I made my first fondant bow and had a devil of a time with it. What the heck did I do wrong? I'm not sure but maybe I shouldn't have used Satin Ice fondant. It didn't dry to well and when I went to put it together it broke and oh what a mess. I did manage to salvage some of it. What happened? Can you all help me? PLEASE ASAP...

It's very difficult to make a bow out of straight fondant unless you've got a week or two to let it dry. Add gumpaste (50%/50%) or add some Tylose to your fondant to make it dry faster and harder.

Satin Ice is extremely soft-I'm surprised you were able to make a bow at all without adding gumpaste or tylose as Leah suggested. If I want to make adornments with 100% fondant, I use Wilton. Nobody is going to eat the bow and it's definitely more durable for other elements of the cake. I do not use it to cover cakes though-eww.

I tried the bow about 10 times before I produced one I actually liked. I think with anything it takes practice. Try it again, add a stabalizer and you'll do okay!

Geez, I just made my first fondant bow and am disappointed also! I went by the instructions in the Wilton yearbook, and it says to use fondant. I am wondering if the thing is going to fall apart once on the cake. Also, do you have to add some sort of support, it seems a little heavy? I have the 2 rows of 6 loops each and then a last top loop in the middle. I did the loops like this: first row was 6 inches long (1/8 thick), 1 inch wide, second row 5 inches long, last loop 4 inches long. Did I do it wrong?!

Thanks a lot if you can help!

Just recently made my first fondant bow. I used Choc Pan with 50% gumpaste added to it. I let it dry a good week before placing on the cake. It came out very nice. Make sure the loops are not too thin. Good luck

Sometimes Wilton is great, but sometimes they frustrate me! Why doesn't it tell you in the book to add gumpaste? I wondered if I should be adding it, but figured it would've told me so if I had to.

You CAN make a bow out of Wilton fondant without gumpaste added. You just have to let the loops dry for at least a week before you mess with them.

I have very good luck making bows out of MMF, which in my home dries hard as a rock overnight (I live in a climate where I have to run the AC pretty much all the time). However, straight fondant will dry harder and faster if you knead in some tylose, gumtex, or even Fixodent denture powder. Also, a 50/50 fondant/gumpaste mix will let you roll a little thinner and dry faster. Here's my tutorial, hope it helps:

http://www.cakeboss.com/FondantBowTutorial.aspx

Thank you! That is one of the best/easiest bow tutorials I've seen. I've been meaning to try one and I'm going to reference your tutorial.

I too had trouble making bows out of plain fondant. I alos use a 50/50 fondant and gumpaste mix. Works like a charm.

Does everyone buy their gumpaste or make it? I also read that you can add gum-tex to fondant and this will help it to dry hard. Is this true??? I have gum=tex on hand.

You really need gumpaste or at least fondant and Tylose.

I rarely use tylose. I mean just for making bows and simple flowers and purse handles or something. I add cornstarch and I use a 125 degree warming drawer. I am very fortunate to have it. I can do a bow in two hours.

http://www.acmecakes.com/images/frogandgift2.jpg

http://www.acmecakes.com/images/2007-08-25_10-35-41_0009.JPG

The big ole thick purse handle and chain is all fondant plus conrstarch. It prolly dried in a couple two hour cycles where I let it cool off in between a few times. I just set it on it's side in there.

And for loopy bows I can trim the ends of the loops too with scissors--very user friendly.

Kelleym, I like your tutorial! It is kind of different from Wilton's. I didn't pinch my ends vertically, but kept them perfectly aligned, which may have made it a little harder to fit them all in. Plus, I didn't know if I was supposed to make all the loops the same length, so I made the second row smaller by 1 inch. UGH! I think my next bow will look a lot better! Thanks!