I apologize in advance for this LONG post but I need to vent and I need some help before I go crazy. Let me start by saying that I always use Satin Ice fondant to cover my cakes. I always knead it with a little bit of shortening and then roll it out to 1/8" between two pieces of heavy vinyl. I remove the top vinyl and then flip the fondant over onto the cake. Once the second vinyl is removed, I smooth and that's that. I've never had any problems with tearing, elephant skin, or other things doing it this way, and I've covered quite a few cakes.

Well tonight I had to color some Satin Ice hot pink for a wedding cake I'm doing. I tried once unsuccessfully to get the color right with Americolor gels. The only way I could match the color was to use the Wilton Rose - and then it took 3.5 bottles of it for my 7.5 pounds of fondant. Once I was done coloring it, the fondant was REALLY soft. I kneaded in corn starch to help combat the stickiness. I tried 3 times to roll the fondant out between my vinyl pieces, and each time the fondant would tear in places and elephant skin in others. I tried rolling it thicker, and it did the same thing. I tried kneading more cornstarch in, and even a little Tylose and powdered sugar.

After a total of 6 tries trying to cover this 8" square, I gave up. I scraped it off, put the cake away, and put the fondant in a ziploc bag. I was in tears by this point, my husband's looking at me like I've lost my mind, and I'm now ready to pitch the whole d#*(@! bag of fondant out into the back yard.

Do any of you have any suggestions for how I can fix this problem when I try this again in the morning? I really don't know what else to do, but surely someone out there has been there before.

I know that by adding all that food coloring and working the fondant for a while, it has become very soft. You need to let the fondant rest overnight and by the next day it should be workable. It's happened to me.

yeah, let it rest a while and try again in the morning. with colors i say, just buy the precolored satin ice and save yourself all the headache. with deep colors i just do that or maybe use airbrush. good luck on that cake....and don't throw away fondant.

That's what I was going to suggest, too. Maybe your fondant just needs to rest. I had the same problem not long ago with this funky pink/mauve color I was trying to achieve, and had to mix like half a dozen diff colors by the GALLON to color all the fondant I needed for a 3 tier. I was using MMF, though. I finally had to put it away as well. But the next day, it acted a lot better. Still had to knead in some PS, but was able to salvage the fondant. Well, with LOTS of decorations lol!

I hope your fondant is better behaved tomorrow!

Hi QueenofSweets

So sorry you're having problems. It's possible that the fondant will be a little better in the morning once it's rested and I really hope that's the case. If it's not too bad, you could try kneading in a little more shortening - that could make it pliable enough to work with. But, there's a good chance that you might just have to throw it out and start again.

Next time, let it rest for about an hour after you've coloured it. It will firm up a little. If it's still too soft/sticky (and given how much colour you're adding, it will be) knead in powdered sugar rather than cornstarch and let it rest again before you start working with it. A touch of tylose can help too - but not too much or your fondant will dry out too quickly. Balancing the extra liquid from the colour with extra powdered sugar will definitely work, but it can be tricky getting the balance right.

All the best,
Cris.

Yes, hopefully it will be much more workable in the morning, after the fondant has had a night of sleep. Rest up tonight, have a drink, and all will seem better tomorrow.

I hope your fondant is fine tomorrow but I have had just as many problems the next day. The only way I was able to use the coloured fondant was to mix it with brand new uncoloured fondant a get a lighter shade. If you need any fondant for addons mix some tylose or gumpaste in with the coloured fondant and it may make it more workable. It is often easier and less stressful to buy dark or intense colours premade.

