MM (Marshmallow) Fondant Icing Recipe:

Ingredients:

16 ounces white mini-marshmallows (use a good quality brand)
2 to 5 tablespoons water
2 pounds icing sugar (please use C&H Cane Powdered Sugar for the best results)
1/2 cup Crisco shortening (you will be digging into it so place in a very easily accessed bowl)

Directions:

NOTE: Please be careful, this first stage can get hot.

Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave or double boiler. To microwave, place the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted. It usually takes about 2 1/2 minutes total.

Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix.

Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY (palms, backs, and in between fingers), then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle. (By the way, this recipe is also good for your hands. When I am done, they are baby soft.)

Start kneading like you would bread dough. You will immediately see why you have greased your hands. If you have children in the room they will either laugh at you or look at you with a questioning expression. You might even hear a muttered, What are you doing Keep kneading, this stuff is sticky at this stage! Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking.

If the mix is tearing easily, it is to dry, so add water (about 1/2 tablespoon at a time and then knead it in). It usually takes me about 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake. It is best if you can let it sit, double wrapped, overnight (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see them, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water.

Prepare the fondant icing for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic-type wrap product and then put it in a re-sealable or Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible. MM Fondant icing will hold very well in the refrigerator for weeks. If I know that I have a cake to decorate, I usually make two (2) batches on a free night during the week so it is ready when I need it. Take advantage of the fact that this fondant icing can be prepared well in advance.

Now it’s time to start. Your cake should be baked, and completely cooled. If you have a shaped cake, you can trim it now and then place the cake on a prepared cake board. In other words, you are assembling the cake puzzle on the board. You can also place the cake on the board first and then trim (you must be extra careful not to damage the covered board). I personally find that shaping first is the easiest and then transferring the cake.

Give the top and sides of the cake a nice thick 1/4-inch coating of Buttercream Icing (click on the underlined for buttercream icing recipe). NOTE: At first I was wondering why I needed to bother with this step. Well, there are a couple of reasons: The buttercream icing helps the fondant icing to “stick” to the cake and this cushion of undercoating icing helps to give you the beautiful smooth nearly perfect finish that you are looking for.

When you are ready to use the rested fondant icing, the first thing you need to do is decide what size you will need to roll your icing to.

Next, you need to sprinkle a bit of cornstarch on your counter to help prevent sticking (rub it in). Crisco coating. It will be pretty stiff when you try to knead it again, but it can be micro waved for 10 to 20 seconds, if necessary. Start off with 10 seconds (please be careful as items that have high sugar contents can get hot in the microwave very quickly). The fondant icing will soften right up and be perfect for rolling out and playing with. You want the temperature to be close to your body temperature.

Now is the best time to add your food coloring. I prefer to store my fondant icing in it’s natural color of white. Some colors can change the consistency of the icing. If you do need to store colored fondant icing, wrap each color very well in plastic wrap or Saran Wrap. Colors like red and burgundy are notorious for “bleeding” into other colors and ruining them. It’s better to be safe than sorry! Bag everything in Ziploc bags. Remember that food coloring can also stain your hands and nails. I have food-grade plastic gloves that I keep around. Add your food coloring, a little at a time, and knead it in. You can always go darker but it is difficult to go lighter. Red has a tendency to get darker as it sits and “ages”.

Pre-shape your icing into approximately the shape of your cake. For a round cake, make a disk shape. For a rectangular make a log shape. 

OK, here is a point of controversy about the next step. Some instructors tell you to only sprinkle cornstarch on your counter before you put the fondant icing down, sprinkle with more corn starch, and then roll fondant icing out to desired shape. Some teachers advise that you grease the counter, put the fondant icing down, and lightly grease the top of the fondant icing as need to prevent sticking.

I prefer the cornstarch myself, but during very dry atmospheric conditions, I have been known to use the shortening method. The grease will help to hold in the moisture and keeps the fondant icing pliable. If necessary, add drops of water and knead it in thoroughly before proceeding. You will need to try out both ways in the future and decide what you like the most. A third alternative is a large-sized Roulpat Mat (31 x 23 inches). It really does work well and it can also help you with moving a large piece of rolled out fondant. I’ve never done it, but I was told that you just gently bend the mat edges downward with the icing still on it. Place the edge of mat and the icing next to the edge of the butter-creamed cake and flip the fondant icing over the cake. What was the top of the fondant icing that you rolled out, is now touching the buttercream and what was the bottom side is now the topside that you see.

Most folks do not have a nonstick rolling pin, but if you do, now is the time to use it. If not, lightly rub cornstarch on the surface of the rolling pin and roll out to the desired size. I like to roll my icing at least 1/8-inch thick. It’s thick enough for ease of handling and strength integrity. I wouldn’t go any thinner than 1/8-inch for the cake covering. When I’m making decorations with the fondant icing, I will sometimes roll it thinner. The MM Fondant icing is very forgiving and rarely tears but everything has it limits.

The technique that I use is to gently roll the icing on the nonstick rolling pin like a piece of fabric. DO NOT FOLD! An edge will be hanging down.

Quickly place the fondant icing at one bottom edge of the cake and unroll the rolling pin, holding it about 2 inches over the cake. Your fondant icing will then “fall” into place. You should also have a bit of overhang over the edges. You might need a little cornstarch at this stage, but only use it very sparingly if you have a dark colored icing. I very lightly sprinkle the cornstarch over the surface and use a buffing motion with my hand to move it around and to level the surface. This motion seals the fondant icing to the buttercream, works out the bumps in the icing below the surface, and removes flaws from the joined areas in the cakes surface below. Please use a VERY gentle pressure to rub the surface of the icing. I often have a little pile of the cornstarch on the counter and dip my hands in it as needed. 

Here is an important tip: Watch out for your fingernails as long nails can mark up your surface quickly and it is very difficult to smooth them back out.

If you notice a bubble in the surface, take a thin sharp needle and poke a tiny hole, at an angle, in the bubble. If you poke straight down, you can almost always see the hole even after the most careful smoothing. The angled hole lets the air out of the bubble, and with a tiny bit of rubbing you can reseal the hole.

I keep a clean, soft pastry brush close by, to move the cornstarch around. Do this lightly or you can leave brush marks on the surface that are almost impossible to remove. A number of companies make Fondant Smoothers for around $10. I have one, but I’ve used it only once and I’ve used my hands ever since. For me, it is easier and quicker. If you don’t handle the smoother correctly, you can damage the fondant’s finish.

Gently, with the side of your hand, push the fondant into the sides of the cake against the cake board.

To trim the excess fondant icing, you can use a sharp knife. I find that the easiest and neatest way is to use a Pizza Cutter. Hold it at a 45 degree angle from the cake board and the side of the cake. Go slow and follow the shape of the cake. If you hold the cutter at the correct angle, you will have an almost perfect bottom edge. Gently, with your finger tips, push any little leftovers in against the cake for the neatest appearance. If the edge isn’t as nice as you want, you can always add a fondant rope or pearls. Buttercream shells, stars, or flowers look wonderful also.

If your cake needs a bit of shaping, do it now. I used the outside edge of my hand to make the indents to define certain areas of the cake.

Well, you have finished the covering of your cake.

Many professional decorators feel that a fondant covered cake will hold the moisture in the cake for 3 to 5 days, depending on your atmosphere. I personally don’t want to go beyond 3 days. I like the cake to have a fresh taste.

Do not refrigerate your covered cake! When you take the cake out of the refrigerator, moisture will condense and destroy your beautiful surface. Your best option is to store the cake in a sealed bakery box. The cardboard sides of a box will keep the dust in the air off the cake, but allows the Fondant to breath.

IMPORTANT:  Refrigerating and Freezing Fondant Covered Cake:

QUESTION:

I wonder if you could leave in the refrigerator a rolled fondant covered cake, and how you have to do it. I did once and the cake came out with something like little water spots over the fondant, but I have a friend who says that she always put the cake in the ice box even with fondant in

ANSWER:

Refrigerating: First I need to say that fondant dough (before it is placed on the cake) can and should be refrigerated. After it is on the cake I do not suggest that you refrigerate it. 

You should not refrigerate a fondant covered cake. The condensation that can occur when you defrost or bring to room temperature can destroy the finish of the fondant. Yes, you are right about the water spots that is caused by condensation.  Leave a cold glass of water on the counter and the surface of the glass will get the same kind of water spots.  Water condensation.  It is a physics issue. 

Your friend has been lucky about putting the cake in the refrigerator. Someday probably when it is most important the cake will get spots.  If you live in a humid region your problem can even be greater and you can have drip line and puddles on the cake plate.

I do not guarantee this next technique.  This is a trick you can use IF YOU MUST!  

If the cake has been refrigerated, put the cake in a cardboard box (not a cake box) while it is coming to room temperature. The cardboard collects the atmospheric moisture and helps to protect the fondants surface. 

Freezing: Fondant does not freeze well at all, as a matter of fact, downright lousy! The condensation that can occur when you defrost or bring to room temp can destroy the finish of the fondant.

Now, if you are going to freeze the cake, as many folks do until the first anniversary, yes go ahead and freeze. The cake will not look as beautiful as it did originally but you just have to keep the idea in mind that it was perfect on the day of the wedding.

QUESTION:
I just read your recipe for marshmallow fondant and your instructions are so super detailed - thank you for those!  I’m just wondering about this last note on the site - Do not refrigerate your covered cake! When you take the cake out of the refrigerator, moisture will condense and destroy your beautiful surface. Your best option is to store the cake in a sealed bakery box. The cardboard sides of a box will keep the dust in the air off the cake, but allows the Fondant to breath.

Now, I made a cake with Wilton's fondant and it sat in my refridgerator for about an hour or so before I took it out to transport it to its destination. It sat in the fridge for about another three hours or so. I did not have this condensation problem. So my question is, is that because I used Wilton's fondant or because it was in the fridge very briefly? I’m afraid with the heat and humidity in Toronto at the moment. If I leave the cake out for 24 hours before I have to move it to its destination, that the buttercream beneath the MM fondant might melt or that the marshmallow fondant decorations might melt.

Also, if the finished cake is left out, won’t the MM fondant harden to be rock solid so that cutting in to the cake will be an issue, or does it remain soft?

ANSWER:
I believe that the reason you didn’t have problems the Wilton’s Fondant was because the cake was in the refrigerator briefly. ALSO, Wilton’s makes their fondant with many preservatives and chemicals that help combat user problems. Wilton’s is a company that makes many items that are as mistake proof as they can possibly be. They cater to the non professional bakers. They also do everything they can do, so that the beginner decorator will be successful, come back, buy more of their products and try baking another cake. I use many of their items and I’m very thankful for the wide variety of products, I however don’t care for their fondant texture or flavor at all.

QUESTION:
I’m afraid with the heat and humidity in Toronto at the moment. that if I leave the cake out for 24 hours before I have to move it to its destination, that the Buttercream beneath the MM fondant might melt or that the marshmallow fondant decorations might melt.

ANSWER:
If you are baking in excessive heat, you will probably need to use a Buttercream with a higher Crisco content.  The MM fondant decorations such as roses might go limp in excessive humidity.  They will firm up again if put in a dryer place though.

QUESTION:
Also, if the finished cake is left out, won’t the MM fondant harden to be rock solid so that cutting in to the cake will be an issue, or does it remain soft?

ANSWER:
Out of curiosity, I did an experiment. I baked a white cake, covered with buttercream and then covered with the MMF. Then I set it on the kitchen counter, uncovered.  After 3 days, the outside of fondant was firm and slightly crusted over. The inside of the fondant was still moist.  After 5 days, the fondant was a bit more crusted still the same inside, as the 3^rd day.  I didn’t take it any farther, since I would never let a cake sit on the counter, uncovered, I was pleased with the results. 

Since your weather is different than ours in Idaho, why don’t you do a trial run as see what the results would be.  If you are planning to try the MMF on a wedding cake, I would definitely do a syrup wash between the layers.  That way your cake will stay very moist for the few days you might need to do the decorations.

QUESTION:
About the cake, one is a birthday cake, the other a bridal shower cake. The birthday cake I made last week which I was referring to below, was a big hit looks-wise, but as you said, the fondant was largely left uneaten which was disappointing considering its cost and the effort and time it took to make it look good on the cake.

ANSWER:
Icing scooted off the cake and left on the plate. That is the result most of the time for everyone. You are right, Wilton is expensive and I think a bit difficult to work with.

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QUESTION - Freezing Cakes with MM Fondant:
I have been reading about your MM fondant and it sounds like it is great.  Can I freeze the cakes after the fondant is on them?   Or just freeze them before with the buttercream icing on them.  The reason I ask is that I am making the wedding cake for my sons wedding and I certainly don't want to mess it up.  (Of course if I didn't want to mess it up I should have told him NO when he asked me to make it).  It's been a few years since I have done this, but your instructions make it sound fail safe.

ANSWER:
Please don’t freeze a cake that has fondant on it. When the cake starts to come to room temperature there most likely will be condensation and this ruins the surface appearance of the fondant. Your best option is to store the cake on your counter, in a sealed bakery box. The cardboard sides of a box will keep the dust in the air off the cake, but allows the Fondant to breath.

Here is a trick to keeping your cake moist and delicious. Use a wash on the inside cake layers before putting on the filling. You can use Simple Syrup or a flavored Simple Syrup depending on your cake flavors.  An example would be a white cake with a raspberry filling. I’d use a lemon flavored syrup. Brush it on the slit cake layer, apply the raspberry filling, put the top layer on and then do your icing. For a 12 inch cake, I’d use about a 1/3 cup of the syrup. 

Remember to have fun with your baking and send a picture of your creation. 

