Soooo, cornstarch: Friend of fondant, enemy of cake perfection!

Does anyone have any tips on cleaning up cakes when you are using cornstarch to roll out fondant and prevent sticking? I always have cornstarch everywhere! Yesterday I made a hiking cake and it looked like my poor hiker got caught in a cornstarch storm. I need to use it because it's too warm in my house.

Not to mention that fact that my lovely roommate thinks we need to have a fire at 5pm...on a clear day...IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. (We don't have winter here people!)

put a little crisco on a paper towel and wipe down the entire cake or figure, whatever is full of cornstarch

I'll be honest--I've tried to understand the need to roll out on CS or PS, but I just don't get it.

I never roll out large pieces of fondant on CS, but I will put a slight dusting on top of and/or under a piece of fondant or gum paste if I'm using a really finicky or detailed cutter.

I put a smear of crisco on a piece of clear vinyl from WalMart, roll out, and I'm done with it.

I have absolutely nothing to clean up when I do this and I never have to worry that if the CS gets wet and then kneaded into the fondant that there will be an issue with fermentation during storage.

HTH
Rae

Blakescakes, thats what I use to do, until it stuck fast terrible. I wonder if at some point the plastic or vinyl whatever it is(table covering)from walmart..gets old or weird or something.....I can't figure why it sticks..I wipe it with crisco and it was stuck fast. I tried the wilton spray for pans last time and that worked ok. Its a puzzle to me????

I don't know, Madge.

I assume that you can get enough scratches on the vinyl surface, effectively dulling it, so that you'd have problems. Same thing happens with Teflon pans over time.

I always clean mine by wiping it down with antibacterial counter wipes, rinse with a damp paper towel, and re-apply the crisco when I need to use it again. I never use a sponge or abrasive on it.

I do get small nicks & cuts in it, over time, so I find that I replace it about once a year. I use the medium weight clear vinyl and usually keep it taped to my corian countertop with heavy duty clear packing tape.

HTH
Rae

I use 100% vodka. I take a small paint brush and just wipe it down with the vodka.

I just clean it with dish detergent and then super hot water, do you think that woould ruin it? Maybe I should try a new one and see what happens. Thanks

I actually use a medium size soft paintbrush....and sweep the cornstarch or sugar off. I don't usually use cornstarch...it just feels too funny but powdered sugar is the same.

oh sorry I was referring to the plastic mat of course and not the fondant

If you have an airbrush you can blow it off. Maybe a hairdryer put on high without the heat would work as well.

HTH

I have found that vodka through the airbrush is far, far less effective than brushing the cake down with vodka or Pam/canola oil....and you really don't want to hit your fondant with heat, esp. with BC or ganache underneath.

I wipe it down with a bit of Crisco on a paper towel (you should have seen my Raccoon house warming cake before I did that, it looked like they were hibernating in the winter there was so much cs and ps all over it) My wilton mat finally became pretty much unusable, it wasn't great to start with but now it's just crap and EVERYTHING was sticking to it horribly so I used about a gross of cornstarch and powdered sugar and the cake magically looked good when it was done!