Hi! My sister and I are making lego cakes for my nieces' birthday party. We're doing cupcakes also and want to do fondant legos as decorations. We bought some pre-made Wilton fondant to play with to figure it out. (I've never worked with fondant before! Only BC so far...)

After trial and error, we have some questions.

1. I read somewhere that when you roll out fondant, you should put cornstarch down to roll it on. But when we did that, there was white stuff all over the fondant. Is the cornstarch necessary? If so, how do you get the residue off the pieces?

2. We made the blocks and the round circles separate. What is the best way to attach the circles to the blocks? Buttercream? The package shows a bowl of water and a paintbrush. Will water make it stick together?

3. I know we need to make these ahead of time to let them dry out some. How long do they need to dry out? Do we just leave them out on the counter? We're in Texas and can easily get bugs if we leave food out, so we don't want to leave them overnight. What kind of container would be best to put them in? How far in advance can we make them if we still want them to be edible?

Thanks for any advice you can give!!!

[quote="shannon100"]Hi! My sister and I are making lego cakes for my nieces' birthday party. We're doing cupcakes also and want to do fondant legos as decorations. We bought some pre-made Wilton fondant to play with to figure it out. (I've never worked with fondant before! Only BC so far...)

After trial and error, we have some questions.

1. I read somewhere that when you roll out fondant, you should put cornstarch down to roll it on. But when we did that, there was white stuff all over the fondant. Is the cornstarch necessary? If so, how do you get the residue off the pieces?

I found this with fondant its a pain. I tape grease proof paper to y work top and roll on top of that which takes away the need for icing sugar or corn starch

2. We made the blocks and the round circles separate. What is the best way to attach the circles to the blocks? Buttercream? The package shows a bowl of water and a paintbrush. Will water make it stick together?

very tiny amount of water. BC can slide and look messy

3. I know we need to make these ahead of time to let them dry out some. How long do they need to dry out? Do we just leave them out on the counter? We're in Texas and can easily get bugs if we leave food out, so we don't want to leave them overnight. What kind of container would be best to put them in? How far in advance can we make them if we still want them to be edible?

put them in the fridge just sitting in a plate, the wont dry out well if they are in an air tight container
Thanks for any advice you can give!!![/quote


good luck

I use cornstarch all the time to roll out fondant - I think it works better than powdered sugar. I also roll on a clean vinyl tablecloth which helps. The cornstarch seems to brush off pretty easily with a dry pastry brush - once you have the fondant on the cake just use the dry pastry brush to brush off the cornstarch.

Good luck - I just did a legos cake last week and squares are a little harder to cover than circles with fondant, but I'm sure it will look great.

Hi there, use your cornstarch sparingly - a little bit goes a long way. I have found that only the bottom will have residue on it as the top gets brushed off with the rolling pin. You can always wipe it away with your finger.

You can attach the circles with a tiny amount of water - again a little goes a long way.

I always dry my fondant figures/pieces in the hot water cupboard/airing cupboard if you have one.

Good luck!!

Thanks, everyone! We're only making fondant legos. We're not covering the cakes.

How long in advance can we make them? After they are dried out in the fridge, how do we store them? Or should we make them just the day or 2 before the party and leave them in the fridge? Do we let them come to room temp before putting them on a BC swirl on a cupcake?

I wouldn't put them in the fridge to dry - your fridge has moisture to keep your food good - the moisture will not help the fondant to dry - just leave the fondant legos on the counter, or in a cake box (which will absorb moisture and not trap it). Make them a day or two ahead before putting them on a cupcake, yes.

edited to say that if you put them in the fridge, they will sweat as they come to room temperature, making them even more sticky and the color will weep onto the buttercream. Also - you can make them more than a day or two ahead - I make my fondant accents a week or more in advance. They're "edible", but no one really eats them - the texture of a mouthful of fondant lego to chew would be pretty bad IMO.

if you are working with strongly coloured sugarpaste you can use trex instead of icing sugar (I think you all it powdered sugar) to roll out on. I would not recommend that you use cornstarch at all. and certainly you should NEVER have cornstarch anywhere near marzipan (i know that you are not suing it, but its good to get into good habits early on)

if you grease your rolling board so that you can see the grease but its not too heavily covered. you rub a small amount on your rolling pin and then roll out as normal ( just hink of rolling out pastry).

NEVER put Fondant into the Fridge - it will just go into a soggy mess.

If you want an easy way to make fondant lego's go to Michael's and purchase a box of Amazing Mold Putty using the 40% off coupon of course. Take a real lego and make a mold. I have used it to make broaches and oak bark for cakes. Then I have a permanent mold to use later on. I love this product it is so much fun to work with. If you want the fondant to dry faster just knead in some Tylose.