I am fairly new to cake decorating, so any help would be greatly appreciated. I just bought some silicone molds & realized they didn't come w/ instructions & I am clueless. Has anyone used them that can give me some ideas? Do yo just press the fondant or gumpaste in, or do you need rub with something? How do you get the fondant or gumpaste out of them once you have made the mold? Finally (I think) is it better to color the fondant or gumpaste prior to molding, or jst use white the paint the color on after you finish? The 2 I bought are a Santa head & a Poinsettia veining kit that also has the little dots for the middle of the flower.

Just press the fondant or gumpaste into the mold. The just flex the mold to release. If you find your paste losing it's shape, then put it in the freezer for a few minutes, then you should be able to pop it out. You can use a little cornstarch on the fondant or gumpaste, but I find using the freezer I don't have to.

Molds should be dusted with cornstarch before molding.

Without seeing the santa head- I would say roll a ball about the size the head needs to be-dust the mold and the ball of gumpaste-mold-and it should pop out ok. Som decorators keep the paste in the mold and stick the entire thing in the freezer for a bit for the past to firm up and easily pop out. I do that for certain sea shell molds.

For my petal molds/veiners-I have a cutter to cut out the blossom or leaf, then lay the cut paste into the 2-pc veiner and briefly squeeze the two halves together. Take off the top and presto! you have a molded and veined blossom or leaf!

As for painting vs colored paste....that depends on what I'm doing. For some blossoms I will color the paste, mold & vein, then dust with petal dusts for a more natural look.

For the santa head, i'd do it in a flesh color, then paint in your details.

HTH

This tutorial with pictures might be of some help! ;D

http://www.cakesandmore.org/blog/2008/09/using-first-impression-moulds/

I dust my silicone molds with super pearl because almost everything I do in a mold gets pearled anyway.