Help with fondant icing

angelbaby69nz, Nov 7, 12:05am
Im jsut starting out baking and making stuff and have started experimenting with fondont icing, i find when i tint it the colour i want, make the shape, stick it on etc etc...by the morning, the icing has gone wet/sticky and limp...how does one prevent this from happening? cheers.

kiwitrish, Nov 7, 12:10am
Cake decorator here. Are you making decorations (flowers etc) out of fondant?If so they will not harden.You need to use flower paste, which you can get from any cake decorating shop.This product sets hard.Feel free to ask any questions.

rosathemad, Nov 7, 12:10am
What sort of colour are you using? It's best to use gel colour (which you can buy here, or online or at specialist cake decorating stores) rather than the liquid from the supermarket. The gel is quite concentrated and won't change the consistency of the icing so much.

It can also be very difficult to get deep colours - you can buy pre-coloured icing and chocolate icing and if you want red, black or brown I would recommend doing that.

Also, are you storing it somewhere dry? Depending on what you're making sometimes it can be best to make the decorations and let them dry before using them - and the fridge is not generally very friendly to fondant. :-) Hope this helps!

badams1, Nov 7, 1:53am
kiwitrish,do you have a easy recipe,for fondant icing pleasefondant to cover xmas cake

kiwitrish, Nov 7, 2:12am
All the cake decorators I know prefer and use Bakels fondant.It's about $4-00 something for 500g. I buy mine in large boxes from Gillmours. You can get it in Wollies/Countdown and in some Pak n Save stores and also cake decorating shops but it's much more expensive there.

angelbaby69nz, Nov 7, 9:16am
Yes this is the fondont i use, i generally use food colouring to tint it with..is this wrong?

If i leae it to dry, how long does it take? do i leave it in an air tight container? bake it...lols, i really do suck at this ...lols

kiwitrish, Nov 7, 9:42pm
What type of colouring are you using.I hope it's not the ones in the bottle from the supermarket..You need to use a gel or powder colouring (powder colouring I mix with a little cremelta and then knead into the fondant).If you colour your fondant, wrap it well to keep out the air, or it will go hard, and then leave it overnight the colour develops better. I just put my iced cake under a domed fly screen and leave on the table.

angelbaby69nz, Nov 11, 11:28pm
GREAT! thanks for that! :D

angelbaby69nz, Dec 14, 8:27pm
I tried a little gel colour mixed into the bakels fondont, developed over night, i made the shapes, dried over night, then used to deocrate buttercream frosted cupcakes... they still went soggy, so i think my problem is i should be making shapes from the flower paste??im just making hearts and butterflys with a little cutter..

kiwitrish, Dec 14, 10:29pm
I would use flower paste everytime.It sets hard if you keep it out of the fridge.I always make mini Christmas pud truffles, decorated with white fondant, which I used a dasy cutter and placed over the top of the truffle, then added three cut out holly leaves and three red berries (all made out of flower paste).Keep in a cool place but not the fridge.Best of luck.

tortenz, Dec 15, 4:36am
Fondant decorations tend to go soggy when places on buttercream.Fine if they're on the cupcakes flat, not good if you want them to sit up.I tend to dry my fondant decorations for about 3 days or so, just to be sure they're all dried out.

You can buy Gum-Tex or similar, people who stock cake decorating supplies will have it (I have a couple left in stock atm).It's just a powder you knead into the fondant, which makes it the equivalent of gumpaste.You can just make gumpaste out of it too, but easier just to use fondant.

guest, Jan 18, 6:56pm
would you all recommend using this flower paste, gum-tex to my fondant if im making a dolls dress for a 3D doll cake or will i be ok with just using a fondant itself?