed to vent.

They are difficult. I made some last year for Valentine's Day and Christmas. I charged a LOT and decided there was not enough money if the world to make me do them again. They are gorgeous, but so much work. No thanks, never again!

I'm just having so many fondant problems. It's not even UGH!

And I was actually thinking of doing some. After reading this, I think I will skip this challenge for now.

I'm sorry you're having problems with crumbly fondant. I think almost all of us can relate to days where we have struggled with getting a smooth cake.

My last cake (haven't posted it) caused me much stress and the fondant crumbled and tore like I've never experienced before. If that would have been my first cake, it would definitely have made me doubt myself.

It can be discouraging, but it will get better.

I think my problem was that I kneaded in too much ps. If your fondant is dry, maybe you can add some shortening to it?

I dont know if you tried this, but freeze the ornaments after you fill them, then ice and smooth with a viva paper towel
(after it crusts a bit) then pop back in freezer. They are alot easier to handle when you freeze them. Then roll out the fondant, start smoothing from the top "fluffing" it out like you would the skirt of a dress as you work your way down. I dont know why your fondant is crumbling, I used Duffs (get it with my Michaels coupon so I dont pay full price) and havnt had issues with it.

I'm not sure what you mean by ornament cakes. Do you mean round minicakes like this: http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2229124/ ?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuma_couture_cakes/5234341553/in/photostream My version. Ornament cake, bauble cake, expletive cake, all the same thing really.

Very pretty

Thanks for all the replies. I did try and freeze them. I think I've come to the conclusion that if I make homemade MMF and add lots of color, it crumbles. Does anoying else experience this problem?

I sometimes notice that if I'm trying for a very dark color because of how much coloring you have to add. For example, red, black, dark blue. That is why a lot of people buy the darker colors. I use mmf because the only times I needed dark color was for for small things.

Yes, my MMF crumbles if I try and get too deep of a color. I do like working with MMF though, so I bought the inexpensive air brush from michael's and anything that needs a deep color (if I'm covering a substantial portion of the cake) I'll just airbrush it a solid color... this has worked SO much better for me. I'd love any other tips if people have them though!!