I read a lot of CC posts in the summer and fall about product problems with SI. I haven't seen any posts for a while. I just covered a cake with it, and I had a terrible problem with it tearing. I've never had this problem before. It is possible that I got a bad batch from this summer. I only see a "sell by" date on the pail, and so I don't know when this batch was made. Has anyone else encountered problems with SI recently?

Yup. I switched to Fondarific, and I never looked back!!!

I have never had the problems that others report. I roll it out on a veg shortening filmed surface and keep it about 1/4" thick.

I use SI too, never had any problems expect a couple of times when the weather is really really hot & humid as in the gulf .

Judith

Any chance, was the color blue? I never have trouble with theirs, but this past weekend after fighting and fighting I just trashed about 2 pounds of blue fondant and started again.
I keep thinking it must have been something I did though. I started with their blue and kept darkening it until it was the needed color. I used so much color and shortening that I added tylose. Got very frustrated and thought maybe I should just let it rest over night. It didn't really come together the next day with kneading. It just looked horribly dry. I just am not used to that. Could it just be winter? My skin is dry, so why not the fondant? Used a little of it, but finally had to trash it and just start again. I haven't had the same trouble with the white or other colors.
Is there a trick I don't know?

tylose would dry it out more. I always use a little shortening, and I haven't had any problems with it! I personally love the SI

I had problem covering my cake with my white SI last week. I spent so much time conditioning and kneading the fondant, the fondant was still dry and tearing at the cake edge. I also had elephant skin problem.... I thought I was working too slow but I didn't remember I had this kind of problem before. I only had problem with Wilton fondant before. Not sure what's happening to SI fondant now...