turned off of course. Make sure when you rush home from work and try to get dinner started, you don't preheat the oven without looking in it first!!

YEP!! Take a guess what happened to all my fondant figures I made!! MELTED!!

So if you do dry your fondant figures in the oven, make sure to put a note on the oven door for yourself so you don't end up with my disaster!

Yep. Been there, done that. I stay clear of the oven now, just don't trust myself.

how do you dry them... just store them in the oven.... thats cool never thought of them... ususally i put them on my kitchen counter, where the ac vent hits and dry them that way... so can someone tell me how to do it... just store them or actually dry them... share

cool.... im soo going 2 try that

... and add some Fixodent to your fondant... it really made my figures harden faster and better... without it, my fondant was way too moist with all the humidity. I do open the oven and turn my fondant pieces periodically, to make sure they will not stick and break when I try to remove them.

does this have to be an oven w/ a pilot, or just a light?

i like the fixodent idea, but i pride myself on making
EVERYTHING
edible... and i dont think that you could eat it, if it has fixodent... and kids (i learned) eat EVERYTHING...

Remember that Fixodent is used in the mouth area. It stays in the mouth for hours and hours in those who use it. I use it for my fondant pieces (characters, etc. NOT the fondant icing) because they need stability. It gives a very slight minty taste to the fondant, but I have never had anyone eat my figures. They take them home as souvenirs of the cake... a couple of my clients told me that their kids ate a bow I made and thought it tasted great! Who knows what people like? I told her when I delivered the cake that there was Fixodent in the bows to make the bows stiff and she said she had no problem with it.

how much do u use

I have a warming drawer under my oven that is invaluable for drying fondant pieces. It heats low, medium & high. I add cornstarch to my fondant pieces and let them dry in there for few hours on low. Works great.

Some decorators use those food dehydrators too.

Pinklesley1, I use about 2 Tablespoons to half of my recipe (Michele Foster's recipe)... if it feels too sticky, I put in more (make sure you use the powder form... not the paste!). You can tell the feel after you knead it in the fondant. I got a bottle of it at the drug store for $3.77.

I have an electric oven and I just turn the temp as low as it will go and put my pieces in for about 1/2 hour. Then I take them and let them cool completely and they dry hard. I place them on cornstarch dusted cardboard before they go in. I also have a dehydrator but I only use when I havent procrastinated...."It still has that new car smell"

the main ingredient that is in Fixodent or Ploygrip that will harden is Carboxy Methyl Cellulose or CMC.

It is an ingredient that is comonly in things like toothpaste and cosmetics.

It might have a slight laxitive effect if too much is eaten. (it's used in some diet pills)

I use CMC powder that I buy in bulk for my gumpaste recipe and my GP dries like beautiful porceline. I only use a very tiny bit in a GP recipe but I don't know how mush is in the fixodent.

I would use a tsp or less in a handful of fondant, see how that goes, maybe even start with half a tsp.

here is some more info about it

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/wholebody/ingredients/carboxymethyl.html

I am new to the forums here and I can't believe how much I have learned in such a short time. I wish I had paid attention earlier.

THANK U for all the info.

thank you luttie and leannew

Every time I put something in the oven for "storage", I put a piece of tape (or a dot of icing...whatever is handy) over the "on" button of the oven. That way, if ANYONE in the family goes to turn the oven on, they know something is in there.

Oh, what a great idea! I usually let my cornbread pans dry out in my still-warm oven after I have rinsed and wiped them out and forget that I have them in there (until I turn on the oven to preheat it for the next meal). I will definitely put this on my oven somewhere to remind me, as I am the only one who is using the oven now, but becoming more and more forgetful. Once someone turns "29", it is all downhill

i have also read somewhere that the best way to clean cookie cutters and not having them rust is to wash them immediately, and a cookie sheet, and put them in the still warm oven to dry.

All great ideas, I never would have thought of them. I tried drying fondant in my clothes dry and low heat, i did it only for a short time and thought that I sc@#%ed up because they were reallly soft, but it turns out, after taking then out, they hardened in no time. Going to try the fixodent thought.

I tried drying my fondant pieces in the oven - no heat, just the light - and they didn't melt but they definitely sagged and lost definition. It was a surprise cake for my dad so no big deal but it was really bad. I'm never trying that again. Now I wish I could find a good deal on a dehydrator.

oh did anybody mention you really shouldn't try this with a gas oven?

leanne, do they actually carry the cmc at whole foods?

ALSO LOLOLOL. I was making some Orchids for my final. Well, they weren't drying fast enough for me. Yeah the oven will work. I loaded up a sheet pan, Cel Former, and all. Checked back in about 1/2 hr, no prob. Well about an hour later, all the lil Cel Former thingies shrunk. Not good, not good at all. I borrowed them from school to make all of the flowers. So then I hurry around, and end up ordering 19 replacement packages. You can't buy the individual ones. You have to buy the whole package. GRRRRRR. That ended up being a $100.00 mistake that won't be forgotten.

Mike

I use cellogen/tylo/cmc in my figures too. You only need to add about a teaspoon per 500g (approx 1/4pound)

Where are you purchasing the CMC powder from???

500 g.=1.10 pounds

it gets hotter in a turned off gas oven with the light on.