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QUESTION - What is MM Fondant: 
What is MM fondant and is there a recipe? Thanks

ANSWER:
MM Fondant is a fondant type icing that is easily made at home. The ingredients are few and accessible in any local grocery market. The primary ingredients are Marshmallows and powdered sugar. True fondant is quite difficult to make and expensive because of the time to make it and the ingredients that are needed. Most folks purchase a premade true fondant.
A recipe and instructions can be found at this link on What's Cooking America web site:  http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm

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QUESTION- MM Fondant Quantity:
How much icing does your MMF recipe yield?

ANSWER:
The MM fondant makes close to 5 pounds of fondant. I would say that this amount would cover a 2-layer 6 inch, 8 inch, and 10-inch round tier cake.

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QUESTION - Coloring Fondant:
I am a new with fondant decorating. The first fondant cake I made, came out great. I used white fondant and did different colors of hearts with the cut outs and decorated my 3-year old's birthday cake. Then for Valentines day, I tried to make 6-inch heart cakes for my kids teachers and that did not go so well. At first I thought it was because I used cheap marshmallows. Then I used Kraft marshmallows and added the coloring to the melted marshmallows (I used the wiltons gel). I got the same result - it was really soft and slimey and wouldn't get firm.  When I put it on the cake, it would tear. Then it dawned on me that it was the coloring. I even added it after it was hard and kneaded it to get the color, but then it just turned into slimey yuck. Do you have any tips you can give me to get better success in coloring my fondant? Thanks so much for your time and help.

ANSWER: 
It sounds like you had too much water in the recipe and not enough Crisco. That water can cause a slimy feel.  If you get this problem again, add more powdered sugar to correct the wetness issue and then add more Crisco to help with the stretch issue. Do these steps one at a time - NOT at the same time. You are trying to correct a food chemistry problem here and need to do the steps individually.

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QUESTION - Fondant Sugar: 
I have some fondant sugar. I don't know what this is used for. I found fondant recipes and they don't ask for fondant sugar. do you have any recipes this is used for?

ANSWER:
Fondant Sugar is an extremely finely ground sugar (quite a bit finer than the powdered sugar you find at the grocery store).  Some of the companies also put a trace of egg white powder in the mixture.

The finer ground sugar makes your mixing much easier. The fondant sugar mixes together better so that you have a better end product. This type of fondant is typically used for a liquid icing that can be poured over Petit Fours. The trace of egg white in the fondant sugar makes it a smoother flowing fondant. 

Remember the better the ingredients in the icing, the better the taste and the silkier the look of the Petit Four Icing!

Dry Fondant is also used as a filling for candies.  I have not gotten into the world of candy making so I have very little knowledge about Fondant’s use in this medium.

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QUESTION - Dissolving Sugar in MM Fondant: 
First of all, I just wanted to say, that I have used the MM Fondant several times now, and it always turns out wonderfully - except for one thing. I always have little clumps of powdered sugar in my fondant that I can't get out! I've used the exact ingredients that your recipe states, and I have even tried sifting the powdered sugar beforehand, but still I get powdered sugar lumps. Can you help me?? Thank you so much.

ANSWER:
Have you tried letting the fondant sit overnight before using it on the Cake or Cookies? 

On your next batch try this. Prepare as usual, then, as a last step, add a few extra drops of water and completely knead it in. I have had to add up to a teaspoonful (but start small and add more as necessary). Double wrap the ball in a plastic wrap and put that in a zip lock type of bag.  Let the fondant sit on your counter or in the refrigerator at least overnight then knead again. 

When I have a fondant project going, I usually prepare all of the fondant the weekend before I will be using it. That way I don’t feel rushed on the decorating day. I’m sure that also helps with dissolving the tiny sugar pills that might remain from my preparation .

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QUESTION - Using A Stand Mixer: 
I was wondering if anyone could tell me the best type of mixer for making a batch of fondant. I've made it by hand before and it is not-an experience I want to duplicate! Just mixing in the coloring required splitting the batch into 6 smaller batches and kneading it back together until my hands dropped off.
What wattage would you recommend in a stand mixer? Is there any particular brand that gets a big thumbs-up from the chefs? I'd like to assume that any machine that can handle batches of whole-wheat bread could handle fondant, but I just can't be sure. Any information very appreciated!

ANSWER:
Lisa, the MM Fondant is different than making a full fledged fondant. It is soft, stretchable, and in my opinion easy to work with. It is messy though in the first stages.
But since you asked about using a mixer, I'm sorry, I can't help you because I never have used the mixer for this. I have a Kitchen Aid mixer but I've never make the fondant in it. I'm a hands on person. I think the Kitchen Aid could take it but I don't want to try to do the cleaning up. One of the cooking magazines recently did a machine test and the Kitchen Aid 5-quart got a very good rating. The 6-quart was below in the ratings. The other brands were rated even lower.
Another thought is bubbles. I want my fondant as smooth and bubble free as possible. The mixer might add in bubbles and ruin the texture.
Try making the MM fondant by hand once and see what you think. It's not hard.

COMMENT FROM A READER: 
I LOVE LOVE LOVE your recipe for marshmallow fondant.  I had taken a cake decorating class at Sur La Table and learned how to make fondant "the old fashioned" way.  \But your recipe is much easier and doesn't require ingredients I can't get at the grocery store. Most importantly, it tastes good!

One thing I did take away from the class, making the fondant in the mixer.  I saw on your site that you prefer to make the fondant with your hands, but I found it much easier to mix the fondant using the dough hook on my Kitchen Aid Artesian Mixer.  I simply grease up the mixer bowl with Crisco to prevent sticking, and go through the recipe as you wrote it.  The fondant is done in about 8 minutes and is soft, pliable and bubble-free.

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QUESTION - Metric Conversion for MM Fondant:
Hi, The MM fondant recipe is excellent ! I'm planning to make it to cover my cousins wedding cake this Saturday. The only problem I have is with quantities. In Canada, quantities are in kg, grams and cups. I am having a hard time with the fondant consistency because I don't really know how many MM are in the bag, and exactly how much sugar is needed (don't have a scale...)  Is it possible to have the quantities for the MM and the sugar in cups please?

ANSWER:
I can help you a bit with your problem of quantities:

A bag of Miniature Marshmallows are approximately 450 grams and a bag of Powdered Sugar is approximately 900 grams.
Try to find products in you markets that equal these proportions.
Notice that for 1 gram of marshmallows you use 2 grams of powdered sugar.
Trying to tell you how many cups to use is really a problem. If you just pack the powdered sugar in a cup it your have one weight. If it is
loosely packed you would have a completely different weight. That is why I weight everything when I bake from scratch.
I know that you don't have a scale, so try to use the 2 to 1 formula when you purchase the products. That will get you the closest to the original recipe and the best results in your end product.

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QUESTION - Sticky or Dry Fondant: 
I've never decorated with fondant before and I really wanted to try. So I just did for the first time, and I used your recipe. But it came out stiff. When I tried to put it on the cake, it cracked!!  I tried adding more water, but it didn't seem to do the trick. I was afraid of adding too much water. Can you please tell me what I'm doing wrong?

ANSWER:
If your fondant is too, dry you will need to add a little more water. When you see cracking in the dough, that is not a good sign so add a teaspoon of water, knead well, and add a few drops more water if you see more cracks and knead again.

If the dough is sticky, add Crisco to your hands and knead it into the dough.   

The first time you make the fondant, it will take a bit longer in the time area.  Once you get the feel for it, everything will go much faster and your comfort level will go up.

Make sure that the dough is very workable before you double wrap and store it. It will get better with sitting overnight but if it’s too dry to start with, it will not get moister.

Allow the dough to warm up to room temp if it was refrigerated before using. I usually put it in the microwave for 10 seconds just to speed up the process and make it easier to handle.  Be careful though, anything that comes out of the microwave can burn you.  Give the dough another bit of gentle kneading.  If you sense that there is a problem, to dry or sticky, correct it first before trying to apply it to the cake.

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QUESTION - Adding Flavoring: 
Thank you for a fun, extremely helpful and most pleasant website.  It's so encouraging and provides such clear and thorough guidance and direction, especially for a beginner like me. Your methods are so practical, cost-effective and, what you say is so easy to apply to real life situations. Wow, what a find!

My question:  To add the almond flavor extract to the regular marshmallow fondant recipe, when is it added--as a replacement to part of the first two tablespoons that get micro waved with the marshmallows, or should it not be heated that way and added when kneading and adding the last part of the sugar?  I'm concerned about microwaving it. Thank you again!

ANSWER:
I add my flavoring when the fondant is cool. I often have to add a few drops of water to the mixed fondant because it is to stiff to work with easily.  That is when I add the almond extract, instead of the water.  I can’t see any problem with adding the extract sooner except that excess heat often will cause the extract to fade so you get less for your money.

Best of all, with the recipe, you can’t hardly do it wrong.  If you add it early or late you will get close to the same results. 

My confession.  I’ve have done it both ways.  One day I decided to make a couple of batches so I’d have them ready to go. I added the extract early before heating for the first batch because I was lazy. The second batch it was added late in the kneading because I forgot the extract and remembered it at the last minute.  So I added it, gave the MMF batch a quick knead, wrapped everything up and stored it in the refrigerator.  I didn’t sense any differences between the batches.

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QUESTION - Taste of Fondant: 
I just ordered a fondant covered birthday cake for my daughters first birthday. I read that different types of fondant are more edible. Should I ask the baker when I pick up the cake whether the fondant is edible or should be removed. Is this a legitimate question? Thanks in advance for your reply.

ANSWER:
All fondant is edible, it’s just that some have a much better taste and texture than others. There are a few brands that I dislike and a few that are a little better in taste. I vote for MM Fondant as the winner in flavor and texture. I don’t think that many professional bakeries use the MM Fondant though. You will most likely get a pre-made, classic version fondant. 

Please should serve your slices of cake with the icing on and let the folks will deal with it themselves. They can choose to eat everything or eat around the fondant.  It’s a matter of personal taste.

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QUESTION - Fondant Sticking:
I have a problem with fondant sticking to itself.  What do your do?  Is there a fondant adhesive? 

ANSWER:
I find that a drop of water and holding the spot for a few moments, does the trick.  Some folks make a simple syrup and paint the pieces with a brush. To me, simple is better.

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QUESTION - Perma Ice (Non Edible): 
I am starting a wedding rentals business. I would like to make a fondant wedding cake soon. It will be a fake cake. I have bought three different size styropfoam squares for the tiers. Once I cover them with fondant and decorate them, how do I preserve the cake?  I've heard there is a spray you can use to preserve the cake for ever, but I don't know what it is or where I can buy it. Any suggestions you can give me would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!!!!

ANSWER:
The product that I have heard of folks using is called Perma Ice. You can get it from SugarCraft.

Perma Ice - NOT EDIBLE Used for display cakes, wash off when dirty - you don't need nearly as much of this as you would icing... just so it covers the dummy completely with no 'bumps' showing from the styrofoam. Stir before using or if it has set for a long time. To thicken, add cornstarch. To thin it, add water.

Perma Ice gallon #35-501 $47.25 - Acrylic non edible Color 6-pc set - Used to color Perma Ice - this is NOT food coloring. You cannot color Perma ice with food coloring. Includes red, pink, blue, green, yellow and brown (from these you can combine to make more colors) #35-550 $13.50

I haven’t heard of a spray to preserve the fondant.  Most of the ladies that I know either put the cakes in glass enclosures to keep the dust and fingers off, or just show their work with pictures.

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QUESTION - Using Whipped Cream: 
My daughter and I just opened a small home bakery and fell in love with marshmallow fondant covered cakes. My buttercream frosting includes Crisco, butter, and whipped cream. Is the whipped cream addition okay for the fondant covered cakes since they have to kept at room temperature?

ANSWER:
Instead of using whipped cream, consider using water. That would extend the safety of the buttercream that is sitting at room temperature.

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QUESTION - Fondant Spreading: 
I am in the process of making a trial cake using the MM fondant for the first time; actually using fondant for the first time in general. I find my MM fondant spreads. I set it on the counter in a ball and when I came back a minute or so later, the fondant had spread out a lot. What have I done wrong?  I used the C&H sugar & Jet Puff marshmallows. Thanks for your help!

ANSWER:
My first thought is that the fondant is too moist. Try adding about ½ cup of powdered sugar to the batch and knead in thoroughly. The atmosphere in your neighborhood can be the reason that you need less water in the recipe than I do because I live in the high desert.

A couple of other things can cause the problem, the room is very warm or too much Crisco was used in the fondant.

• If the warm room is the problem then try taking a little hunk wrapping it in plastic wrap and putting it in the refrigerator for a while.  This would help you decide if that is the problem.

• If you think that you might have used too much shortening, again, try adding a little powdered sugar. 

It seems like with this recipe, you have only a few things that you need to try to correct problems, either add powdered sugar or add water. That is the blessing with the MM Fondant. It is so simple to correct and make useable again.

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QUESTION - Making Edible Flowers: 
I have just stumbled upon your website...wonderful!  I am thinking about beginning the art of cake decorating from my home and have no experience with fondant or gum paste...in fact before reading your questions and answers online I thought gum paste was edible....is there another medium I would find easy to use for edible flowers that yield the same beautiful result?  Also, would it compromise the integrity and taste of the cake if the cakes were baked a day or two ahead and then refrigerated/frozen before decorating? Looking for short cuts so that I don't have to do everything in the same day so any advice would be great.  Also, I went to the given link for your homemade fondant recipe that everyone is raving about but could not find it...is it possible to send it to me? Thanks so much and I personally appreciate the time and effort you are putting into helping beginners like myself. 

