Hi everyone i need help urgently!!! My fondant won't dry up due to the extremely wet and rainy weather we've been having. Does anyone have any idea as to how i could make the fondant dry?!! I'm using fondant to make my figurines at the moment and have even resorted to using a half pastillage half fondant mixture.. but its not helping!! My fondant is just getting wetter by the minute. Anyone has any ideas as to how i could get the fondant to dry?! I need to deliver the cakes with the toppers by tomorrow and i'm totally out of ideas

Could you knead some gum-tex into the fondant? Or turn your air conditioner down a little bit...the air conditioner takes a lot of moisture out of the air.

Hi Texas Rose... i haven't tried kneading gum-tex into the fondant but i did use a mix of 50% fondant and 50% pastillage to make the figurines... would kneading gum tex directly into the fondant be any different? Will be trying it now to see if it works am just worried now that i won't have enough time to complete the figurines before the customer comes. I haven't placed the figurines in a air conditioned room as am worried that the moment i remove them from the room it will absorb the water from the air again and look wet is there any other ways to get the fondant to dry in the event that i can't get the new figurines made with the new fondant with gum tex added to dry in time?

When you put gum-tex in the fondant, you can feel it getting stiffer right away.

I would put them in the air-conditioned room and see if that helps. I don't think they'll absorb water like you're thinking when they come out again. I moved a few months ago from a place with a very good air conditioner to one where the AC barely works at all, and my fondant just wouldn't dry, same recipe, same things I was making, they just weren't happening. I had to buy a dehumidifier and now it's much, much drier inside my house than outdoors, but when I take dried fondant outdoors, it stays dry...even things on wires, and really delicate flowers. Yesterday I had to take my stuff outside in the rain (under an umbrella) and none of it wilted or got soggy.

Hi Texas Rose... i just used a small fondant ball.. about the size of my thumb and adding gum-tex to it... problem is.. i had to add about 1 tsp of gum tex powder to that small piece of fondant to get it to dry... is that too much gum tex to add to it and would it still be ok to eat? Cos i'm doing small little figurines for kids on top of the cupcakes and i'm worried that the kids would eat it and that the amount of gum tex i'm adding to the fondant would make it inedible..

Whenever my fondant is too wet or I need it to dry quicker, I knead in some corn starch... always works for me. At first it brings in a lot of white, but does knead all in. I just sprinkle some on my counter and knead it in.

Hi dellboi2u.. thanks for the tip.. but i've tried adding additional corn starch before.. but it didn't seem to work for my fondant recipe though :p
Thanks though.. i'm just keeping my fingers crossed now that the added gumpaste will work now.

Put the figures in the oven with the light on. the heat from the light will speed the drying.

Hi Alana.. thanks for the tip but i'm using a microwave convection oven.. would it also work?

As long as it has a light, I can't see why it wouldn't. You're not using any heat from the oven. You're just using the heat from the light in an enclosed space to speed the drying.

I bought a $5 fan at walmart that I turn on low and put my fondant stuff in front of on a cardboard cake circle. Every once in a while, I turn the board. I also add tylose powder to my fondant beforehand. A little goes a lonnngg way and does make the pieces dry faster.

is tylose edible?

also, is gumtex by wilton similar to tylose?

thanks.

both gumtex and tylose are edible, but yuck! I wouldn't want to chip my teeth trying to do it, haha.

Yes, you can sub them out equally.
Here's a link to tylose, and it even mentions how great it is in humidity, which in Texas where I live is ever-present!
http://www.intotheoven.com/p831/Tylose-(55-grams)/product_info.html

thanks for all the great tips!!! haha.. didn't know that tylose/ gumpaste would make the fondant hard enough to chip a tooth!!

Gum-tex and tylose are not the same. In my opinion, gumtex is an inferior product. Their purposes are similar, but gumtex is far less effective. It also greys your fondant. Tylose will add stiffness and stretch, while gumtex adds stretch without the benefits of stiffness.
Gumtex is supposed to help fondant dry faster, but I don't think it works as well as tylose. Another product that us similar is gum tragacanth. Gum trag is the natural version of tylose (which is synthetic). Gum trag works similarly to tylose, but is not AS strong as tylose.

Hi alana... wow! That's some great info... could i ask what wilton is selling? That's the only thing i can get here and a wondering whether it is tylose, gumtex or gum trag :p

Unfortunately Wilton sells gumtex. Tylose and gum trag can be purchased at cake shops or online.

Thanks so much alana! now i gotta go figure out how to get my hands on some tylose :p

thanks arosstx and alana for answering my ques. i, too, like serenelui, can only find wilton's here, that was why i asked abt gumtex.

seems like i gotta really find tylose.. i don't live in the US, some online stores do not ship overseas, and even if they do, S&H will cost a bomb.

I know in Europe Tylose may be referred to as Tylopur (sp??) and/or CMC which stands for the long scientific name: Carboxy Methyl Cellulose. I just read that it might also be called Cellogen.