I want to make an 18 to put into the top of a 2 tiered cake. I made some mmf and have the number cutters. Do I just cut them out and allow them to dry beforehand? Should I just cut them out and leave them on my mat or will they stick? Should I be lifting them off and placing them on wax paper or something? When I attach sticks to them, what is the best way? How long will they take to dry? Appreciate any help out there! Thanks!

If you live in a very warm and/or humid area, MMF may not dry out enough to stand up. I can make something in fondant here and a week later, it's still not dry.

Your best bet is to do them in gum paste. They should dry well overnight. It is best to dry them on a screen if you're pressed for time, as it allows air to dry from the back too. Otherwise, carefully flip them over halfway through drying.

You can attach to sticks with some icing after they are dry.

IMHO, I would make them out of gum paste instead of fondant. If you don't have any, then add some gum-tex to the fondant. This will help the numbers to dry faster. I have done this kind of thing before and had to dust the wax paper with cornstarch before laying the decoration down on it. As for the sticks, I am at a loss there, sorry. HTH

You can use Royal Icing to attach the numbers to the sticks. That works quite well, as long as you let the RI have enough time to dry without being disturbed.

I've also used white chocolate to attach sticks when I was pressed for time, but that only works if it isn't hot out (or in).

RedPanda

I did spiderman (in my photos- I am having problems attaching it) with half fondant half gumpaste. I actually added the sticks as soon as I cut out spiderman. I thought that it would be a little more stable if it had the sticks in them when thry dried. I did them over a week before the cake was due. But as you can see it was rather thick, I didn't want to risk it breaking because it was to thin. I hope that helps

Vic