Hi all, I am making a mermaid cake and i wanted the fondant mermaid i have made to look shinny. Does anyone know what i can use?? ta

You can steam it, brush it with water or use confectioners glaze (haven't tried this before). You can also use a mixture of vodka and cornsyrup.

If you have an airbrush, you can mist it LIGHTLY with just plain water. Let that dry, and do it again, depending on how shiny you want it.

Or you can take a clean lightly damp dish towel and lightly rub over the fondant.

Or you can use a steamer and pass over the fondant lightly with the steam.

Confectionary glaze would make it really shine, but if you dont have any of that on hand a thin coating of shortening will make it shine too. This also will not make the surrounding area look wet when you dont want it to like steaming can. And you wont get drips in unwanted places either.

I would paint the tail with a mix of vodka and icing color. That will give it a shine and it would probably look nice with the tail shining and the parts that look like skin being left with a matte finish.

Spray some canola oil (like the Crisco out of a can) in a small bowl. Then paint it on with a paint brush. Just did this for a cake of mind and it looked great!

Next time you place an order with Global Sugar Art or whoever you trade with--I know GSA has it--get you some gum arabic and mix it with water & paint it on and you will have shine shine shine. Like less than four bucks.

The gum arabic works really well, dries hard with no stickiness.

Chippi--yeah I made an old fashioned ladies high top button up shoe and it was matte leather with a patent leather toe and I had to dust the patent leather toe with cocoa to take the shine down so it looked old. The gum arabic shines very well. It's the ingredient in edible glitter.

LearninC--and I've tried it with alcohol and gum arabic--din work. Water + gum arabic is great huh. And you can speed up the process with a blast from the hair dryer if you want.

Yay, a fellow GA believer!!! <highfive>

I am going to try the gum arabic.... the water idea tends to break down my fondant and / or it gets sticky....

WOW, just tried the vodka+ icing color!!!!!!!! WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT

Thank you so much for such a great tip!