I'm making my daughter's birthday cake (barnyard theme) and took my inspiration from some of the cakes I've seen here with fabulous fondant animals. I ordered the Winbeckler book and used the fondant recipe they listed. I figured, hey it works for them so why mess with a good thing. My problem is this: my fondant is melting horribly as I work with it. My animals look like sumo animals if you can visualize it. I find the fondant really greasy. I still have time to make more animals tomorrow as I decorate the cake itself so I wanted to check and see if anyone had some ideas on this. Should I be adding more icing sugar or might that make the problem worse? Thanks in advance!

Michelle

sorry I can't help you, but hopefully this post will help to keep you on the front page so someone else can help you

I don't know that recipe but the way you describe it the fondant certainly seems to be in need of more sugar. The panda in my avatar had the same problem, and he was made out of marshmallow fondant (recipe here). The first fondant figures I made were fish with Wilton and although that is a firmer fondant, the fish were pretty big (golf ball sized at least) and sagged like crazy...so the size of your pieces may also be a factor.

If you have time to go get some gumtex if there is a Michael's/etc nearby, I highly recommend adding some to your fondant. Otherwise I know the MMF recipe I now use (Rhonda's, also from here) specifically states: "If mixture seems soft, add additional powdered sugar" so that could surely be worth a try. I don't see how it could make the problem worse unless you develop lumps.

You might also try a strand of spaghetti (full on spaghetti, not capellini!) inside their bodies and also to connect heads to bodies, helps to keep the weight of the head off the body. Or even use a toothpick in the body as "internal support" but only while it's drying - take it out before placing it on the cake or someone could get hurt!

I will try some of those ideas, thanks. I had to put them in the fridge, so I'm going to have to try again anyway. I will check for Gum-tex at Michaels. I'll try some more sugar as well. Can I just knead the Gum-tex in?

Michelle

Although the Wilton fondant doesn't taste very good, I tend to use it for modeling as it is fairly firm. My Big Red Barn cake animals were all made from Wilton fondant. I find the homemade stuff to be too soft for this use, but I love it for covering cakes.

Yep, if you don't just choose to buy the Wilton stuff for modeling, you can just knead the gumtex in to the fondant you've made. I can't remember if it's 1 tsp or 1 tbsp per batch of fondant, but I've never done a whole batch anyway. I just tear off a chunk of fondant and sprinkle in a small amount gumtex. Have fun!

Oh and also I hate to say it but putting them in the fridge could make them worse - humidity is fondant's worst enemy. Unless you were trying to keep them soft so that you could rework them.