I am trying to cover small cube shaped Styrofoam dummies for a fake cake that I am doing and I am being plagued by air bubbles! This has never happened to me before! EVER! I'm at a loss, I have spent hours smoothing and re-smoothing, they'll look great, I'll come back a half an hour later and they're back! What can I do? These have to be glass smooth!

What are you covering the dummies with? (BC, RI, PermaIce, fondant?)

I'm covering them with fondant, FondX to be specific. I just woke up this morning and the bubbles have gotten even worse! AUGH!

What did you use under the fondant to get it to stick? Did you grease them up with shortening?

Yep, slathered them up with Crisco. I have covered dummies before...this is the first time this has ever happened! I always smear crisco all over the dummies and then apply my fondant just like I would on a cake, smooth and then done. But this time, they'll look smooth, I'll walk away and when I come back to them, air bubbles! I don't know what to do and these have to be perfect and I'm having them photographed on Monday!

If you are getting bubbles under the fondant, perhaps you can pop them with a needle and work the bubble out by resmoothing or wait for the air to escape as it dries and shrinks up.

If your fondant surface is covered with tiny bubbles, you may need to consider making a new batch. In this case, it might show in the photographs and need to be redone... in the first case, I doubt it would show.

What would happen if you let them sit....then poked all the air bubbles out and smoothed....and once you were sure it was perfectly smooth (except pinholes) maybe try slightly dampening it and then covering again a second time? Sounds like somehow your styrofoam is "airy"....? and air is coming out that way. Maybe if you can seal off the styrofoam with a thin layer of fondant, you'll be able to successfully cover it a second time....?

That....or do a nice thick coating of crisco and actually "ice" it like a real cake, only using the crisco and of course a little less...? Maybe even chill before covering, like a real cake, to make it firm?

Thanks for all the advice...I ended up using a pin to deflate the largest bubbles, I'm making sure that no more pop up and I'm just going to put another layer of fondant on. I hate the waste, but it needs to be perfect. Darn Michael's styrofoam...lesson learned, I'll never buy from there again. Thanks again, you guys are awesome.