ANSWER:
Since you have multiple questions I’ll answer them below. First of all I need to say that I do not have a baking business but the best advice I can give you is that you check with your local city and county about you local laws concerning starting a business.  Some cities will close you down in a heartbeat if they find out you are preparing any type of food in your home kitchen for sale. Please protect yourself and know what you are dealing with before you invest time and money.

(1) I have just stumbled upon your website...wonderful!  I am thinking about beginning the art of cake decorating from my home and have no experience with fondant or gum paste...in fact before reading your questions and answers online I thought gum paste was edible....is there another medium I would find easy to use for edible flowers that yield the same beautiful result? 

Gumpaste creates the best results for flowers, and it’s also easy to work with.  The flowers are removed simply from the cake before eating.  One great thing about the gumpaste flower is that it can be created in white, months in advance, stored in a dry, room temperature, airtight box and then colored as needed.

You can also make flowers from fondant but it more difficult and fragile in my opinion.  You can, of course, make buttercream flowers.

(2) Also, would it compromise the integrity and taste of the cake if the cakes were baked a day or two ahead and then refrigerated/frozen before decorating?

If you are baking only a day or 2 in advance, you would not want to freeze your cake before decorating.  You would just get the layers frozen and then you would be taking them out of the freezer to defrost.  Way to much unnecessary work and you would actually be losing moisture in the whole process.

(3)  Looking for short cuts so that I don't have to do everything in the same day so any advice would be great.

A great starting book that I’d advise that you read from cover to cover, is “Sweet Celebrations” by Sylvia Weinstock.  She started up a business and combined recipes with the professional chefs and teachers that she worked and learned from.  She gives her history, recipes and many techniques for cake baking, decorating and gumpaste flower making.  It’s quality info, like you find in this book, that can help you make decisions in your baking life.  Also, remember that if you decide to go into the business, the purchase of a reference book is a tax write off.

(4)  Also, I went to the given link for your homemade fondant recipe that everyone is raving about but could not find it...is it possible to send it to me? 

Here is the link for the MM Fondant at What’s Cooking America:  http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm

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QUESTION - Coloring Fondant Icing:
I am making a three-tier wedding cake and I will be using fondant icing for some of the decorations. Two of the layers will be polka dots. I am just going to pipe the dots, but they will be three different shades of pink! So my questions is:  Can I use the same coloring for the fondant icing as I do the regular icing?  If so, how do I go about coloring the fondant icing?

ANSWER:
Yes, I suggest that you use a Pink Gel Food Color. Not the liquid drops that you get from the grocery store. If you use the Wilton Brand, use a toothpick to remove the color from the little jar.  Start with a little, mix and add more as needed.  Never re-dip the toothpick in the gel.  Tooth picks are cheap and since you are working with food, it is better to be safe than sorry. My favorite brand is AmeriColor, to me it is easier to use and less messy. AmeriColor Food Colorings are in a drop bottle.  I can repeat my quantities easier by measuring drops. I think your best bet would be to use only one shade of the Pink coloring and use different intensities of that color for your various tints.

Coloring the fondant icing - Put your fondant on your table/counter and smash it out a bit. Using a toothpick or the dropper bottle mentioned above, put a drop of AmeriColor or small glob of the Wilton color on the white fondant. I like to pull of a golf ball size of fondant and use that to smear the food coloring around on the fondant. Put the ball in the middle, fold the fondant over it and knead the big gob of fondant until all of the color is evenly mixed in. You might need to add a bit of shortening to your hands and counter to keep the fondant from sticking. If it is still too pale, use the same procedure to add in more color. Remember that it is easier to add color than take it out.  Start with small amounts of color and add more as you need to. 

QUESTION:
I have worked with the icing before but I have only used the pre-colored icing.  I have been reading the Q&A about fondant on this page and I noticed you talk about Wilton Fondant (which I am familiar with) and also MM Fondant? Where can I get that?

ANSWER:
You make the MM ( Marshmallow ) Fondant at home.  It is very easy to make, inexpensive and quite tasty. Here is a link to the recipe on “What’s Cooking America” site and more fondant information:  http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm

QUESTION:
How early in advance can I make the fondant icing?  Also in the directions, it says to coat it with Crisco and double wrap it, does that mean with saran wrap?
ANSWER:
I have made the colored fondant a week in advance with no problems. I coated it well with Crisco, wrapped it in a generous sheet of Saran Wrap and then put that in a Ziploc Bag.  I squeeze out as much air as possible. Store in the refrigerator for food safety.

When you want to use it, remove it from the refrigerator. You will find the ball is very hard. Unwrap the fondant and place it on a plate and microwave it for 10 seconds. Now be very careful, the fondant might be hot. Handle with caution.

Take the ball out and start to knead it. You might need to put it back in the microwave a few more times. Just make sure that you knead it well between each session in the microwave. If you feel the fondant needs a bit more moisture, only add a few of drops at a time and then kneed it well.  My favorite technique for adding water is to break the fondant ball into 2 parts. On one part, put a few of drops of water on it with your finger and smear it around.  Place the second part of the fondant on top of that and smash them together. Then, knead the ball to combine. 

The fondant works best if it is from room temperature up to body temperature. It should be pliable and stretchy.

Don’t forget, you might need to put a bit of Crisco on your hands.

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QUESTION - Pourable Fondant vs Rolled Fondant: 
I just discovered your website. It is wonderful!!! My kid sister is getting married in October and we are considering making individual cakes ourselves. I read some Q&A on pourable fondant (which seems easier to me than rolled) but I still have questions. Although it is beautiful, I understand that most fondant is pretty much inedible. Do you have a recipe for a porable, edible fondant? I see your MM recipe, but how do I make it good AND pourable?

I think it is just wonderful that you are sharing your passion with others, and guiding them through their learning process! Thank you.

ANSWER:
You have asked a good question. There are LOTS of recipes out there on the Internet for pourable fondant and they taste just fine. It is the rollable fondant that has the bad flavor reputation. I've never tried to make the MM Fondant in a pourable fashion but I think that heating the fondant, adding water to it, and stirring until you get the consistency that you want would work just fine. Then pour over the cakes.

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QUESTION - Quantity:
This is the first time I ever saw this sort of recipe for MM fondant!!  I am so excited to try it...This could save me lots of money and trouble!  I was curious as to how much this recipe makes.  I am making 100 mini cakes (2 ½ round, 2 high), and I wonder how many batches I will need? Thank you so much!!!  What a great idea this is!!!!

ANSWER:
Just to be sure, I always over make the fondant.  I would rather have leftover fondant than to little.  I’d make at least 4 batches, at about $5 a batch it’s not 2 expensive it you have “waste”. It stores very well for a at least 2 months if it is double wrapped and put in a Ziplock type of bag and then refrigerated.

FEEDBACK:
Using a golf ball sized piece of fondant, I was able to cover approximately 44 tea cakes that were approximately cupcake size.  I used the Reynold's wrap cupcake tins that are shaped like hearts that you fill and sit on a cookie sheet.

All I did was bake the cupcakes with a piece of parchment paper inside on the bottom of the tin.  When they were cooled, I turned them upside down, removed the parchment paper and put them on a doily, top side down so I would have a flat bottom surface.  Then I crumb coated the cupcake and rolled out the fondant.  I laid the fondant over the cupcake and molded it.  When all the cupcakes were covered I put a couple of rose buds on top and dots on the sides.  I used 4 different flavors so i coordinated the rose buds so I could tell which flavor was which.  It turned out really well.

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QUESTION - Chocolate MM Fondant: 
I was thinking of making a birthday cake for my party and I was wondering. Is there a way I can make chocolate fondant icing?

ANSWER:
Following are the ingredients additions for making the Chocolate Fondant version:

Chocolate MM Fondant

MM (Marshmallow) Fondant (click on the underlined for the recipe)
Add:
1 ounce melted quality chocolate
1 tablespoon cocoa powder for Chocolate Fondant

NOTE:  I found that if you add the melted chocolate to the melted MM Fondant it mixes up easier. Then add the cocoa powder in when you add in the powdered sugar.

QUESTION: 
Would you please tell me which MMF recipe will this addition work with? Also, I have an even bigger problem with icing smooth my cakes.  I have been using the Wilton Class Buttercream for the last couple of years, and I still can not get a perfectly smooth surface. I am using it at a very thin consistency, with the icer tip and the wide large spatula dipped in hot water after every couple of strokes. I also tried the painters plastic masker thingy and the Viva paper towels and parchment paper. 

None of these things work (and on top of all the practice).  What I like about this particular icing is its convenience (being a non-dairy product) and everybody enjoys the taste.  However, I am at the point of desperation! Could you please help me?  Once again I will greatly appreciate it!

ANSWER:
Use the recipe on Linda Stradley's web page: http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm

I’m afraid that one of the tricks is “Practice, Practice, and Practice."  I personally avoid the hot knife trick.  Once you melt the butter, you don’t get a second chance.  For an old pro, this trick is not a problem.  They do a great job on the first attempt.  You and I need a few more passes to get the icing where we want it to be. 

I have the best results with the parchment paper technique after the icing has crusted for at least 20 minutes, if the weather is DRY.  High humidity makes icing much more difficult and there are definitely Bad Buttercream Days.

OK, I have honest and blunt questions here.  Are you a perfectionist?  It’s very good to want to put out a wonderfully decorated product but are you pushing yourself to a point that decorating is not fun?  Remember that you are working in a medium that will be eaten.  Most of the folks at a gathering will look at a cake, Ooh and Awe a little bit, then they want to know when you will be cutting a cake so they can get a slice or two. 

Here is one trick that I have.  When you have a spot on the cake that you’re not satisfied with, put a bit of decorating on it.  That covers the area that you consider a proble

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I just had to write you to let you know how talented I think you are.  I am new to cake decorating and I am making a wedding cake for my cousin in September.  As you can imagine, I'm very nervous.  But after reading some of your advice....especially about "no one makes a perfect cake"....I am feeling a little more confident.  I always pick at my cakes....I always seem to find something wrong with them and point it out to people.  But I just wanted to say thank you, Not everyone shares what they know.

Many new decorators are perfectionists and get wrapped up in that issue.

Cake Decoration

Fondant Varities:
Marshmallow Fondant (MMF) is used mostly to cover a cake as MMF does not do well in the Cricut Cake. However, others have found success by adding Tylose Powder to the mixture which stiffens the MMF as the fondant then becomes the consistency between fondant and gumpaste. It is best to make the fondant and let it rest for a few days prior to using MMF.
Wilton Fondant
You can enhance the flavor by adding butter flavor, clear vanilla extract or almond extract. You just knead it in like the coloring.
Speaking of coloring, I colored some purple yesterday with Wilton's violet gel icing color. Even though it's gel, and I didn't add much, it seemed the fondant became slightly stickier than I wanted (I was using just a small amount of fondant).
To fix the sticky situation, I brought out a package of confectioners sugar and dusted my rolling surface with that. No more stickiness, and it cut beautifully.
Is hard to roll and cover the cake. Therefore, add tylose powder/Gum-Tex or mix with Satin Ice.
Fondarific claims that you do not need as much fondant as other fondants.
Fondx can be colored with gel or paste color. Liquid air brush color is not recommended.
FondX can be flavored best with oil base candy flavoring.
FondX can be mixed with Sweet Inspiration White Chocolate Rolled Fondant for more supple white chocolate taste.
FondX works best with textured rolling pins and lace molds.
Boxed rolled fondant cake if need to be refrigerated, avoid moisture contact from open and shut refrigerator doors situation. Temperature different creates condensation inside refrigerator.
Add DRY Sweet Inspiration CMC and corn starch with FondX to make gum paste like.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What are the difference between FondX and other Brands?
Fondx is more forgiving rolled fondant. It is easier to knead, to roll out and no cracking when applied on the cake.
What is FondX made of?
FondX is made of powdered sugar, corn syrup, assorted gums, shortening, vanilla flavor, glycerin, citric acid and preservative.
How much FondX do I need to wrap a cake?
This will depend on the thickness of FondX that you would like to wrap the cake with. We recommended to be 3/16 inch thick is the best thickness. Here are some suggestions:
Table for 3/16" thick of FondX:
4" Round Cake - 1.50 lb. 6" Round Cake - 2.25 lb. 9" Round Cake - 3.00 lb. 12" Round Cake - 5.00 lb. 14" Round Cake - 7.00 lb. 16" Round Cake - 8.50 lb. 18" Round Cake - 11.00 lb. 1/4 Sheet Cake - 3.50 lb. 1/2 Sheet Cake - 8.00 lb. Full Sheet Cake - 15.00 lb.

Why does rolled fondant often cracks and tearing?
There are several different reason why it cracks, here are some ideas:
Not enough kneading time, what this means that the rolled fondant is still in stiff status. Give it more kneading time. Don't knead too much all at one time. The fondant is already aged due to time in transit or sitting on some warehouse.
It may be just not a good quality rolled fondant to begin with.
"Pettinice" Rolled Fondant by Bakels, is considered one of the finest rolled fondants. Imported from New Zealand, "Pettinice" yields consistent superior results, ease of use and delicious flavor.
This is from Jennifer Atwood:

Differences In Fondant
SATIN ICE- this is a true fondant. It is one of the better tasting pliable fondants on the market.
CHOCOPAN - this is a fondant with "real" chocolate added to it, hence the name CHOCOpan. It has a great taste, however it is not as pliable. It becomes more so with heat as it is chocolate based.
FONDARIFIC - this is similar to chocopan, however it uses candy coating instead of "real" chocolate. This company had decided to flavor each of their colors. The texture is quite different from the pre-vious two. This is a product you either love or hate. Some of the flavors are quite odd when combined with others.

