I have been cake decorating for a couple of years now. I took the Michaels 1st and 2nd course. Now I work in a bakery ~ cake decorating, but I have only ever used buttercream and whipped icings! I want to get started with fondant, but everytime I sign up for course 3 (wilton) it gets cancelled due to not having enough people sign up for it! Any suggestions on self teaching...or good references/books???

PS- New to CC.

I am VERY new to fondant. Here is what I recommend so far....

Make your own Marshmallow fondant. It is cheap to make and YOU get to flavor it how you want.

If you are sculpting, and you make crabs, their legs will fall off. There are several ways to make "glue" to get them back on, including egg wash, royal icing and piping gel.

Corn starch ROCKS to keep it from sticking if you are rolling it out.

Always use the same color of BC under the findant. If you use blue BC under white fondant, it WILL show through....

Always freeze your leftovers. You will be able to use them again later.

HTH!!!!

Hi - I took Course 3 and to be honest, I learned more here at CC about fondant than I did there...

The fondant roses are a nice start and I don't really think they are difficult to make either.... I thought it was pretty fun. The more advanced flowers were not covered in class 3 so I bought a DVD off eBay.... I am waiting impatiently for it.

The only thing that continues to throw me off is whether to use shortening or starch and when to use each....cripes, I get confused!

Try using confectioners sugar to roll it out instead of cornstrach...tastes better!!

I've tried Cornstarch and Crisco when rolling it out, but what has helped the most is how I make the MMF. When mixing the melted marshmallows with the powdered sugar, I added half of the bag and mixed it in, then I used the other half little by little to kneed into the MMF until it wasn't sticky anymore. I ended up with about 1/4 of the bag that I didn't use. Then I store it in a ziploc bag in a tupperware container in the pantry. When I need to use some, I take out as much as I need and work a little bit of crisco into it until it is soft again, but not so much that it gets sticky, then I don't even need to use cornstarch. This last batch has worked out soooo well!!!

Thanks gals! The marshmallow fondant recipe on cc looks easy enough...I think I will try it!

Fondant is so fun. You are going to love it.

I would buy fondant the first time you use it. Trying to make it when you are not sure what it should feel/look like is to hard.

If you have a silpat use that to roll it out. You can put a light layer of Crisco on the pat to insure you are not going to stick. Be sure to also use it on the rolling pin.

When you roll it out start at the 1/2 way mark and roll forward then go back to the center and roll down. Turn the fondant and roll to the sides. You do not want to roll this like a pie dough. Always roll from the center out. Not back and forth as the fondant will crease and you won't be able to smooth it out.

If you are using the Wilton mat or some other kind I would make a mixture of 1/2 powdered sugar and 1/2 cornstarch. Put it in a knee high stocking and tie it up to make a puff. Use that to put down the sugar and starch so it won't stick. Don't go over board though as it will dry your fondant out.

Don't roll overly thin as every little bump will show up.

Be sure you use a light layer of buttercream on your cake before you put the fondant on it.

If you are making figures mix a bit of gumpaste to the fondant to help it hold up and dry stronger.

Good luck and post pictures.

Thanks for all the info

Woohoo!! I have so many question on MMF and you guys are usually soo good helping me!
I'm going to ask the dumbest question ever! I tried MMF using the microwave and obviously something went wrong from that point on!! (YES the very begging!! )
Can I melt the MM on a teflon soucer pan???? I don't want to mess up my pans. I think if I can conquer that part, I can work out the rest of the steps.

Megal80 Let's see if we can conquer the MMF world!!!

Thanks for your help!!

I'm not sure about a teflon saucer pan...??? I always use a glass mixing bowl (like pyrex) that is greased or sprayed with pam. HTH!

Coolmom- Do you put the pyrex in the stove??? (I have to ask )

No!! I guess I misunderstood you. I was sitting here thinking...Can you put teflon in the microwave????

I've been melting mine in a glass bowl in the microwave. But, I've only been doing small batches. I just threw about 5-7 big marshmallows with about 3tsp of water in the micro for 30 sec. Got it out added my color and stirred in the powdered sugar. Worked great. Last time I did it in the mixing bowl and it was a mess. But, maybe it was just me. I also just got a book from Hobby Lobby with my 50% off coupon...YEAH!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, it's called Celebrate with Fondant It's great. It has lots of ideas and teaches you how to do a lot of stuff. LOVE IT!

Hahaha!! This is soo funny!! I was just try to see if I could do it in the stove (didn't say that in my post, duh!) so maybe I could stir constantly.....LOL.
I think sweetpeeps' idea is good. I think I'll try it like that.

Oops forgot to say. This wasn't my idea. I forgot who said it on here, but someone else on here said to try it in small batches. I tried it and it worked. I don't want to take credit for the idea, although, I would love to!

I have a few tips and a couple of questions too! I'm playing around with my first batch.

Tips:

*Start by greasing your bowl before you put it into the microwave. This helped me a lot.

*Someone suggested freezing leftovers, but I also read to store them well-wrapped in the cupboard. Mine worked well this way.

*Re-heat in a greased bowl for just a few seconds to soften it up.

*Instead of buying cutters, look around your kitchen to see what you can use. I used an apple corer and small plastic cookie cutters to make little shapes that we put together to make ladybugs and butterflies.

There is a good tutorial about covering cakes with fondant. Now I would love to see a tutorial on how to create sculpted decorations or cut-outs for decorating. My DD and I are figuring it out by trial and error right now. She made some really cute freehand bugs (and she's not even 8 y.o. yet!!! Look at my pictures.) but I hope they dry well and stick together when I make the cake.

How long does it take to dry? I did not add gum-tex.

What is the best way to "glue" parts back together? I think I read water and/or clear vanilla work well.

Thanks,

Kelly

Just wanted to say, I did my first fondant cake. I decided to try it with the already made stuff. Now I will try the MMF. Fondant is so fun, I love it! I didn't do anything tricky or incredible yet...I'll work up to that!

Thanks for all the help and suggestions!

Once I figure out how to post my pictures on here I will!

Oh, here's another one on MMF figures. DO NOT try to dry them in a warmed oven. They WILL melt....see my pictures.

ooooooh bummer! Thanks for the tip!

By the way, your woodlands cake is soooo cute!

Thanks! Hindsight, I would have made the bottom look more stumpy.