Need All The Help I Can Get! [Fodant Help]
Decorating By Ozzy7388 Updated 9 Mar 2009 , 10:19am by Tinabug1979
So I am a culinary school graduate from Campbell which is in the San Jose area in California. It is a very hot climate and while I was living there, using fondant was a piece of cake!!
A couple months back I moved to a colder area of the bay and in my house the air is always cold even with the heater on full blast. Since I moved, all the cakes I've made (with fondant covering) tends to crack at the edges. First I was using cheap fondant from Michael's then paid up and bought a big bucket of Satin Ice. Still cracking!! Of course I am using powdered sugar but how can I not when the fondant eventually gets too sticky or sticks to the table.
I've tried:
microwaving the fondant
using olive oil and shorting
turning up the heater to max
using different thick/thin-ness
Anyway...I am making a 3 tier baby shower cake in 2 weeks. It's my first paying cake so I NEED TO MAKE SURE THE CRACKING DOES NOT HAPPEN.
Throw me all the advice you can!!
PLEASE HELP!
Welcome here! Something that I have done before with my fondant that has been cracking is knead a bit of water... for me this worked great... made it mold together again... especially if you are rolling it out with PS I think this should work fine for you. Maybe first try it on a small sample to make sure that it handles the way you want... just to be safe. HTH!
Hi
Not sure if I can help but I live in england which is VERY cold at the moment! I don't have this problem, but use as little powdered sugar as poss when rolling out, and also knead it for a ggood while before rolling, also try and keep it to a medium thickness, I found if I did it too thin it did start to crack. Hope you sort it out in time!
Am I getting this right you moved from basically no humidity to what would be considered acceptable? Now you are in cold weather and learned basically hot without humidity?
Have you tried putting some fresh egg white in it?
I'm living in drought in TX, right now. I've actually had to redo my tried and true formulas for mix cakes with extenders.
I wouldn't try to strengthen with Gum Tex or Trag. That stuff is used to make it dry faster. Gum Arabic might help. It makes it gluey.
GA, helps to make things more gluey (lack of a better phrase).
hth,
If I can remember what I just told you about GA, my local supplier will love me.
I'm positive that eilidh has given you the best advice so far.
I know this is a little late, but I watched a vendor at the Austin cake show do a demo for their brand of fondant.
He said use shortening, very little; just enough to slick your hands and your pin.
He also suggested one of the new pie pins with the silicone coating. This rolling pin doesn't stretch, it rolls. Hope that makes sense.
I flat out said excuse me, we can be at 85+ degrees high humidity and within 4 hrs the temp has dropped to 40 and 0 humidity.
He said only add the powdered sugar if it gets to soft, otherwise it will crack and wrinkle.
hth
I have been told to try a humidifier. I have not had to try it yet, but I will be making a batch of fondant today, so I may have to try it myself. Maybe this will work. Good Luck!
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