Gumpaste is better for things like purse handles and shoes and people becuz they dry fast and dry hard, so theres less chance for them to break
If you use fondant for a shoe it will take FOREVER to dry and its weaker so it could break ( than you would be pulling your hair out trying to make another shoe last minute,)
Fondant is for covering cakes and making bows, things you dont need to dry hard

Tylose Powder:
Mixing in tylose or another gum type of powder directly into the fondant at 1T per pound of fondant
To strengthen the fondant, mix 1 tablespoon of tylose powder or another gum powder to each pound of fondant.
Just work the dry powder into the fondant then wrap it and let it sit over night. Knead it again before use and it will be easier to manage. I guess I've used about 1.5 teaspoons per pound of fondant. The amount varies... depending on climate and weather.

Whats the Difference??? Tylose Powder…CMC Powder…Trag Powder….Gum Tex…
I will say that when I am referring to sugarpaste I mean fondant or gumpaste, because all its made with is sugar and just a few other ingredients and is a dough like paste that is used to cover cakes, create flowers and my favorite of course which is creating hand sculpted figurines.
When I say sugar flowers as I do often times I am really talking about gumpaste flowers.
Now lets talk about all the different “Gums” as they are often called.
First one that we will discuss is Tylose Powder and the one that I always use. Tylose Powder is less expensive than most gums on the market however it can be tough to locate since it is mostly avail. through the internet, you can find it at some of the specialty cake supply stores but not at Micheals or Joanns. Tylose powder is used in some gumpaste recipes but I add it to plain fondat to create a quick version of Gumpaste for my creating figurines and sugar flowers. Tylose powder is a fine powder you can work into fondant to make a really quick transition to gumpaste.
To create a quick gumpaste with fondant just Add 1 -3 tsp of Tylose powder to 1lb of fondant. Dry humidity areas use less Tylose – High humidity areas use more Tylose. Knead it in very well to your fondant. If you are using a pre-made Gum paste you don’t need to add any Gums to your paste because it already has some form of Gums in it. I usually don’t use a pound of fondant at a time when creating my figurines so I use small pinches of tylose powder to my fondant until I get the consisitency I am looking for.
Gum Trag or the long version of the name….. gum tragicanth is another gum additive used in many different recipes to make gumpaste and pastillage. It add strength and stretch to the final product.
Gum Tex is more readily available to most and is made by wilton. Like gum tragicanth, gum tex is an ingredient to make gum paste pliable, elastic & easy to shape.
Gum Arabic - a versatile hydrocolloid that has many applications. A superior emulsifier, widely used in the production of beverage and flavor emulsions and meal replacers. Its low viscosity and adhesive properties, meanwhile, make gum arabic an excellent ingredient for coating cereal, confections, and snack foods. For bakery products, the gum’s binding and emulsification abilities aid in the formulation of icings and frostings as well as baked goods like cakes and muffins.
Beyond foods and beverages, gum arabic has been long used in lithographic processes and pharmaceutical products. A natural gum additive that can be used as an edible glue to stick pieces of modeling paste together when mixed with water. This additive can also be added into Royal Icing to give it more strength.
Mix 2 tsp. of Gum Arabic with 2 ounces of water to make a gum glue. Gum glue is used to Gumpaste figurines, bows and other objects together
CMC Powder or sometimes referred to as Super Gum and CMC Gum, amd the technical name Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose Gum, or just Cellulose Gum is frequently used as a thickener and a texture ingredient in many applications throughout the food service industry. Food grade and industrial grade CMC Gum is also known as cellulose gum. It is derived from purified cellulose such as cotton linters. CMC Gum helps products retain moisture. CMC Gum is a man made gum.
Cake Videos
http://www.cricut.com/sh.../906/3/CricutCake/Cricut Cake Personal Electronic Cutter
Comparison chart of the mini and large Cricut Cake
http://www.cricut.com/cake/compare.aspx
Online Manual
http://content.cricut.co...ads/CricutCakeManual.pdf

Cricut Cake Tips!
Jennifer Atwood from http://www.cuttingedgecakeart.com
Cutting:
The cake carts are designed for 3" and larger. The more intricate the design the larger you need to cut.
It is best not to freeze (fondant) as freezing causes moisture and can make the surface sticky. Add a little tylose to your satin ice and let it dry for about 15 min. The time could vary depending on your location.
The new cake cartridges are made for cutting icing. Some of the designs on the regular carts have lines and angles that are fine when cutting paper but are to thin or sharp when cutting icing. They have used new images and modified some old images to better work with the icing medium.
Cutting icing is different than cutting paper, therefore some sharp turns might not work. Each image is made up of points, the more points the more difficult to cut out of icing. PC cut down the number of points on some of their images, allowing for easier cutting out of icing.
Thickness of Medium:
Satin Ice straight from bucket. Roll to about 1.5mm thick (fondant not fondant and mat) Let it set about 25 min. Cut on Pressure 4 Speed 1. Try cutting a simple shape first, like a star or heart at size 2 inches.
When your roll out other materials, they can be rolled out to 2.8 mm thick, depending on the medium. We have the best results with gumpaste and fondant at around 1.5 mm thick.
The best way to tell is to get a ruler with mm and roll the gumpaste out and measure the thickness. You could also buy a very cheap tool at the hardware store that measures thickness.
I find that mm are the best measurement, as they are more accurate than inches. That being said, you can roll out your material to 2.5 mm thick (according to Provo Craft) I have cut cheese that was 2.8 mm thick. The thicker you roll it out the longer you need to wait on drying time. For example: gumpaste 2.4mm thick needs to set approx. 25 min. depending on your climate. 2.5mm is the thickness of a penny stacked on top of a dime or about 1/10 of an inch. Hope this helps a little more. :)
1.587mm is approx 1/16 inch
2.379 mm is approx 3/32 inch
1.2mm is approx the thickness of a dime
1.4mm is approx the thickness of a penny
1.8mm is approx the thickness of a nickel
Mercy
If you plan to use your g, the out of the box firmware is 2.31 so you will have to update your g to version 2.34 prior to cutting. The good part is that it only needs part 1 of the update and not part 2.
When you first remove the cap from the needle, do not throw it away as it makes it easier to replace the needle back so keep it.

Cricut Sheets:
Edible Image sheets are basically made of starch, sugar, and water. They are made thin, because of the normal applications they are used for. In the industry, most use them to run through edible printers and then lay on cakes. Because their main ingredient is starch, they are absorbed by the buttercream icing, with a light spritzing of water on the buttercream before sheet is applied.
Make sure that you do not let the sheets sit. They do dry out quickly. Place a little thicker coat of shortening. You should not see clumps of white, but it should be tacky when you set your hand on it. Place the sheet on the mat and either use a rolling pin or your hand and make sure the sheet is attached to your mat. Also try to first cut out at 3 inches or larger a few basic shapes (hearts, circles) Cut on Speed 3 Pressure 4. Remove from mat as soon as possible.
Depending on how intricate you can use fondant. The more intricate the more you might want to try gumpaste or modeling chocolate.
Cake FAQ:
Icing Sheets
If you use too much shortening, the frosting sheet will not adhere properly. It will move on the mat as you are trying to cut which will result in an improper cut or the tearing of the images/frosting sheets.
If you apply too little shortening, the sheet will rise up off the mat where there is little to no shortening and it will tear.
In dryer climates, pull the sheet off the back of the paper; turn the sheet over as the part that was attached to the paper turn that upward, and apply shortening to the back of the icing sheet as well as the mat.
In humid climates, only apply the shortening to the mat.
To determine if you have enough shortening on the mat, where you cannot see the frosting through the frosting sheet, there is where the sheet is going to tear in that area. Therefore, make sure you see the shortening through the icing sheet.
It is recommended that the intricate or base cuts be cut no smaller than 3 inches. However, the basic shapes can be cut smaller than 3 inches or smaller based upon their intricacy.
Images with swirls and very sharp curls should be cut larger than 3 inches.
To see how the shortening should look on the mat, click the below link and play “Demo 11.”
http://www.cricut.com/sh.../906/2/CricutCake/Cricut Cake Personal Electronic Cutter

Jennifer Atwood
Gum Paste
If you put the gum paste on "fresh", it will be pliable enough to decorate. It does harden, but no more than royal icing would. I have used this on several butter cream cakes and not one complaint. Only ooohs and aaaahs.
Fresh homemade gum paste should set for 24 hours.

Various Members:
For attaching the fondant to the fondant or the gum paste to the fondant you can use:
Butter cream
Water
Gum glue (Arabic, Tragacanth gum powder, Wilton's Gum-Tex, Tylose etc)
Royal Icing
Vodka
Vanilla extract
Meringue powder and a little water
CherylMaloney1
You can also make an edible glue to ensure that your decorations will stay stuck. Edible glue can be made by taking a small amount of tylose powder and mixing it with water. It will look horrible at first. Very lumpy... but let it sit in the refrigerator overnight and it will be fine the next day. Works wonderfully for layering gumpaste and fondant designs as well.
You can also take a tiny bit of gumpaste and mix it with water until smooth and a pastey consistency.
From Another Site:
http://www.cakecentral.c...ing-ftopicp-6676470.html
Actually, gum trag(acanth) is a bit different: it's much more expensive and when kneaded into fondant, the product must sit at least 12hrs. in order to fully activate. It's recommended over tylose, cmc, or gum tex for use in high humidity locations.
As I recall, it also loses it's strength over time, so if you've had it for awhile, it may not work as well as it did when you first purchased it.
From my personal experience, tylose is the best. Gum trag is nice too, but it takes much longer to fully dry. Gum tex... the same, and I don't like the final product as much. Tylose (which is CMC) is my favorite. It's inexpensive and dries quickly and very hard.

I made the Wilton recipe and it doesn't taste too bad at all. You can also flavor your fondant if you want.
I cannot do any kneading by hand as I dislocated my elbow once before and my hands are not as strong as it used to be.
Anyways .... kneading fondant is really tough work judging by the resulting 'dough'.
I used my bread machine to do all the work. I've made 3 batches so far. It's really, really super easy!!! And you know how bread machines will knead and knead and knead. It's perfect.
My bread machine has a non-stick coating (I think all do).
I also dissolved and heated the gelatine/glycerin/glucose/shortening part ... all in the microwave. Super easy!
The only set-back is that my bread machine is a 2lb loaf capacity so I was afraid of over-exerting the motor should I knead the 2lb sugar in it. So, what I do is make half a recipe at a time. And since the kneading part is taken care of by the machine, it is such a small inconvenience to mix half recipe at a time.
The best thing I've noticed after making 3 batches (ie 6 rounds) is that there is no guess work as to the right consistency of the fondant. Just add sugar or water, depending on the situation .... until the dough forms into a nice ball that keeps rolling as one mass when the machine blades kneads/pushes it along. If it's too dry, the fondant will break up into pieces and the whole ball won't 'roll' along. Too watery and the fondant will stick. Is it a perfect keading tool for fondant (and other bread dough)!!
But don't forget to leave the lid open because bread machine heats up slightly during the kneading process to help the yeast. Just leave the lid open.
And for mixing colors into the fondant, just add a few drops and let the machine knead it to a perfect blend. No need to take a small ball of fondant, color it, then mix it back, etc.
After letting the fondant rest, break up the fondant and re-knead in the machine.
I've colored a ball of dough as small as a tennis ball in the machine. No problem.
Just help it along when need be, give it a little nudge with a spatula.
And I didn't even buy paste or gel colors. I just used the liquid colors that I already have!
If you're coloring fondant at the initial knead, add color first before you adjust the water or sugar.
If you're adding color the next day, the few drops of the liquid colors will give it the necessary moisture to be soft again.
http://www.baking911.com...nt&thread=1112995358
Trevor:
If you don't have a bread machine, you can use a mixer with a dough hook to mix fondant if you can't do it by hand.

If you want to know how large to roll out the fondant to cover a cake, use the 3+3+? plus one rule.
If you have a 10 inch round or square cake, you would need a 17 inch circle/square. How did I get that figure? Add the three plus three plus one along with whatever size pan you have and being that it is a round/square pan, you only have to figure out one measurement.
If you have a 9x13 cake pan, you will need to roll out the fondant, 20 inches wide and 16 inches long. How did I get that figure? You add three plus three, add thirteen plus one and you get 20 inches wide. You add three plus three, add nine plus one and you get sixteen inches long. Unlike the square and the round, you have two measurements.
If the sides are equal, use one measurement and if you have unequal sides, then you would use the number of measurements that are not equal. For example, if you have a triangle, you would use two measurements because two of the sides of a triangle are the same length.
You start with the three plus three plus one and then add the size or one of the sizes of your pan.

