Fondant Tricks? HELP!

I am a cake decorator and have done several cakes with fondant... the fondant decorations... flowers, bows, etc.. need to be made well in advance and dried till they are BONE DRY or they will sag and droop. Shape the bow around the handle of a spoon and place in a muffin cup to dry. You can place daisy flowers in muffin cups too to keep their 3D shape. Flatter flowers can lay flat on a cookie sheet and just dry for probably a week. Use a drier fondant when making flowers and decorations. You may want to try something smaller for a first cake because it sounds easy until you get into it and then it can get a bit tricky and time consuming, not to say you can't do it but you may run out of time and be disappointed with the results. I made a really cute girly birthday cake/cakes for my friends little girl, it was 3 cakes but in her case could be 2 and I mad them in a rounded bottom pan that looked like a hat when it was flipped over. Cut the top off the cake after it bakes and flip out onto a cake board, the cake board acts as the rim of the hat. I tinted the icing to pinks, different shades for each cake, and then used custom M&M's in brown and black, so that it looked like a polka dotted hat. tie a real ribbon around the bottom with a nice, REAL bow, and put fresh flowers around the base of the "hats" and they were elegant and VERY girly. She had a tea party and all the little girls wore hats... might be an idea to solve the bow problem, if you want more ideas, I have lots. I may even have a pic of that cake somewhere on my computer if you are interested, I will have to look, its been a while.

S..

Ok, I have been there too! I made a HUGE "Cars" cake for my son's 3rd birthday in August with homemade marshmallow fondant and it was pretty tough. I have been told that for a first time fondant user, the Wilton stuff you can buy is the best to use (even though it doesn't taste very good). Sometimes, the reason the homemade stuff is breaking is because it is too dry. It needs to be able to stretch. Anyhow, if I were going to do it again, I would buy the Wilton ready made fondant and put lots of good buttercream under it so people don't have to eat it if they don't want to. Sounds like you have at least given yourself enough prep time--at least her birthday party isn't tomorrow or some nightmare like that :). Also remember--she is 2!!! Whatever you do, she will think it is great and then everyone will EAT the cake. Chalk up the mistakes to getting experience and move on. This experience will help you make a super dynamite cake when she is 7 or something. That is when she will really start to care. Good luck!

I tried this for the first time not to long ago... I had to let the bow harden over night on some wax paper. It wasn't comletely stiff but it kept its shape WAY better than the day before. Polkadots can be fun too if you are looking for something easier. The best way to attach them is with a little bit of royal icing as glue! Good Luck!!!

Make the bow, stuff the loops with paper toweling and let dry overnight. You can also make curly-q ribbons by twisting the fondant around a pencil and letting it dry.
Try looking on wilton.com for some more ideas and tips.
Good luck!

http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=7&... This is a great recipe and it works very well. It is like playing with dough but play a bit more gently than playdough. Make sure you use plenty of powdered sugar. You can read all the responses too to give you a lot of other ideas. I have never tried to do a bow. Only cover a cake so having a nice pliable fondant was just what I needed. I do usually make the cake a couple days in advance to allow enough time for it to harden. One of my favorite things to do is use the food color in the spray can. That way I can make plain white fondant and then just color it the way I want. Tomorrow I'll be making a 3D bulldog cake for my son's Young Marine unit boot camp graduation for this last group of recruits.

I've never worked with fondant, but Wilton is pretty much the definitive cake decorating company and this is their page on fondant decorating with basics, tips, recipes, etc..

http://www.wilton.com/decorating/fondant/

Hope you can find something to help you!

Is it home-made or store-bought fondant?

I usually work with home-made, and if it is too soft, I just knead in some powdered sugar until it is workable.

In my experience, store-bought usually has more problems with being too stiff and needing to be softened before it works properly.

Good luck!

Hi M.,

Fondant really can be easy, but like anything else, needs practice. Wilton has tons of great ideas and helps. Here is a link for bow making help. http://search.wilton.com/?q=making+bows

Also, are you using homemade or store bought. I have used both. I hated my homemade. I thought it was just too hard to work with and too soft. Store bought is stiff and will take lots of kneading, but I felt it works much better. Also, have you considered taste? It is not the best tasting stuff. I say this not to discourage you, but to inform you. Make sure you frost plenty underneath it so it can be pealed off and the kids will still have frosting on their piece of cake.

don't get discouraged, just try again. Good luck.

M.

Hi M.,
If the fondant is too soft all you need to do is add a little powdered sugar to the mix. Put it on the counter like flour and roll it in. I have usually used already made fondant much easier to work with. It does take a while to dry. You can go on to Wilton.com and it has many tips and also easy ideas.
If you are unable to get the bow out of fondant you can just do it with icing and a number 47 tip. or you could ice the whole cake a tie a bow around it.

whatever you do it will be beautiful