Is There Any Way To Help Fondant Dry Faster?
Decorating By myfirst1 Updated 4 Aug 2007 , 4:17pm by lu9129
I have fondant wood slats that are about 1/4 inch thick. They will have to stand upright on the side of the cake when finished. Is there anyway that i can get the fondant to dry faster? I am thinking that i may have to move to chocolate instead, but i already have the slats cut.
Thanks! 
i would love to know the answer to this..i been procrastinating on a bday cake for a friend of mine that is due tonight..doing it for him cause he is like one of my really good friends and not charging for the cake..i was gonna make some fondant/gumpaste figures but its probably to late..
did you mix the fondant with any Gum-tex, Gum-trag, Tylose or CMC?...any of them will help your fondant to dry better and faster.
If you didn't I would suggest you just mixing the fondant up again with any of these products...1 tsp per pound. If you have none of these, use denture powder (true) which will do the same thing... it is especially good to add this stuff if the weather is humid where you are...
I am not a great searcher of info but JanH could probably send you a bunch of links on this very subject...
Usually when I make a character, by the next day it has dried enough that it is pretty hard ...would be hard enough probably to let the fence stand but if you could give it a couple of days that would be even better....
Put the item IN THE OVEN with just the light on overnight and it will accelerate the drying process...don't let anyone near your oven whilst it is in and make a note for yourself as well as there have been stories of crispy critters in the oven because of forgetting it was in there..
Hope that helps
Jane
Along side of using the gum-tex or tylose powder, if you have a food dehydrator (if you can invest in one they are fabulous) and your slats are the right size to fit into it, the dehydrator works wonders on drying fondant and gumpaste decoration in a much quicker time frame.
For fondant over a cake, you can set it in front of a fan and let the air flow carry the moisture away. Note this may not work if it is humid and you don't have air conditioning.
For gumpaste figures you can try the following depending on your needs:
o Fan - same idea as above
o Add cmc, tylose powder, or gum trag
o Add corn starch - similar to pastillage - may make it brittle
o When making the item, I may roll the dough thinner and make two of the item and glue it together with royal icing or melted chocolate or summer coating or just
o Add a layer of melted chocolate to the back where it will not be seen (I used this idea on the bridge of this cake) http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=671063 When putting this cake together at the last minute, I realized the bridge would not support the figure I had on it. I hastily melted some summer coating and spread on the bottom of the bridge and put it in the freezer to quickly harden. Worked like a charm although in my haste, the final product did not have as neat a look as I would have liked. Note: if using chocolate for this idea, do not put it in the freezer to harden, it needs to air dry or it will melt when you take it out the freezer (ask me how I know 
)
o When rolling out the item use a ribbed rolling pin for the under side of the item. The ribbing increases surface area and allows for it to dry more quickly
o Make sure you are drying on foam, sponge or styrofoam.
o Sometimes I will use a combination of these ideas
Hope one of these ideas can help.
I did a graduation hat and let it set for over a week with a fan on it and when I when to put it on my cake it just fell apart. It wasn't dry.
I made another from gumpaste with a fan overnight and it dried.
Start over with gumpaste. It will save your nerves!!!
Lu
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