Hi folks,

This is my firsst time trying to use fondant. I am making Little Bear figures for my grand daughter's birthday cake. I have molded the pieces of the body, but I cannot make them stick together. Is there some way to 'glue' them?

I read through the 'Fondant fairies' article but it didn't mention anything about making the pieces stick together or even hold their shape. For that, I've been propping them up on pieces of cardboard or foil mostly. But I can't get them to stick. ARRGGG!

Thanks for the help!
Cathy

'crickets chirping'

help, please???

are the figures dried or still soft? Soft can be stuck together with a little water or alcohol (like lemon extract, vodka, etc.) Or you can make gum glue. Dissolve a small wad of fondant in some water to form a paste and brush that on. Dry, probably gum glue is your best bet. Another way to make gum glue is to dissolve some gum trag or tylose powder in some water. The ratio is 30 tsp water to 1 tsp gum powder. This would make a lot and it does go bad so I always cut the recipe down, store it in the fridge and toss it when it gets moldy. Good luck!

The figures are mostly dry now. I will try the gum glue and hope it holds. The next trick is keeping them together while the glue dries.

Any idea how long that takes?

Alana, thanks for your help

yeah, the gum glue takes some time to dry. But it's pretty strong so depending on how heavy your peices are it might support them pretty quickly. If your peices are heavy you might try sticking a peices of toothpick at the joints or a peices of spaghetti (If you like the all edible thing) for support.

If gum glue doesn't work - though I don't know why it shouldn't - royal icing will do the trick.
Just prop your figures up with foam pieces, wadded up cling-wrap, wadded up tissue paper or whatever else you have on hand to keep the pieces aligned and leave to dry well.

Sugar Sticks (alternative to using spaghetti for support)

This recipe makes 10-20 sugar sticks

1.25ml (1/4 tsp) CMC, gum trag or tylose
5ml (1 tsp) royal icing

Knead the CMC or gum trag into the royal icing until the mixture thickens and forms a paste.

Roll it out and cut into different sized strips of various lengths using a clean straight-bladed knife.
To prevent untidy edges and crumbling occurring, roll the knife down through the paste. from tip to handle

Alternatively, roll the paste into thin sausage shapes.
Leave to dry for 4-8 hours before use. ( or speed it up under a angle poise lamp)
HTH

Thanks so much for the help. The gum glue worked fine. It was secure enough (although not dry) to hold its own after about 1-2 hours. Next day it was solid.

I guess I just have to learn to work much faster with fondant before it dries so much that I can't get pieces to stick well.

I made the other figures and was able to get the pieces to pretty much stick to each other on their own or with a dab of water.

Almost done now- and happy things are sticking!

Cathy