Colors:
Trying to mix the color black into fondant is pretty impossible - if you add too little it's grey - if you add enough to make it black - you've added too much moisture into your fondant ruining the consistency. I recommend buying pre-colored fondant. Some people prefer just air-brushing or handpainting their black pieces.
Not sure who wrote the below:
If you want to color them, you can either mix color (gel or liquid) into the fondant first or you can brush on luster dust colors with a paintbrush (without any liquid added) if you want to give an all-over sheen like with luster dust, you can airbrush it on by adding vodka to the dust to airbrush or paint on with a brush after you've made the flower.
Paste colors too if diluted with clear flavoring or clear alcohol. You may need to brush it on or simply dip.
Mercy:
Make sure you are using gel paste and not the coloring from the supermarket that most use to dye eggs. If you want a red fondant, start off with pink and then add the red dye. If you want a gold fondant, start out with a yellow perhaps.
When you add the dye to the medium, it will be marbled until you knead the dye all the way throughout the medium. Don't try to mix the dye through the entire medium at one time as you want to divide the medium into parts and mix a part at a time and afterwards blend it all together.
I take a toothpick, stick it into the gel paste and stick the toothpick throughout the medium as the amount is based upon the color you are trying to achieve. Your color will start off light and the more gel paste you add the darker it becomes. If you don't have pink medium and you are trying to get a red medium, then from white medium your first blend will be pink even while using red gel paste. Then the more gel paste you add, the deeper the color but it takes a lot of kneading and gel paste to get to red. Therefore, I would suggest buying pre-mixed medium of darker colors and mix your pastel to medium hues as those are much easier to achieve without a lot of work. Of course, if you want to try the darker hues then do so a day in advance which will give you more time and energy to mix those colors.
Make sure you use a New toothpick after it touches your fondant do not put it back in the color gel it will crystallize the color

Spackle and Crumb Coating
!. Crumb coating is a thin layer of icing to hold the crumbs so they will not show up in the icing and you will not see your cake under the icing.
2. spackle is a method used by some pasty chefs to make a fondant cake look even, prevent sagging hide any other imperfections that come along with cakes.
3 cup cake crumbs
4 to 6 oz decorators buttercream (this is a 'practice' buttercream as we like to describe it in the trade. If any of you are interested in my bc recipies please email and I will send any info you would like)
1/4 c of your cake filling (lemon curd, raspberry...) optional
you can adjust the thickness with a bit of water or buttercream to thin it out.
I use crumb coat for bc cakes...just pop in the fridge overnight after it had been crumb coated so it sets. make sure to dam your filling as well as you construct the cake before crumb coating it.
There are two uses for spackle..you can use it for the filling on your cake and people think that it is a nice nut filling...even though it is nut free.
The most important use is it gives the cake more stability and gives it a professional look...especially when used with fondant. Rolled cakes seem to sag a lot and very often the cake is visable through them. This makes the cake look unbalanced and childish. Spackle can also fill in or repair damage and holes.
After the cake is spackled it needs to be refridgerated until firm, then loosely covered with wrap and chilled overnight.
This method was invented by a master pastry chef who wrote one of my favorite decorating books. I do not know if I am allowed to say the name.
If the airconditioning works in the hall and it is kept in the fridge not too cold it is fine.(cover very loose for fondant) I use stabilizer- I have not had a problem with any of my cakes. LOts of my brides do not want fondant...most of my business is in the summer. I never use fondant without a crumbcoat and then a coat on top of that of bc. then the fondant.
The stabilizer is Stay Ice and I just read mine and it said that one of the reason you would use it is for extreme humidity
Crumb coating is a thin layer of bc applied around the cake to secure the crumbs...then you pop it in the fridge and let it set possibly overnight. Then you apply your top coat of bc. This prevents the cake crumbs from showing or the cake itself from showing thru. If you want a perfect fondant you can spackle the cake after the crmb coat (spackle is a mixture of icing, crumbs and if you have it on your cake, filling)
You crunb coat , then spackle refridgerate overnight ..then lightly ice with bc (this will adhere the fondant to cake) and apply fondant the reason you may do this is your cake will appear even and perfect and will not sag.
Spackle is the part that you cut off to level it. Then you can also add the barvarian cream from the middle and some buttercream. Mix it up in your mixer and it will almost look like a breadcrumb paste. Your fondant will not pil or sag and the cake looks awesome. Make sure to refridgerate before you put your last fondant coat on and put a tiny layer of bc on so that the fondant sticks to it..hope this helps
ChristinaWilliams6
It's a way to hold the cake together so when you coat your final coat of icing, there aren't crumbs mixed into it. It basically is a thin layer of icing you let harden which holds the cake together and lessens the chance of crumbs getting into your outside coat of icing.
LindaLawhead:
Many decorators bake Wed, cool, crumb coat. Let settle.
Thursday, cover with fondant and start decorating.
Friday, finish decorating.
If you need to bake earlier, you can bake, cool, wrap and freeze layers.
Or you can bake, cool, torte, fill, layer, crumb coat, wrap and freeze the tiers. You cannot do this with fresh fruit fillings, or ?cream cheese filling.
Either of these do-aheads, you need to let them come completely to room temp before continuing.
If you have all of your decorations cut ahead, you could fondant and decorate Friday for a Saturday wedding.

Smoothing the Fondant
boring
http://www.wilton.com/fo...tid=3&threadid=88920
I never wait any period of time before putting the icing on the cake and if it cracks you can always rub it till the cracks come out, you can also put some icing sugar - I think you call it powdered sugar on the surface. If all else fails you can water down the fondant and apply like a glue but make sure its the same icing that you have covered the cake with. To do this just add a couple of drops of water at a time to the fondant and stir. This way you always have the same color as your icing. This method would probably be better for large cracks. You also need to smooth the fondant against the cake to save getting the theatre curtains effect and cut off the excess.
Hpjmom
http://www.wilton.com/fo...tid=3&threadid=88920
I don't let the fondant sit after I've rolled it out. It will dry out a little. I do let my marshmallow fondant sit (in a ball) on my counter for 10 minutes after I make it if it's too soft. But I roll it out & use it immediately. It doesn't dry completely for days, but it will dry to the point that it will crack if you let it sit on the counter.
When you put the fondant on the cake, it will ripple on the sides. I've had the best luck covering fondant cakes by raising the cake (on a same size cake board) up off the table a few inches, to allow the fondant to drape down past the bottom of the cake board. Then I smooth the top out. Then I pull the fondant away from the sides of the cake & smooth the sides down. I work around the cake this way. Sometimes I may get one little seam at the bottom, but it can usually be covered by my border.
Dolcesunshine
http://www.wilton.com/fo...tid=3&threadid=88920
I had to practice a lot to get the "ripples" out of the sides of the cake. I was taught to roll the fondant about 4 in. in diameter larger than the cake. That really seems to help me. Also, try not to pull down on the fondant on the sides of the cake. That creates an environment for tearing or cracking.
I took the cracked/curtain looking fondant off the cake and tried again. Like hpjmom said, I put the cake on a flipped over bowl. That helped a ton.
How to Fondant a Cake
Cricut.com
Fondant is a stretchy food material used to drape and smoothly cover cakes without cracks. Because it has the tendency to stretch it can be difficult to cut. It is necessary for your fondant to be no thicker than 1/8" thick, though you will get the best results with fondant that is 1/16" thick.
In order for the Fondant to work properly with the Cricut Cake, it is necessary to make the fondant firmer. This can be accomplished a few different ways.
(1) Freezing works well for cool, dry climates. (In humid, hot environments the fondant can become gummy when frozen.)
(2) Drying out the fondant can be time consuming and can cause a crust to form on the top. However, you can overcome the "crusting" effect by placing it back in a plastic bag overnight. This will help equalize the moisture content throughout the fondant.
(3) Adding gum powders is considered the best way to make the fondant easier to cut. There are many options on the market—tylose powder, Gum-tex, etc. You will want to knead in a little at a time until it has a more firm texture. This can make your fondant dry out much faster, so you will want to use it as quickly as possible.

Jennifer Atwood:
Extracts and Oils
Extract - This is where a flavor is extracted from a natural item, using alcohol or steam. ie. vanilla extract and peppermint extract.
Essential Oils - These are oils that have been extracted, but not been cut by adding anything to them. Straight oil.
*All essential oils are extracts (peppermint oil), not all extracts are essential oils (vanilla extract)
Flavor Oils - Are essential oils that have other oils added to them to weaken the flavor. Most Peppermint is done this was as one drop of essential peppermint oil would overpower anything that you put it in.
Emulsions - extracts or oils that have been blended into something that normally wouldn't bond without being emulsified. Ie. Vinaigrette Dressing (oil and water)
Emulsions are normally used in batter. Although the flavor is strong, there is a lot of liquid. To much to add to gumpaste or fondant.
Flavor Oils are used primarily in candy making. You can add this to fondant or gumpaste, however it is best to do so while you are making the product. Kneading it into the product might change the binding of the materials.
Extracts and essential oils are great to knead into fondant or gumpaste as normally only a drop is needed.

Recipes:
Candy Clay
Source: Candy Easy as 1-2-3
Ingredients:
• 1 pkg Candy Melts®
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
Instructions
Melt Candy Melts following package directions. Add corn syrup and stir to blend.
Turn out mixture onto waxed paper and let set at room temperature to dry.
Wrap well and store at room temperature until needed. Candy Clay handles best if hardened overnight.
To Tint: Candy Clay may be tinted using Wilton Candy or Icing Color. Knead in color until well blended.
To Use: Candy Clay will be very hard at the start; knead a small portion at a time until workable.
If Candy Clay gets too soft, set aside at room temperature or refrigerate briefly.
When rolling out Candy Clay, sprinkle work surface with cornstarch to prevent sticking; roll to approximately 1/8 in. thickness.
To Store: Prepared Candy Clay will last for several weeks at room temperature in a well-sealed container.
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Candy-Clay
Sugarviel tips:
It's important to spread SugarVeil thinly:
1. How thinly? Here's a good was to check: If you have a hand mixer, you can mix 1/4 cup SugarVeil with 1 TBL + 2 Tsp boiling water. Beat on high for four minutes. 1/4 cup SugarVeil will make about 1.5 or so -12" x 12" sheets. [A Kitchen Aid needs 1 c SugarVeil mixed at a time in order for the beaters to reach it, which will make up about 6 sheets].
2. Prepare the SugarVeil mixture day in advance before spreading it. Cover it with plastic wrap and leave at room temp overnight. Rebeat it for a minute or so the next day (by hand or with a mixer) just prior to spreading it onto the Crisco-greased (and wiped away) 'cut to fit' mat.
3. Use the Confectioners' Spreader to spread crosswise and lengthwise, with your fingers pushing downwards in the center of the Spreader until you have a nice, smooth, sheet. Scrape away about 3/4" cleanly on both sides of the mat to stay clear of the Cricut's rollers.
4. When the SugarVeil is completely (not the least bit tacky on top) set, place it in a Ziploc (2.5 gallon is a perfect size) bag with a sheet of parchment covering the top of the sheet, and allow it to "age" a week or so before cutting, out of sunlight, and do not stack anything on top of it. [ I do think that the sheets need to age, but I don't know if they really need to age this long - I just happened to have a few sheets of stored SugarVeil that were 10 or so days old, and they cut really well. I should know more about the age in the next several days].
Of course, while you are waiting to cut the sheet of SugarVeil, you can make up more SugarVeil/use the rest of the SugarVeil you mixed to do all of the other SugarVeil techniques - combing lines, making bows, veils, lace, etc., or piping lines and dots directly on the cake (and for this you can even use a squeeze bottle). No other SugarVeil technique requires this 'ageing'.
Working with this very thin SugarVeil is easier when it's not Winter and you don't have to have the furnace running, adding to the already-dry air. Keep any SugarVeil sheets you are not immediately using covered in a Ziploc bag. I've been using a humidifier very near to where I am working, since our air is unusually dry and not humidified otherwise. Can't remember if I mentioned before, but if the sheet does get too dry, place it back in the Ziploc with a small pot of already-mixed SugarVeil alongside it (not touching it), zip the bag, and check it the next day or so. The sheet will be restored to its flexible state once again.
Also, if I didn't mention before - keep all your dried SugarVeil bits - they are great decorating 'confetti' for celebration cakes, cupcakes, and ice cream.

