I have a cake due tomorrow where there will be a fondant crown standing up on top. I made the crown this morning thinking it would have stiffened up a little by know. But it hasn't!! The fondant is still very soft. What do I do??? It's due tomorrow around 11am.

Try putting a fan in front of it for few hours....

LOL!! Thanks! Why didn't I think of that!!

You should have used gumpaste instead of fondant.

Yeah not very good with gumpaste. The customer gave me a picture she wanted me to replicate. It was done with fondant so that's why I chose to do it in fondant too.

I think I've heard in the past that you can add a little gumpaste to your fondant. Is that true? Did I hear that correctly?

Just a tip for the future, I know it is too late for now, but you don't have to use gumpaste, but you do need to make fondant figures with pleanty of time to dry. The crown I made in my pics is MMF and it worked fine, but I had a week dry time.


The fan thing might work, I have also heard of using the oven at a low temp. You could also get some gumpaste and make one really quick.


Stephanie

How is the bow coming along? I'm not sure straight fondant will dry in time but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.

You can always mix fondant and gum paste or fondant with gum tex, gum trag or tylose to get a faster drying version of fondant but still give you time to work with it.

If your crown doesn't dry, a back up plan could be one made out of candy melts. I really wanted to do a gum paste crown for my friend's daughters birthday. Unfortunately the week of her birthday alot of things came up and I just didn't have time to make it. I ended up piping it in candy melts. The good think about them is they harder pretty fast.

I work in the bookstore and my friend does catered meals & stuff at the church--so she was doing a graduation for nursing school and had gotten cakes decorated pretty from Sam's but she wanted a nurse's cap on each cake--no worries.

So we went together to get the cakes & some kind of nurse's cap at the cake store. Zilch--nothing nurse-y except candy molds. So I said, let's get some fondant, I can make a coupla nurse's caps.

So then on the way to pick up the cakes I ask when is the event. She says two o'clock. It's like 12:30 now. hahahaha

So I worked a bunch of corn starch into the fondant and formed the hats over the top part of some styrofoam cups ( I removed the bottom of the cup and used the top to form the hats over--was more the correct size for the space on the cake) I folded the brim up and it stayed up fine--the top of the hats did not sink in. They were soft but they were nurse's hats. Piped the stripe across there like the old fashioned ones.

Corn starch.

does mm fondant HAVE to be refrigerated overnight b4 use? and how long does it last after made?

NO! Do not refrigerate MMF. I use my MMF on the same day I make a lot of the time. But it is much more easier to work with on the next day.

Stephanie

thanks, i have been putting it in the fridge to "mature" as they call it, but I sometimes don't have time to wait 24 hours. One more question, how do I make it stiffer without it getting too hard? I've tried adding more sugar, but it just dries it out.

not sure what you mean by stiffer. What are you wanting to do with it? If you are trying to make figures and such, combine in a 50/50 mix of gumpaste.

MMF takes forever to dry, so I don't suggest using it for anything that would require standing up unless you have some kind of form to keep it's shape while drying.

Stephanie

Aidansmommy, put your crown, or tiara, or whatever (sorry, it's late!) in the oven with ONLY the OVEN LIGHT on. No heat, not even on a low temp. Just the oven light makes enough heat for it. I had to do it before. But yeah, in the future, you can mix 50/50 fondant and gumpaste.

I have not had success trying gumpaste, I bought a package of Wilton's and it was all crusty and there were chunks in it that did not smooth out. Ditto for the dry mix I added water to.
I have found that the Wilton's fondant dries pretty firm and within a day. HTH for next time

I use the Wilton dry mix and have not had any trouble. You just have to keep it covered at all times, only pulling out what you are working with. I also have used the CK brand, though I have to order it, so usually don't have it on hand.

I do not like the WIlton pre made stuff either.

Stephanie