i want to know what 'glue' you all use to put together a fondant figure? I cant keep my people together. The arms fall off, the head spins. If I cant mold it out of one piece then I am scared it wont make it to the cake! I made a man 4 times the other day before finally just making him a 'dead' man laying on the cake....a cake friend of mine suggested i use gumpaste instead....what is the difference? thanks!

Oh dear! Dead man on a cake just won't do!

Fondant by itself is too soft for proper modeling. Mix a little tylose powder into your fondant and let it rest a few hours to firm up.

Or, combine some gumpaste with your fondant. Gumpaste by itself dries too fast, which causes cracking and wrinkling.

Gum glue holds the pieces together. You can make it by mixing some tylose into water. Or, by dissolving a piece of gumpaste in some water.

The trick with gum glue is to use just a smear, so it's tacky. Too much and it's VERY slippery.

Use pieces of crumpled facial tissue or foam sponge to hold your pieces together while the glue dries. This should prevent the head-spinning problem.

Whether you use fondant+tylose or fondant+gumpaste, you may need to let larger pieces (like torso) dry before continuing, otherwise they may squish under the weight of additional pieces (like the head).

u can also use spaghetti to join limbs and thing. can also use wire, but then theres the whole edible thing.
xx

Are you using anything for support on your head and arms, torso? I use thin pieces of spaghetti or angel hair (cappelini) pasta. It works nicely for me. And, of course, the glue as mentioned above. Good luck!

I've used toothpicks with butter/vanilla extract. I also have something to support heads or anything that might need help to keep position while it's drying. I've used cotton balls, container of glitter, poster board, etc.

ok, you will all probably laugh at me, but what is tylose and where do i find it? I typically use toothpicks to put the pieces together, hence the head spins on the toothpick after it dries. Actually the dead man was appropriate for the cake since the 'deer' hunter shot the man....irony...i love it. but anyway, i will try the spagetti and then some of these other ideas on the 'glue'! thanks for your help. i am self taught on this fondant stuff! the teacher isnt very good.

I use toothpicks and a tylose/water mixture. It almost looks like glue and works great. Sometimes you have to support your figures with other things until they dry sufficiently so make your figures several days in advance.

You can get tylose here http://www.globalsugarart.com/search.php?search=tylose.

Just knead in about 1/2 tsp powder per pound of fondant. You may like to use more or less. I don't measure - I just sprinkle.

You can use toothpicks or spaghetti. I prefer toothpicks because no one is going to eat the figure and spaghetti is kinda fragile. Plus, I like to dip my toothpick in the gum glue and that wouldn't be a good idea with spaghetti, even though I do blot off the excess. This prevents the toothpick from getting any funny ideas, like sliding out of my figure!

Just smear a little gum glue between the pieces you're going to be attaching to the toothpicks.