I am a beginner when it comes to working with fondant, but really love the look. I'm getting married in September and wanted to use fondant to cover my cakes. Well, for my course III I covered a 6 inch cake didn't turn out to bad. A week, later I covered another 6 inch cake I did even better. I had high hopes and thought mabye I will get this down before Sept. After trying to cover a 2 layer 9in cake all hope was lost. I was using store bought fondant because my instructor said making the fondant was more trouble than it was really worth. After I finally got it rolled out it kept ripping I was sweating pretty badly at this point beause the fodant got really hard to roll out because of drying. Partially I guess from me having to roll it back into a ball several times because of it ripping while I was rolling it out. I was so frustrated that I just peeled it off of my cake and recoverd it with icing. Is it always so time consuming? I have a 7 month old baby and find myself rushing to do everything. Now I'm just down in the dumps because I bought all these contoured pans because I know they look great covered in fondant, but don't know if I will even use them now. At least not covered in fondant. I don't know? Should I just try to cover them in icing? I know that getting good at fondant takes a lot of practice and I don't have that much time to devote to it. My question for you is do you think that using MMF is easier. And I would be very gratefull for any tips on icing and smoothing a contoured cake. Some people have mentioned using fingers and viva paper towels i think I will give that a shot. Also do you use a large rolling pin when rolling out fondant. For my class I bought a small plastic one , but mabye it would help to get a larger one? What do think?

In the article section these topics are well covered and have very helpful pictures. Check them out, and Cake Central is always here to answer any other questions you come up with!

Don't get discouraged, it'll come to you!

If your fondant was ripping maybe you were rolling it too thin? I haven't done a lot of fondant cakes but for my class III I did make and use the MMF. It was pretty easy to make and work with and did taste a lot better than the Wilton brand. If you don't want to make MMF, I've heard SatinIce and Pettinice is good too (I'm not sure I spelt those right) and you can purchase those online.

Don't get discouraged! Ithink you may have been rolling too thin. I just bought the big wilton rolling pin and really like it (40% off coupon too!). I'm learning fondant too. I love the mmf that Cheryl makes here. It is really not difficult to make. Ialso bought some rolling pin guides from sugarcraft.com because I would never be able to judge the thickness of fondant on my own! They are great. Give yourself some time and try the mmf.

I like the chocopan fondant. It is pretty darned soft, a little hard to cover the large cake layers, but I have added a little gumpaste or gumtex in it which helps make it stronger and less likely to rip. It takes a little practice, but it's so good tasting and nice and soft, you'll never want to wad it up in a ball and chuck it in the trash.