Recipes:
Marshmallow Fondant Recipe
Start with:
• 1 pound of marshmallows-name brand is better since they are a little whiter
• 2 pounds of powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup of shortening (after I measured mine, I just kept it in the measuring cup next to me on the counter so it was easy to reach)
• 2-5 Tablespoons of water
http://notsoidlehands.bl...-ghosties-plus-easy.html
Marshmallow Fondant Tutorial by CakeBoss
http://cakeboss.com/FondantTutorial.aspx
How to make and use Marshmallow Fondant
Skill Level: Beginner/Intermediate
This tutorial demonstrates how to make inexpensive homemade fondant out of marshmallows and powdered sugar.
I recommend that marshmallow fondant (MMF) NOT be your first experience using fondant. Fondant is a lovely, versatile substance, kind of like sugar playdough. With traditional fondant, you knead it prior to use. The kneading action loosens the fibers and the fondant becomes soft and pliable. You should know what real fondant feels like, and how it is supposed to behave, before you experiment with MMF.
Ingredients
16 oz mini-marshmallows
2 lb powdered sugar
1 tbsp water
1 tsp corn syrup (optional)
1 tsp lemon extract (optional)
Yield: 3 lbs fondant
Step 1: Melt marshmallows
Empty your bag of marshmallows into a large, microwave-safe bowl, and add water. Microwave until the marshmallows are puffed up and soft looking (about 2 minutes in my microwave).
Step 2: Grease a wooden spoon
This is really important - while your marshmallows are in the microwave, use a paper towel and some shortening to thoroughly lubricate a wooden spoon. Making marshmallow fondant is a sticky business, and this is one way to make it a little easier on yourself.
Step 3: Start to stir and add optional ingredients
Add your corn syrup and lemon extract, if you are using them. The corn syrup seems to help with flexibility of the fondant after it reaches room temperature, and the extract is for added flavor and to help cut the sweetness. The mixture should be kind of soupy as you stir it, and most of the marshmallows should be dissolved.
If you want to color this entire batch, you can add color now, rather than trying to knead it in later.
Step 4: Adding powdered sugar
Gradually, begin to stir in the powdered sugar.
Continue stirring and adding powdered sugar until you have used about 2/3 of the bag. Stop when it becomes difficult to continue to stir with the spoon.
Step 5 Turn out onto greased surface and knead
Turn out onto a greased surface. KEEPING IN MIND THAT IT IS HOT, begin CAREFULLY kneading with your hands, and gradually add in the rest of your bag of powdered sugar. You may not need to use the entire bag! You'll want to stop kneading when the fondant stops absorbing the powdered sugar, and it actually feels like warm fondant (this is where previous experience with fondant comes in handy). You may want to keep your shortening nearby so you can grease your hands as necessary.
* A special note about stand mixers: I know that some people use their stand mixer and hook attachment to mix their MMF. Some people are successful and have never had a problem, but I have read TOO MANY STORIES of people burning out their mixer's motor this way! It's not worth the risk, folks! Your stand mixer wasn't made for this!
When you've reached this point, it's time to grease the outside so that it won't dry out, and then put it in a gallon-sized ziploc bag to rest. It should rest for several hours, preferably overnight. Right now it is too warm and soft to use.
When you are ready to use your MMF, grease your work surface with shortening and a paper towel. Be sure to cover every spot, there is nothing worse than having your fondant stick to the mat!
The two most important things to have on hand when working with marshmallow fondant are shortening and a microwave. Marshmallow fondant does not loosen up with kneading, like traditional fondant.
This is fondant straight from the bag. If it is too hard to roll out, put it in the microwave in 5-second increments until it is kneadable. It's important to not "melt" your MMF! You just want to soften it enough so that you can knead it and roll it out! A liberal coating of shortening on your hands will assist with the kneading process.
Roll out as you would for any other kind of fondant, and cover cake as usual.
Here is the actual cake that was made with this batch of MMF! (Difference in color is due to lighting.) The cake is a 9" and 6" round, and there were a few ounces of MMF left over.
This recipe makes 3 lbs of MMF, and costs me about $3.50 to make. This is highly economical, especially compared to the cost of pre-made fondant!
I actually prefer to use pre-made fondant like Satin Ice or Albert Uster's Massa Grischuna. But MMF is a great "in a pinch" alternative, if you're out of fondant and don't have time to order any more, or you're covering dummy cakes and don't want to spend a small fortune on pre-made fondant.
Store your MMF by wrapping as airtight as possible (double-bagged in ziploc bags works well). It will keep for a month or so. Just pop it in the microwave for 5-second increments and use your hands covered with shortening to make it soft and workable again. You'll know when the MMF is no longer "good". It will be hard as a rock and will not soften up in the microwave. Then it's time to toss it and make some more!
I've had great success using MMF for bow toppers.
Marshmallow Fondant
http://www.piece-a-cake....how-to-make-fondant.html
If you want a buttercream flavor use vanilla, butter and almond extracts
Use a little flavoring instead of water when you melt the marshmallows you can give your fondant a bit of flavor. Tip: If you use the pink marshmellows your fondant will taste like bubble gum, kids love it!
You'd add the cocoa right after microwaving the marshmallows. i do it in this order - mix marsh with water and microwave - then add corn syrup, salt and any flavorings (including cocoa if you want) - then mix in the powdered sugar.
Our first how to make fondant recipe is the marshmallow fondant. This is a very easy fondant to make and is our most popular.
Its ingredients are:
• 1 16oz bag of mini marshmallows
• 3 tablespoons of water
• 2 lbs. powdered sugar and optional flavoring
How to make fondant very easy, all you do is put the marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl, add the water, and put it into the microwave for 2 minutes.
Stir marshmallows making sure it’s all melted, then add your flavoring and powdered sugar to your liking. Knead dough on a powdered sugar surface and keep adding powdered sugar to make dough less sticky and more workable. There you have it!
Allow your fondant to set up overnight covered. Before you use, microwave for 30 seconds and knead until smooth and pliable.
Use fondants to help cakes come to life. Wedding cakes are not the only use for fondant. We are making fondant for birthday cakes, bridal shower cakes, baby shower cakes and others. Visit our fondant birthday cake theme pictures.
Matching the unique style, color and taste is a new adventure with each of our clients. By using fondant, we can integrate art into your cake creating that special look limited only by your imagination.
When I am ready to use it I put in microwave for about 20 to 30 seconds then kneed till pliable and roll it out
Marshmallow Fondant
http://www.designmeacake.com/mfrec.html
Ingredients:
15 oz. mini marshmallows
2 Tblsp water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
2 tsp light corn syrup (helps w/ pliability)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon extract
2 lbs (approx 7 C) confectioner's sugar, sifted
1/2 C Crisco or vegetable shortening
Directions:
Grease microwave proof bowl w/ Crisco. Also grease wooden or heat proof spoon. Pour marshmallows and water into bowl. Microwave for approximately 2 minutes stopping and stirring at 40 second intervals. Mixture should be soupy.
Take out of microwave and immediately add corn syrup, lemon juice, salt and extracts. Stir well. Sift confectioner's sugar into mixture, one cup at a time. After approximately 5 cups, grease your hands well with Crisco and knead the mixture in the bowl. Add the sixth cup and continue to knead. Now grease your work surface well and turn mixture out of bowl onto counter. Sift remaining sugar, regrease hands, and knead well. If mixture seems soft, add one additional cup of powdered sugar.
Shape into a mound and put a coating of crisco on outside. Double wrap in cling wrap and insert into ziplock bag. Press air out of bag and seal. Allow to rest overnight, but, can be used after sitting for a few hours.
Marshmallow Fondant: AddieAbner
16 ounces mini marshmallows
◦2 pounds powdered sugar
◦4 tablespoons water
◦shortening for greasing the bowl etc.
Put the marshmallows and water in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for about 1 minute, until the marshmallows are all melted. The mixure will expand. Stir to incorporate.
Grease the dough hook and bowl of your mixer really well with shortening.
Put about 3/4 of the powdered sugar to the mixer bowl and add all of the melted marshmallows.
Mix on low speed for a few minutes then check the consistency of the fondant. It will probably still be a little sticky at this point. If it is, add some of the remaining powdered sugar and mix again for a minute or so. Repeat this step until the fondant is firm and neither dry or sticky.
Turn out on to a clean, firm work surface and knead by hand just for a minute until there are no flecks of dry powdered sugar remining. Wrap in cling wrap and let the fondant rest for at least an hour before using.
I find fondant much easier to handle with latex gloves and shortening to grease the gloves.
My whole plan of action was to make an excellent tasting, great functioning MMF. After raves about Fondarific’s buttercream flavored fondant I had to come up with my own. Mine is really based on Rhonda’s Ultimate MMF, as I loved working with her recipe, but with a few subtle changes.
Marshmallow Fondant – MacsMom’s BC flavored variation
http://cakecentral.com/r...ms-bc-flavored-variation
Ingredients
• 16 oz mini-marshmallows (NOT Jet Puffed)
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon glycerine
2 drams of LoRann butter flavor
*(it is the strongest and tastiest flavoring, but you may use 2 teaspoons of another butter extract, adding an extra teaspoon of vanilla extract)
1 teaspoon popcorn salt (I grind my own salt in a coffee grinder – if you don’t, you may get crystallization that leaves your fondant covered cake pock-marked)
Food coloring if using
2 lbs powdered sugar
Instructions
1. Grease a large microwave-safe bowl with either shortening or non-stick spray. Pour in the marshmallows and sprinkle with water. Melt about 1 minute (don’t go over 90 seconds or it will get make the MMF tough).
2. Add the rest of the ingredients except the powdered sugar, including food coloring if desired, and stir with a greased sturdy spatula (again, you can use non-stick spray).
3. Add a small amount of PS at first to absorb moisture and avoid clumping – about 1/2 c. Then you can add larger amounts, trying to get as much mixed in as possible with each addition. When I have half of the bag of PS left, I dump it in and knead with my greased hands.
4. MMF can be temperamental so it’s good to get to know it at this point–what it should feel like before wrapping it in plastic wrap. If it is too soft it will be hard to work with; too hard isn’t nearly as bad but you still want to find that happy medium.
5. When it is humid, rainy or foggy, or hot outside, MMF sometimes requires more PS than a 2 lb bag. That is the main reason I try to knead in every bit of PS I can between additions. Perfect weather sometimes calls for less PS.
6. It’s hard to explain the proper texture, that’s why you have to have a bit of patience with trial and error. It should be firm enough not to droop when you hold the ball on your palm, yet remain pliable.
7. So once your MMF is ready to be wrapped, rub the ball with a small amount of shortening and wrap in plastic wrap to rest for several hours.
8. When it’s time for use you’ll have to soften it in the microwave for about 45 seconds to 1 minute. But be forwarned that smaller amount of MMF (leftovers) need a much shorter amount of time in the micro to soften. Be careful not to get it too soft or it will be miserable to work with.
9. If it gets too soft you can add cornstarch to it. If that doesn’t help enough you can knead in a little gumpaste or tylose powder to give it strength – but too much GP will make your MMF too hard so be slight of hand and try more cornstarch.
10. If it happens to be too hard from too much PS, soften it in the micro and knead in more glycerine.
11. I usually make a double batch in a huge Tupperware bowl – this stuff lasts forever in the freezer! (greased well and wrapped very well).
I only used 1 tsp butter flavoring and 1 tsp vanilla and it was perfect.
You can use Jet Puffed, but the MMF comes out more rubbery in texture. You can tell it will be weird as you stir the melted Jet Puffed’s – they ball up into a big glob before they are stir-able.
The store brand small ones are the easiest texture to work with
You can sub corn syrup for glycerine wonderfully. And no, you don’t need the popcorn salt. I added that because my cousin said she thought it was too sweet. (But that was before I started using butter flavoring).
I couldnt find any butter essence so i subbed out for lemon juice and vanilla.. still tasted good,.. but the consistency is fantastic! that glycerine sure makes the difference! thanks!

Recipes
Sugar Cookie
NFSC – No Fail Sugar Cookies
Cuts good in the Cricut Cake
This recipe is GREAT when using complex cookie cutters. The dough holds its’ shape and won’t spread during baking. Make sure you let your oven preheat for at least 1/2 hour before baking these or any other cookies.
No Fail Sugar Cookies – NFSC
Ingredients
• 6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups unsalted butter
2 cups sugar (white granulated)
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself)
1 tsp. salt
Instructions:
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.
1.
2. Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below)
3.
4. Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350
5. degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe
6. can make up to 5-dozen 3” cookies.
HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess — Rather than wait for your cookie dough to chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper.
Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop itinto the refrigerator. Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.
I always roll it out between two pieces of wax paper with a little flour and never had a problem with it being too sticky. I also only use margarine and not butter every time, taste great and makes great cookies.
All purpose is the type of flour used.
There are several posts that address how to attach sticks – most seem to prefer to add them to the back of the cookie after they are baked using either royal icing or softened/melted chocolate (any color).
Try using popcorn salt (it’s a finer grain than regular table salt), you can also dissolve the salt into the extracts and then add it in that way too!
I made these tonight wit 1 tsp of orange extract & the zest of one orange. I used Toba Garretts Glace icing also with orange extract (1/2 tsp) soooo good. Kept their shape well, better when chilled..icing is pretty, glossy and hard. Yum!!
I only put in 5 cups of flour and I roll them out immediately after I mix them up. I use the Doboard to roll them out and I never have a problem with them sticking. I put some flour on the board and then on top of the dough and they roll out perfectly. You can alter the taste by adding different extracts. I highly recommend this recipe!
I use this recipe all of the time for cookie pops. You have to roll it thicker for pops, then slide the stick in, very carefully flip it over, take a small piece of dough to cover exposed stick on the back, flip it back over and bake.
If you are having trouble w/crumbly dough, I use jumbo eggs and have never had a problem.
I have frozen this dough and used it a month later and it was fine but for all of you haveing problems rolling it out listen to the not below the recipe spend like 3 dollars on some parchment paper and roll how she says to it makes all the difference in the world TRUST ME.
You do have to freeze the dough super yummy when you use 1tsp mapleine, 1tsp vanilla, and some chopped pecans. they taste like the butter pecan ice cream
I found these to be a little salty as well and cut the salt in half. I also add a 1/4 tsp of almond and love it. This is my go to recipe for cut outs place in the fridge
Mine were spreading a bit so I reduced the baking powder and added only 2 tsp to the next batch. I also chill the cookies after I cut them out, before baking and it prevents spreading. Now they are perfect!
For the chocolate version I just substitute 1 cup of the flour with cocoa powder and add 3/4 cup extra sugar.
Not Sure of the below Post as I think it might be Trevor's recipes.
Cc tested
I have the best recipe, it does not spread at all. I always get compliments on how well the cookies taste. You don't need a lot of flower to roll out the dough either!
Bake 400 for 5-8 minutes
Sift together:
3 cups of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Cream:
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
(Cream well)
Stir in:
1 unbeaten egg
2 tblsp milk
1 1/2tsp vanilla
(mix well)
Blend in dry ingredients, gradually, chill dough for easier handling
Roll out dough on floured surface, 1/3 at a time
In a mixer, or processor, put 3oz caster(fine) sugar, 6oz butter, 9oz plain, allpurpose flour. It will come together without liquid so long as the butter is at room temp. No need to rest unless the mix is soft.
Roll out quite thin using castersugar instead of flour. Bake at 400 till pale gold
They will be delicate, crisp and if you use vanilla sugar, Fabulous
AddieAbner
Sugar Cookie Recipe
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp basking powder
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
dash of almond extract
Sift together flour and baking powder. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the egg, salt, and both extracts. Slowly add flour mixture, 1 cup at a time, and stir until mixed. Form the dough into a disc and wrap it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake the cookies for approximately 8-10 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden brown. Remove cookies from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for at least 5 minutes. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies if rolled 5/8" thick.
Cricut.com
Cookie Dough Recipe
2/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Divide dough in half. If necessary, cover and chill dough 30 minutes or until easy to handle. (I didn't find this step necessary after adding the extra flour.) On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough at a time until 1/8 inch thick. Cut out with Cricut Cake. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.
Cricut Cake Tip
NurseViper
Pillsbury stuff in the wrapped tube. Just add a bit of flour to stiffen it up some, freeze on mat before cutting and then again after cutting and removing excess dough so that cuts will remove easily with spatula.
This works well for me and the cookies do not spread out and loose their shape
Not sure who posted the below:
I rolled the cookie dough right on the mat then chilled the whole thing. I cut the cookies and pulled off as much of the scraps that I could then chilled again before taking the cookies off.

