I've heard so many wonderful things about satin ice, one of the members posted a thread about a new fondant, called FONDX and I asked her to tell us what ingredients they used:

I copy/paste her answer
boonenati
Regular Member
Joined: Oct 13, 2005
Posts: 134
Location: Melbourne Australia
Birthday: Mar 01
Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:47 am

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I am not really sure what it is that makes fondx so great to work with. Let me get the package and I will let you know what the ingredients are.
One second
Ok, here we go
Ingredients:
Sugar, Corn Syrup, Water, Partially Hudrogenated Soybean Oil and Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Gum Tragacanth, Sodium Alginate, Cellulose Gum, Xanthan Gum, Propylene Glycol Alginate, Guar Gum, Vanilla Flavour, Titanium Diozide, Citric Adid, Glycerin, Potassium Sorbat


The few ingredients we don't use are the varieties of gums, that's what makes the fondant not crack and stay elastic, giving it the texture and easy handling of MMF. I use the Gum-tex by wilton the gum present in it is called Gum karaya for my gumpaste but not fondant . So I went and got me Xanthan gum (is that what the X in fondX stands for ???) I found it in the health section, 8oz for $ 10.00. I'm also gonna be looking for other gum powders. I have yet to try it. I also know about gum arabica we used it backhome for cookies and things like that but I can't find it here.
Some people said they use it with water and it acts like an edible adhesive
Anyone tried adding a gum powder to the fondant ?

Interesting. I haven't heard on Fondx. Wonder where you get it? I usually put a little bit of Wilton Gum Tex in mine and that seems to help alot with making it easier to handle and coloring it evenly.

Hi cocakedecorator,

How much Gum Tex do you add to your MMF?

I had so much trouble with my red splitting and would like to give this a try.

Is it just me, or does the brand name "FondX" sound like a toxic poison or something? LOL

Cakepro,

That is so funny...but so true since you brought it to my attention

Funny, I made mashmallows (without the funny taste) out of scratch with the intention to use it for the fondant. The only thing I forgot to add was the fat portion. This time I m going to approach it diffrently. I'll go ahead make my marshmallows from scratch and add some Xanthan gum and glycerine. The only diffrence between regular fondant and marshmallow is that you boil the syrup to 260 and it goes in the blender gets a good whip til it's fluffy after that you proceed like the way we prepare fondant. Today I saw a segment where Alton Brown was talking about Xanthan gum, it did sound very promissing, he said that it's used as a glue and holds food particles together. If you mix oil and vineagre together they seperate after a while but with Xanthan gum they stay together .

In what episode was AB talking about xanthan gum?

boy ....it must be late or im out of the loop beuase all the went over my head!!!!

Hey lastingmoments,

They are talking about the fondant named Fondx.

Also, adding gum tex to mmf.

I was actually half asleep and was browsing between channels and somehow I fell into a segment where he was showing a cauliflower head and said that xanthan gum is a bacteria harvested from that vegetable. It's either yesterday or the day before in late afternoon.

The last 2 times I have made MMF fondant I added about a tablespoon of glycerine and a tablespoon of gum from the health food store. It was much more pliable and easier to work with. None of the cracking I had experienced on previous attempts.

I also made it in my Kitchenaid with the dough hook. It was EASY !!! and I didn't have the huge mess. Took minutes to do.

How many ounces of marshmallows did your batch of MMF call for in which you used those measurements of gum & glycerin? I'd like to give that a try, because I was not happy with the over-elasticity and shrinking of the MMF I've made.

Thanks.

Do you add the gum-tex as powder or mix it up first? I love MMF but I also have it crack. Thanks

I made the large batch of MMF with a 16 oz bag of marshmellows... then I added about a tablespoon of glycerine and a tablespoon of xantham gum to the wet melted marshmellows before I added and worked in the 10X sugar.

Thanks! I'll try it!

Would love to know the chemical compound for Xanthan gum. My SIL has wheat allergies and when she came to visit, I made bread and Yorkshire puddings out of rice/All purpose wheat-free flour and added Xanthan gum to help with the rising. Wonder how it works in MMF?

I thought the gum tex helped your fondant dry quicker and hold up better (like when making bows). I have a can of gum tex and only used it once, but I can't remember if I used it with pre-made fondant or MMF. It must have been pre-made because I remember just sprinkling it on and kneading it into the fondant. But, the results were extra hard, very fast drying fondant.

Chemistry is not my thing, so I've never paid attention to all those other ingredients or different types of gum. Should I? You folks are getting way too complicated for me!! I guess I'll just stick to what I know: marshmallows, water, powdered sugar!! Simple to me!

A little chemistry wouldn't hurt, Xanthan gum is a substance used by a specific type of bacteria called Xanthomanas campestris to stick to cabbage and it's leaves (that's where the bacteria is found). It's gluten free and that's what people with allergies use for they cakes and breads. You'll get more details if you do a search.
I added one tbs to my fondant and it became super elastic and stretchy exactly what I was looking for
Tickled pink
I hope you got good results, I did and I 'm going to be using it all the time.

Here is a perfectly good example that what they teach you in high school may actually be relevant one day!!

Okay, so where can you buy Xantham gum? Is it sold under a different name? Is it powdered or liquid? Does it change the flavor of the fondant any? Thanks!

I found mine in the health section of my super market, I'm sure you can find it in health food stores too, it's a powder a little on the expensive side (8oz for $10) gum powders are usually high priced. I found that it has a neutral sent compared to gum-tex (soury) and it's an off white color, but it didn't affect my fondant. Add it during the sifting of your 10X. It did however make the fondant harder then usual, the funny thing is that one of this site members that uses satin ice said that satin ice had a very hard consistancy (satin ice has Xanthan gum) so I'm assuming it's the xanthan gum that does that.
Fytar
my major is all organic chemistry and let me tell you baking and organic chemistry are one of my favorite things to do, call me crazy but a zen place in my universe would be in front of my stove or in the lab. When you look at sugar don't you find it an incredible substance, things you can do with it. I thing sugar is a magical compound.

You know, while I was watching the Food Network Challenge (Sugar sculpting) the other night I was very impressed with all they could do with sugar! It is amazing!!

Thank you, you chemist whizzes! Now we know. I can use up the expensive jar I have in my cupboard!

I didn't notice my fondant being harder but I thought it was more flexible without any of the cracking.

But then again I use a little bit more water than the original MMF recipe so mine isn't as dry if that makes sense.

TickledPink, could you pm me your recipe that you use for MMF. I've yet to try it, but sounds like you've found the right ingredients. I'm so leary of trying certain new things, I know everyone says that the MMF is much better than the Wilton, but that stuff nearly ruined me on fondant. Thanks

TickledPink...

May I have your recipe too????? PLEASE!