It has taken a lot of work and headaches, but I think I finally figured out the right texture that my fondant needs to be. My last fondant cakes I had trouble with it tearing before I got it smooth. I just kept playing with it, and with lots of help from input from cc members, I think my latest cake was by far the easiest mmf I have done. Thank you all so much for sharing all your insight!! I could have never figured it out otherwise. BTW, the cake I just finished putting the mmf on is in my pics. It is the housewarming cake.

Great Job!! And I know exactly how you feel.. For the longest time, MMF was my worst enemy!!! I could not for the life of me figure that stuff out!!! It burned my butt so much that I just stop trying.. Then the more and more I read.. The more and more it was eating me away.. I kept thinking " I can do this, man i can do this".. So I just tried and tried.. And one day.. OH MY!! I DID IT!!!! LOL very excited about it.. I just love that I can make my own fondant..

That's how I am now! I was just so excited.

Will you please share some of your tips or give a link to the tips other members gave you? I'll be baking this week for my daughter's 2nd birthday and plan to use MMF. I've only made it twice and would love some tips!

I too am trying with the MMF. I have it down PAT to MAKE -- but I couldn't wrap a round cake to save my life!! All those wrinkles! How do you do it? How to wrap a double-stacked & frosted cake without all the wrinkles? I even tried putting flowers up the side to cover the wrinkles!

BTW - cake was absolutely yummy.

Hey guys! I've been using MMF for a little over a year, and all the ones in My Photos are MMF (except the Prince cake, which was before I started using MMF), and I love it! And I just recently tried the Alternative MMF fondant receipe (the one with Crisco made right in it, rather than kneading it in later), and I LOVE it! The most recent wedding cake in My Photos (with the flowers around the edge) was made with that fondant. It has more "body" to it so it looks much smoother than regular MMF. The trick is kneading it enough to make it nice and smooth and letting it rest overnight. So please don't give up on MMF - if nothing else, it's great for practice, but I haven't purchased regular fondant since I started using it.

By the way - they are correct about raising the cake to smooth the fondant. I do it right on my turntable, unless the cake is smaller than the turntable, and then I'll do it on top of a Crisco can or something that size. Roll it out and make sure you roll it bigger than the cake, so you have excess around the edges. Then, once you put it over the top, and you start smoothing it out, all the pleats will end up in the part that you'll eventually trim off. That's why you have to make sure some is hanging beyond the cake, since the weight will help "pull" out the pleats and wrinkles. It works wonderfully well. Also, try smoothing the fondant before you put it on the cake with a fondant smoother - that may help too. Also, make sure you put enough powdered sugar in it so that the fondant isn't too "thin," it needs to have a bit of thickness to smooth nicely - if it's too thin it will show every bump and wrinkle on your cake. It also may end up too shiny and not look nice. And the recipe with the Crisco is so nice because it's hard to get it too dry so it will crack - the Crisco keeps it nice and pliable, and a thousand times easier to roll out. I had such a hard time last year with the 14 inch tier of that fan wedding cake - getting the fondant rolled out enough - but this time, it was no problem with the Crisco receipe.

Hope it helps, and good luck!

Pyxxydust ~ Thanks for the tips! I checked out your photos - I love the wedding cake! I'm also going to borrow your name idea, if you don't mind. I'm making a Hello Kitty cake for my 2 year old and I think I'll spell out her name on fondant flowers like you did with the stars on the Elmo cake.

I use one bag of marshmellows and squirt some kayro syrup on top and put a lid on my microwave safe bowl and cook in 1 min. incraments until it is a liquid...then slowly add powder sugar and mix...and mix.....and mix, then when it gets thicker I knead it. It stretches wonderfully. I also crisco up my hands really well....

the only problem I have is that occasionally I get powder sugar 'bumps" in my covered cake and when I pick them out...I get a little hole. I think I probably need to sift my powder sugar?
once you get the hang of it....it is MUCH cheaper.

melody

Thank you for the 'elevating' trick -- That makes total sense! I'm going to try it next time!!

camcat - I'm so glad you found an idea you can use!

Also - about the sugar bumps - I had that problem with regular MMF as well, even when I sifted it. And I do sift it each and every time. I didn't have much of a problem this time - with the Crisco in the recipe - but I still had a few here and there. I'm not sure how to get rid of them completely. But fortunately, as you knead, you can usually see the really big ones and get them out, before you actually start using it.

Hope that helps!

I kneaded mine a lot and elevated the cake on a crisco can also. I rolled mine out on cornstarch, because it worked better for me. Some people swear by rolling it out on crisco. I think mmf is one of those things were practice is the only thing that helps. I actually got some samples of fondant from a link I got on cc and that helped me to understand what I needed to achieve with the texture, since I had never worked with fondant before. Good luck and keep trying!

I love mmf. sooo much cheaper!!!! when I start making more $$$$ I think I'll check into buying something because it is a pain in the butt sometimes to make.

great topic!


melody