Carries Cricut Gumpaste
2 pkg unflavored gelatin (2 Tbsp)
½ cup cold water
In a small saucepan, add the water and sprinkle the gelatin on top to soften for about 5 minutes. Begin to heat the gelatin gently. Stir until gelatin is a dissolved clear liquid. DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL!! Turn off heat.
Add:
2 Tbsp melted shortening (solid, white)
1/3 cup White corn syrup
Stir to combine thoroughly
2 Lbs Powdered Sugar
3 Tbsp Tylose powder
Place 2 lbs powdered sugar (reserving about 2 cups) in a large glass or plastic bowl. Make a well in the center.
Pour the gelatin/corn syrup liquid into the well of sugar, and mix until nearly all of the sugar is stirred in. Pour onto counter-top which has been lightly greased with Crisco and dusted with the additional powdered sugar. Sprinkle the tylose powder into the mixture. With lightly greased hands, knead, incorporating all of the powdered sugar and tylose, until it forms a smooth rubbery ball. Add additional sugar is needed. (You can use a heavy-duty stand mixer with bread dough hooks for this process).
(It should not be really sticky or too soft. With experience you will learn how “stiff” is stiff enough. Knead in as much sugar as it will take. Beginners usually make it too soft).
Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, twice. Store in gallon zipper closing bag. Allow to rest overnight. Can be stored at room temperature for weeks. Refrigerate or freeze for extended storage time.
When ready to use, start with a baseball-sized piece and warm briefly in microwave no more than 10 seconds at a time to soften and make easier to knead.
Roll as thin as possible (approximately 1-2mm of 1/8”-1/16” thick). Brush mat with shortening. Place gumpaste on mat and roll over again to adhere to mat and remove any air bubbles. You are now ready to cut in your machine.
Hobby Ho posted this recipe:
Butter Cream Icing/Gum Paste
Here is the recipe I always use. It's easy to make and the paste is easy to work with. It's basically royal icing with the tylose added.
Tylose can be found by a lot ov online vendors. Some brick and mortar cake supply shops are carrying Tylose these days. Call your local cake shop and see if there is any available.
Nicholas Lodge Gumpaste
INGREDIENTS:
4 large egg whites
2 lb. bag of 10X powdered sugar
12 level teaspoons Tylose
4 teaspoons shortening (Crisco)
1. Place the egg whites in a Kitchen Aid mixer bowl, fitted with the flat paddle.
2. Turn the mixer on high speed for 10 seconds to break up the egg whites.
3. Reserve 2/3 cup of the powdered sugar and set aside.
4. Turn the mixer to the lowest speed, slowly add the remaining sugar. This will make a soft consistency royal icing.
5. Turn up the speed to setting 3 or 4 for about two minutes. During this time measure the tylose in to a small container.
6. Make sure the mixture is at the soft-peak stage. It should look shiny, like meringue and the peaks fall over. (If coloring the entire batch, add the paste color at this stage, making it a shade darker than the desired color).
7. Turn the mixer to the slow setting and sprinkle the Tylose in over a 5 second time period. Next, turn the speed up to the high setting for a few seconds. (This will thicken the mixture).
8. Scrape the mixture out of the bowl onto a work surface that has been sprinkles with the reserved 2/3 cup powdered sugar. Place the shortening on your hands and knead the paste, adding enough of the powdered sugar to form a soft but not sticky dough. Usually I check by pinching with my fingers and they should come away clean. Place the finished paste in a zip lock bag, then place the bagged pasted dough in a second bag and seal well.
9. Place in the refrigerator for 24 hours if possible before use to mature the paste.
10. Before use, remove from the refrigerator and allow the paste to come to room temperature. Take a small amount of shortening on the end of your finger and knead this into the paste before using.
11. Always store the paste in the zip-lock bags and return to the refrigerator when you are not using the paste. Will keep under refrigerator for approx. 6 months. You can keep the paste longer by freezing. Be sure to zip lock closed.
If you will be freezing a batch of paste, allow it to mature for 24 hours in the refrigerator first before placing into the freezer. I have kept the paste in the freezer for up to 3 years with no problems.
Edible Glass With Sugar
Things You'll Need:
•Sugar
•Baking or cookie sheet
•Butter
•Frying pan
•Spoon
•Stove
•Refrigerator
Step
1Butter a cookie or baking sheet. Place the sheet in the refrigerator for a few hours until the sheet cools to the refrigerator's temperature.
Step
2Warm a frying pan over low heat.
Step
3Measure out 1 cup of sugar and add the sugar to the pan.
Step
4Use a spoon to stir the sugar while it heats. Continue to stir the sugar while it clumps and turns brown. Scrape the sides and bottom of the frying pan regularly so that all the sugar melts at the same time.
Step
5Keep heating and stirring the sugar until all clumps have dissolved into a liquid. Turn the heat off as soon as all clumps disappear.
Step
6Retrieve the cookie or baking sheet from your refrigerator. Use a spoon to pour the sugar into the sheet. Smooth the surface of the sugar with the spoon.
Step
7Let the sugar cool on the sheet. Once the sugar cools completely, peel your new glass off of the cookie sheet, set it on a flat surface and enjoy your edible glass.
Tips & Warnings
Add a few drops of food coloring to the sugar mixture while cooking it to tint the glass. The result will look like stained glass.
http://www.google.com/im...p;ei=5RYFTIz3NYvMM__B8Ts

Buddy from the Cake Boss: How to Prevent a Cake from Bulging
The main causes of bulging cakes I have found are:
• Unlevel or domed cakes
• Not letting the cake rest long enough
• Too much filling
• Under-dowelling
To avoid these pitfalls, follow these instructions:
1. I like to fill my pan about 2/3 full. The goal is to get the cake to rise OVER the top of the cake pan.
2. When the cake is done baking, cool for about 10 minutes in the pan. After 10 minutes, take a long serrated knife or cake leveler, and, using the top of the pan as a guide, level off the excess amount on top.
3. When you've cut off the top, you will have a perfectly level cake. Feed the "muffin top" to your family or make cake balls! It does take a little extra batter for this method, but the results are well worth it for wedding cakes, or other cakes where the LOOK of the cake is extremely important.
4. Turn the cake out onto a cooling rack and cool completely. At this point I like to wrap and freeze my cakes.
5. If you are filling your cake, use a #12 tip to draw a line of frosting around the torted area to be filled, about 1/4 - 1/2" in from the outside edge of the cake.
6. Spoon in your filling, pushing it with a spoon to the edge of the ring of frosting. Be very careful not to use too much filling. Use just enough to cover the cake.
7. Repeat with all torted layers.
8. When the cake is filled and assembled, use your #12 tip again to go around the outside and fill frosting into the small gap left in between the layers.
9. Crumb coat.
10. If you are in a hurry, or your filling is perishable, place in the refrigerator for at least 20-30 minutes (or wrap and leave overnight). If the filling is not perishable, leave the cake on the counter for several hours so it can settle. The longer you leave your cake to rest, the more settling it will accomplish. Many cake artists leave their cakes to settle overnight before proceeding with the final coat of buttercream or covering with fondant.
If you don't have a lot of time to let the cake settle, you can accelerate the settling process by placing a heavy object on top of the wrapped cake, such as a book or ceramic tile. A ceramic tile (about the same size as the diameter of your cake) will settle the cake in about 2 hours.
* Note, if you refrigerate the cake for more than 30 minutes, let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes before proceeding to the next step. The air inside very cold cakes will start to expand when it heats up and if it is trapped, may start to create air pockets in the frosting.
11. Frost as usual. I like to use the big icer tip for getting a quick, thick layer of frosting on the cake.
12. I use a cake decorator's comb run under hot water for a smooth cake.
As long as you have not used too much filling, you should have a bulge-free cake! If this is a stacked cake, cut your dowels exactly to the height of the cake, not lower! If you cut them lower than the height of the cake, the weight of the higher tiers can press down into the cake and cause a bulge.
This is a cake done using this method. Each tier is torted with 3 layers of filling. It is a 15", 11", and 7".
http://cakeboss.com/PreventBulging.aspx

Recipe
White Almond Sour Cream Cake (WASC)
• 2 boxes white cake mix
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teas. salt
8 egg whites
2 2/3 cups water
4 Tbls. vegetable oil
2 cups (16oz carton) sour cream
2 teaspoon clear vanilla flavor
2 teaspoons almond extract
Instructions
Mix all dry ingredients by hand using a whisk in a very large mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat on low speed for 2 minutes. Bake at 325 degrees
***One recipe makes: one 14″ round + one 6″ round
or one 16″ round
or one 12″ round + one 10″ round
or one 12×18″ sheet cake
or one 12″ round + one 8″ round + one 6″
Half a recipe makes: two 8″ rounds
or two 6″ rounds + 6 cupcakes
A really simple recipe that I got from the baker that made my wedding cake...use betty crocker reduce the water and add an additional amount of oil that makes up for the reduction in water. Then you reduce the oven temperature about 50 degrees and bake it longer. Perfect cake every time, easy and tastes amazing!
You use a Duncan Heinz cake mix. Add a 3 oz. box of dry jello, any flovor, 1 envelope of dry dream whip, 3/4 cup of oil, 4 eggs (the biggest one you can get) Beat all this for 4 minutes on high speed. bake 45 min. or more at 350. This make a 2 layer 8 or 9 inch cake or a 11 x 7 sheet cake.
make it will all vanilla, ill add juice instead of water.
use chocolate and freash fruit.
one batch makes five 6 x 3 rounds using 3 cups batter.
I make it dairy free all the time. I use either soy yogurt or vegan sour cream in place of the sour cream. It still tastes very good
I’ve found that you can use any flavor of cake mix in this recipe. You might want to sub out the flavorings and extracts to correspond to the cake mix flavor, but use approximately the same amounts. For get togethers, I make half batches with one cake mix. Since there is only DH and I in household, I even make quarter batches (using half box mix, contents weighed), so we can enjoy more flavors.
I also made it into a strawberry cake subing puree for water, I used vanilla instead of almond, & six whole eggs. It didn’t rise as much but tasted awesome. It was great with cream cheese icing too (my family likes equal parts cream cheese & powdered sugar) Also, I ran out of sour cream at 1 1/2 c and used the old 1 T lime juice in <1 c evap. Milk
I add a tablespoon of meringue powder and is rises fluffy. the height is perfect for my cakes. I’ve also done a chocolate version, i used chocolate chocolate milk instead of water, and for extract i used 1 teaspoon of Almond and 1 teaspoon of rum. and for the big chocolate lovers you could add chocolate chip pieces. i meant to say i use 2 teaspoons for each extract
my hubby mistakenly got cream cheese instead of sourcream so I subed 16oz of sc with 12oz of cream cheese! the best cake ever
……..any substitutes for sour cream, cream cheese or buttermilk?…….
Some have used yogurt in place of the sour cream.
Check out my *original* WASC recipe…….
http://cakecentral.com/r...riginal-wasc-cake-recipe
I use buttermilk instead of water when I do it, comes out super moist!
There wasn’t a cooking time listed so I had to figure it out. Second, I used a 12X18 sheet pan only to find half the batter filled ONE pan. Therefore, the recipe as written is for TWO SHEET CAKES. I used commercial sheet pans and baked each at 325 for exactly 39 minutes.
I made this yesterday with coconut extract and it was awesome! Not only tasted good but baked up perfectly. This is now my go to cake (with different extract as needed)…thank you for posting. BTW will fit a 11X15 and 8″ round as well
I 1/2 v’d this recipe to fit a 9×13 pan. Used white cake mix with pure vanilla extract and 3 whole eggs instead of just whites. Baked at 325 with bake even strips for 40 minutes. Stuck it straight in the freezer to lock in moisture.
I sub vanilla yogurt instead of sourcream all the time with FANTASTIC results!
You could try using the french vanilla liquid coffeemate flavours instead of the milk to add a more distinct flavour.
When using whole eggs I tend to use 3 whole to replace 4 whites.
Hope that helps.
I did a double cream cheese frosting on it (white) and cut up some fresh strawberries mixed with strawberry glaze as the filling.
http://cakecentral.com/r...ond-sour-cream-cake-wasc

Shortening
High Ratio Shortening
http://cakecentral.com/c...ing-ftopict-633723-.html
The difference between Crisco and hi-ratio is in the amount of emulsifiers, and stabilizers, etc. Hi-ratio has MORE emulsifiers, etc. than Crisco so it can ABSORB more liquid without breaking down:
http://www.thebakerskitchen.ne.....ProdID=266
The difference in the two types of shortening isn't flavor/taste improvement (I don't find that Crisco or Sweetex have a discernible taste) but in improved performance and the absence of the "greasy" mouth feel that is an often heard complaint directed at regular shortening based American buttercreams.*
When I initially switched from Crisco to Sweetex, I tried subbing at 1:1 ratio. While the resulting recipe was not "greasy" at all, the general consensus was that the frosting was too rich (had too much fat) and was like trying to chug heavy cream (when you were expecting whole milk).
I then switched to recipes that specifically called for hi-ratio and have been quite pleased with the results. I find that hi-ratio recipes use less shortening (and make a better frosting) so that the higher cost of the hi-ratio is offset somewhat, making it more budget friendly.
Cakeman Oh recommends using 1 cup hi-ratio to 7 cups of powdered sugar, or substituting 2/3 cup hi-ratio for 1 cup of Crisco.
When trying any new recipe, I usually make only 1/2 or 1/3 as a test batch. Might want to try doing this when substituting hi-ratio for Crisco and see what replacement ratio you prefer.
For hi-ratio recipes, please visit this thread:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cak.....8700-.html
http://www.cakecentral.com/cak.....sting.html
http://tinyurl.com/3e53ak
*Of course, not all Crisco based frostings are created equal.
Examples of some highly rated (non-greasy) Crisco American b/c recipes:
http://www.cakecentral.com/cak.....Icing.html
http://www.cakecentral.com/cak.....risco.html
HTH