I don't use Satin Ice. I use Michele Foster's fondant but I never have any trouble getting hot pink using Wilton Rose. It really doesn't take that much for me to get the dark pink color. I colored an entire batch of my fondant (over 3 pounds) and didn't even use 1/4 of the little jar of coloring. I'm just confused as to why it's taking so much for you to get the color.

this happend to me when i colored my white satin ice navy for a recent cake that i did. i started to color it on a monday and every day added more color for 3 days to get the correct shade but i only used 1 bottle of the spectrum navy color, can't imagine if i used 3! i let it rest overnite each night. on that thursday night it was still really soft and tried like you did to add some cornstarch and let it rest overnight. the next day on a friday i tried and tried to cover my 6" round and it was still too soft. took me 3 tries because it wouldn't behave. at the top edge you could see the white crumb coat of icing through the fondant like it was lace and down the sides looked horrible like elephant skin. i don't have an airbrush so this was the only way to get navy. on the last try i kneeded in some wilton royal blue fondant i had to try and i think that's the only way i was able to get the cake iced at all. i was so glad i had lots of decorations. don't know what i will do next time around :\\ hope all goes well for you though!!!

Thanks for all of your advice, everyone. The suggestions about starting with pre-colored Satin Ice were what I had originally tried. I started with 10 pounds of the pink Satin Ice and tried to color to get the hot pink. I ended up with this putrid purply-salmon color. After researching fuschia suggestions here, I decided to start over with white Satin Ice and Wilton rose color. That's how I got to the mess I was in last night.

I felt the fondant this morning a little before leaving for work, and it does appear to be much better than it was last night - not nearly as soft. I've heard others suggest for too-soft fondant to mix in some Wilton fondant (which I've heard tastes much better now) to get the workability back into it. I'm going to pick some up this afternoon and have that on hand if I have to go that route. I know that will make my hot pink less intense though. Do any of you know if I could thin some Wilton rose color with vodka and paint it onto the cake to get that hot pink color instead of mixing the color into the fondant to make it darker? I had considered that but didn't know if it would work.

Thanks again for the replies. I'll let you know how things turn out this afternoon when I try this again!

you could certainly try that but i'd wait until the fondant sets up quite a bit on the cake. i like the tylose idea as well. OR you could call it close and let the customer know. i actually have a part in my contract that every effort will be made to get as close as possible duplication of their cake colors and that i reserve the right to determine the quality of the color match.

have to make fushia myself for a cake next week and bought the spectrum fushia so hopefully it will go well. i don't want it to go purple on me but it's a pretty deep color that i am supposed to achieve but only for a ribbon border and not to cover the whole cake.

wishing you well for this afternoon!

I use SatinIce almost exclusively. I've found that PinkZiab's advice of coloring fondant with more fondant works way better than adding any type of coloring gel or liquid. The SI pink starts out as a hot pink. To achieve fuschia, I just knead in a little bit of SI purple.

Sorry to hear of the problems that you have had with this. Just want to offer my support. I can only imagine the stress. I just happened to read this to see what I could learn from the others. I do hope it all works out for you and PLEASE post a picture when your done. I am sure it will turn out great. Good luck.

So I came home this afternoon to try again. I picked up 2 pounds of pink pre-colored Duff fondant at Michael's on the way home. I mixed that with 4 pounds of the fondant I'd worked with last night. I rolled it out between two pieces of vinyl while holding my breath and praying.........

AND IT WORKED BEAUTIFULLY! Almost like what I'm used to with regular Satin Ice. It was a little stretchier, but it didn't tear or elephant skin on me. The color is actually better now too. Thanks to all of you again for coming to my rescue. I'll post pictures soon of the cake after it's assembled.

Yay, that's such good news!! Can't wait to see a pic!

whoohoo!! so glad it all worked out for you

Just checked in to see if you solved your problem. Glad to hear that you found a solution.

As promised, here is a picture of the finished cake from this weekend's wedding. Of course, I can point out every single little flaw, but overall I am pleased with it - especially considering the nightmare I had with the fondant originally.

Thanks to all of you for your help on this one!

I feel your pain. SI has been gibving me fits lately. I just got my 20 pound tub of white and it is cracking and pulling like crazy. Your cake turned out fantastic. Glad you were able to keep your cool and pull it off without the bride knowing any difference.

Bravo!! Cake came out great!

congratulations on your beautiful cake!!