How to Make a Fondant Bow
http://cakeboss.com/FondantBowTutorial.aspx
I use marshmallow fondant for my bows. I find that it dries very quickly. If you have trouble getting it to dry, you can add some Gum-Tex to your fondant, or use a half-fondant, half-gumpaste mixture.
This bow will be sized to sit on top of a 6" cake (looks the best if it is a tiered cake).
1. Roll a sheet of fondant about 8" wide by 15" long, approx. 1/8 inch thick. You don't want it to be too thin, or the loops won't be able to hold their shape when they dry.
2. Cut the sheet with a pizza roller, 6" in width.
3. My bow loops will be 1" wide. Use the ruler as a guide and cut with a pizza roller or fondant cutter.
4. You can have as few as 12 bow loops or as many as 18, depending on the look you wish to achieve. This bow will have 14 loops, and I always make a couple of extras in case of breakage.
5. Dust the sheet of cut strips with a shimmer dust like pearl dust, or antique silk, which is what I'm using. The brush is a cosmetics brush that I only use for dusting cakes.
6. Pick up a single strip, and pinch together the ends (making sure your shimmer dusted side is facing OUT). If it doesn't adhere by itself, you can use a little water at the joining point.
7. On a large sheet of wax paper, carefully position the loop on its side for drying. Repeat for all loops.
8. The bow streamers: Cut two 6" strips the same width as for the bows. Dust with shimmer dust and cut a 'V' shape in the end with kitchen shears.
9. To achieve the look I want for these streamers, I place a piece of wax paper over an inverted cake pan, and arrange the streamer over the pan and flowing off the side. Make sure the streamer is completely on the wax paper. As you can see from the examples at the top of this tutorial, there are many different ways to position the streamers.
10. Dry 1-2 days, depending on the temperature and humidity in your area. Mine are usually dried overnight (in air conditioning).
11. Assembling the bow: Get a small plate like a bread or salad plate, and cover with a piece of wax paper about the same size. For your bow's glue you can use royal icing or candy melts. If your bow is colored, tint your glue the same color as the bow. Place a small puddle of glue in the center of the wax paper.
12. The bottom layer of this bow will have 7 loops. Arrange them in a circle, turning some on their sides.
13. For the second layer, add another generous dollop of glue to the center.
14. Stack another layer of loops on top, again turning some on their sides. Try to make the 2nd layer loop the "opposite" of the first layer loop. In other words, try not to stack two on their sides because it looks funny. Arrange in a circle. My second layer will have 6 loops.
15. For the top and center loop, apply your glue directly to the pointy side of the loop.
16. Arrange the top loop in the top gap, making sure you have good contact with the glue on the bottom.
17. Sometimes, during the assembly process, the loops start to work their way outward. After I have assembled all the loops, I gently put both hands around the bow and press inward to make the bow formation tighter. This is done very gently. Stop pushing when the loops don't move any more.
18. Let dry a few hours, or preferably overnight. If you've used candy melts as your glue, you can speed up drying time by putting in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or so.
19. When you are ready to place the bow on the cake, make a puddle of glue on top of the cake.
20. Place your streamers on top of the cake, with the ends in the glue.
21. Gently pick up your bow by sliding your hand under the wax paper. Turn upside down into your other hand and slowly peel off the wax paper.
22. Place on the cake! You're done! For a fun, whimsical touch, you can attach a fondant pearl to each bow loop with a dot of royal icing.

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe
Ingredients
1 Bag Marshmallows
1 TBSP Water
1 Bag Powdered (Confectioners) Sugar
Microwave-Safe Bowl
Crisco
Gloves, OPT.
Wooden Spoon,coated with Crisco
****TIP**** Coat Everything with Crisco to avoid sticking
Directions
1. Coat bowl with shortening to prevent sticking
2. Add the water to the marshmallows and microwave for at 30 second intervals until marshmallows are almost completely melted
3. After stirring marshmallows pour half of the powdered sugar contents onto the GREASED counter
4. Pour all of the heated marshmallow mixture onto the powdered sugar
5. Put on gloves and mix in powdered sugar until a dough forms (like a bread dough)
6. Store the marshmallow fondant in an air-tight container and let sit for 2-3 hours.
I don't refrigerate my fondant but if you live in a state where the humidity is high you could refrigerate for 2-3 hours or until firm.
After that your homemade MMF is ready to be used in the cricut cake!

Cricut Cake FAQ’s
NEW QUESTIONS/ISSUES FROM SURVEY:
• The Rollers are hard to clean
Use the brush included in the box to brush off any dried food particles. With the machine unplugged, wipe down the roller bars with a clean damp cloth. You may need to manually move the carriage to the left side of the machine to reach the right side of the roller bars. Once the machine is on again, the carriage will return to the left side.
• Some parts are not getting cut so I am having to use my exacto knife to cut it
You may need to increase the pressure setting on the machine. Experiment with the pressure settings until it cuts completely through the food material.
• The blade cuts into the mat
The blade will always cut a little into the mat. This is normal. You will need to replace your mat periodically after a lot of use. You should also experiment with different pressure settings. Use the lowest pressure necessary to cut through the food material completely. This is usually only medium pressure, but again you will need to experiment with different food materials.
• It will jam and I have to force it to quit
Make sure your food material is no thicker than 1/8” thick. It will cut best at 1/16” thick.
Make sure your blade is clean.
If you are cutting fondant, please see tips for cutting fondant.
If you are cutting gum paste, try freezing it to firm it up a little before cutting.
• It leaves jagged edges and does not work well at all
Make sure your food material is no thicker than 1/8” thick. It will cut best at 1/16” thick.
Make sure your blade is clean.
Don’t allow your food material to dry out too much. If a dry crust forms, it will cause a jagged, uneven cut on the top. You can still turn the design over and the back should still have smooth edges.
• Fondant gets “gunked up”
Make sure your fondant is rolled out no thicker than 1/8” thick. It will cut best at 1/16” thick. Fondant also has stretchy, draping properties that make it ideal to cover a cake. This allows the fondant to smoothly cover the cake without cracking. These same properties make it difficult to cut. Instead of cutting, the blade will have more of a tendency to stretch the fondant rather than cut it. To overcome this, it is necessary to make the fondant firmer. This can be accomplished a few different ways—freezing, slightly drying it out, and adding gum powders.
Freezing works well in cool, dry climates. In humid, hot environments the fondant can become very gummy as soon as you remove it from the freezer.
Drying out the fondant a little can be time consuming and can cause a crust to form on the top. However, you can overcome the “crusting” effect by placing it back in a bag overnight. This will help equalize the moisture content throughout the fondant.
The best way to make the fondant easier to cut is by adding gum powders. There are many on the market—tylose powder, Gum-tex, etc. You will need to experiment with the amount of gum powder you add to your fondant based on the type of powder and the fondant recipe you use. Knead in a little at a time until it has a more firm texture. Be aware that this will make your fondant dry out faster and you will not be able to use this new mixture to cover your cake. Roll out and use as normal.
• The blade is confusing…which way do I put it in?
Make sure the sharp edge is sticking out of the base of the blade housing. Match the notches in the blade housing to the cutouts in the housing arms. Close the arms and swing the screw over and tighten. It doesn’t matter which direction the blade is pointing when it is placed in the machine. When the machine starts cutting, it will automatically turn the right direction for cutting.

Cutting Frosting Sheets
Getting the right amount of shortening, proper cutting speed, and pressure is very important for frosting sheets.
• Always start with a clean, dry mat.
• Apply a generous coat of shortening using a pastry brush. If shortening is white, you have too much.
• Only take one sheet out at a time. Reseal the bag to keep the other sheets fresh. Remove from backer paper. Ensure that the frosting sheet you’re working with is still flexible and pliable.
• Apply shortening to the back of the frosting sheet using a pastry brush.
• Apply the greased frosting sheet to the greased Cricut Cake mat. Smooth out all air bubbles (use the smoother in the Cricut Cake Tool Kit or a rolling pin). You will be able to see air bubbles and areas without shortening more easily with frosting sheets since they are somewhat transparent. The frosting sheet will appear wet and you may be able to see the brush strokes where shortening has been applied. Lift the frosting sheet and apply shortening to any areas you may have missed, if necessary. Make sure to smooth down and get out all the air bubbles.
• Using the directional arrows on the machine, move the cutting blade about ½" from the top and side edge.
Start cutting using medium speed and pressure. You may need to adjust the pressure. Use just enough pressure to cut through the frosting sheet but not into the mat. For best results cut images 3" or larger. More intricate images may cut better at larger sizes.
• To prevent drying, store cut shapes in a sealed bag until ready to use.
1. What causes my frosting sheet to slip when it’s being cut?
a. You may have too much shortening. Use a pastry brush to apply the shortening and brush until all the white is
gone. You should see transparent brush marks where you’ve applied shortening to the mat.
b. The shortening may be too warm. Since shortening turns to liquid at high temperatures, this can cause the frosting sheet to slip. Always start with a room temperature or cold mat (not hot) and, if possible, work in a room that is 80 degrees F or less. If necessary, place mat with frosting sheet applied in the freezer for about 2 to 5 minutes. Just leave it in there long enough to firm up the shortening, but not so long that the frosting sheet becomes cold and brittle.
2. What causes my frosting sheet to bunch up when it’s being cut?
a. You may not have enough shortening. Use a pastry brush to apply the shortening to the mat and the back of the frosting sheet. Apply the frosting sheet to the mat and smooth out all the air bubbles. Check for any spots that don’t appear wet. Lift and apply shortening to any of these areas.
b. You may have air bubbles under the frosting sheet. Use the smoother from the Cricut Cake Tool Kit or a rolling pin to smooth out the frosting sheet and apply the frosting sheet to the mat. Check for air bubbles and continue to smooth onto the mat until well applied and no air bubbles can be seen.
3. How can I tell if I have enough shortening on the mat when cutting frosting sheets? Since the frosting sheets are so thin, they are somewhat transparent. The frosting sheet will appear wet and you may
be able to see the brush strokes where shortening has been applied. If you notice white areas, lift the frosting sheet and apply more shortening under the white area.
4. Why can't I use a paper towel or my hand to apply the shortening?
We recommend using a pastry brush to apply the shortening to ensure an even and ample coating of shortening. Apply a generous coating of shortening, but if the shortening is white, brush until the white is gone.
5. What do frosting sheets taste like?
They are starchy and lightly sweet. They taste somewhat like rice paper.
6. Can I reuse scraps of frosting sheets?
You can cut on any scraps of frosting sheets that are larger than 3" x 3". Unlike gum paste, you cannot re-roll frosting sheets.

Cutting Gum Paste:
• Gum paste will be crumbly and stiff or may even be a little hard when it comes out of the tub.
• Gently knead a portion of the gum paste until it becomes pliable and easy to work. If it is too stiff to work with, heat in the microwave for about 10 seconds.
• If you wish to color the gum paste, knead in gel-based food coloring until desired color is achieved and color is evenly distributed.
• Lightly dust both sides with a cornstarch and powdered sugar mixture.
• Using a rolling pin or a pasta machine, roll out to about 1/16" thick (about the thickness of one or two CDs).
• Apply to a greased Cricut Cake mat. Smooth out all the air bubbles using the smoother from the Cricut Cake Tool Kit or a rolling pin. Press down firmly to ensure the gum paste is adhered to the mat and that the air bubbles are gone.
• Place mat in the freezer for about 30 minutes to make it firmer for cutting.
• Remove mat from freezer and immediately place in the Cricut Cake machine. Use directional arrows to move the cutting blade ½" from top and side edges. Medium speed and pressure are recommended for best results.
• For best results, cut images 3" or larger.
1. Why do you use cornstarch and powdered sugar when you roll out the gum paste? This is the ideal mixture since cornstarch will make the gum paste a bit slippery and powdered sugar will make the gum paste stick slightly, reducing the slipperiness.
2. Can I use flour to roll out the gum paste? No. Gum paste does not contain flour. Adding flour will create an undesirable texture and flavor.
3. Can I use any kind of food coloring to color my gum paste? No. The food coloring normally found in a grocery store has a very high water content. Adding water to gum paste will make it sticky and ruin it. We recommend that you use gel food coloring (found in the cake decorating section of many craft stores) to color your gum paste. It is concentrated and will require less to color the gum paste.
4. What does gum paste taste like? It taste very similar to fondant (the very smooth covering popular on many cakes). It is very sweet and has a gummy, chewy texture.
5. Why do you recommend medium pressure for cutting? Since you are only cutting through soft food materials, this is all the pressure that is required. Only use enough pressure to cut completely through the food material you are using. By using heavier pressure, you are cutting into the mat. This will shorten the life of your mat and your blade.
6. Why do you recommend medium speed for cutting? Since you are cutting through fairly thick materials, this will ensure a clean, even cut.
7. Can I reuse my scraps of gum paste? Yes, just put them in a sealed plastic bag until you are ready to use them. When you are ready, remove them from the bag and begin kneading until the gum paste becomes smooth and flexible (if necessary, place the gum paste in the microwave for 10 seconds). Re-roll the gum paste and you are ready to cut it again.