I usually use a quick, easy, good tasting recipe for homemade fondant that consists of:
16 oz marshmallows mini
2 tbls water
2 tsp flavoring
powdered sugar

I usually don't have problems, it smooths so easily over the cake, doesn't crack, (Usually is the key word here), doesn't tear, doesn't do anything bad....BUT....Why is it that when I dye this a light color or leave it white none of this happens, but if I dye the fondant black, green, orange, etc...(usually a slightly darker color than my pastel range)...it tears, rips, seperates, cracks, you name it, every darn bad thing that fondant can do.
I use Wilton coloring so far. (thinking of changing) and I am going to try Michelle's fondant but I usually don't make enough fondant cakes to usually worry.

Any suggestions??? Sorry so long. It's just freaking me out cause I can't figure out why it does this.....

I am soooooooo not an expert and personlly never had lot of success with MMF, mine was always too soft and tore, etc. BUT do you think that it is because you have to add more of these colors usually to get your required shade?

The reson I am thinking this is because I ordered some precolored pettinice that was red and it was sooooo much softer and stickier than the white of the same brand, and you know to get red you have to add alot of color. I don't know just my thinking.

AMY

I use the same recipe you do and what I find to help is to work in a little corn starch after you make the fondant. It looks like it lightenes it at first but it all works in. If it seams too dry just work in some shortening, not very much just a little on your counter and hands. I find that it helps to roll out on corn starch, and then brush off excess and then airbrush with vodka to get any visible corn starch off. Then the extra fondant that I cut off after smoothing the cake I just warm up and then knead with shortening and it brings it right back to the regular consistancy. I am horrible with explaining things, so if this makes no sense let me know!! lol

I don't have an airbrush ! It's on my xmas list. I did try to put it in the microwave, add shortening, etc. but it tore in more places than I can imagine. If I add cornstarch wouldn't it make it less pliable than it is now. It's almost like the coloring makes it dry, too dry to even roll out. It gets these funny little flaky ridges in it when I roll it out....

I know exactly what you are talking about.. it's happened to me.... What I have found is that there really is too much shortening and that is what is keeping it from being smooth and falling apart... the fonant can't stick to itself. Really try just to work in a little cornstarch just dust your counter a little, and then knead it just a few times back to shortening but just a very little amount to absorb the cornstarch you can see.

What about the bitter taste? I tried dying my MMF dark brown using the wilton colors and it smelled and tasted bitter.

The same thing just happened to me, when I made a forest green. I did use americolor this time and it still happened. There were pin holes all thru the MMF. It looked awful!! It also stuck to my hands more than usual. I was thinking I needed to add more powdered sugar, but didn't have enough at the time. I will use the cornstarch next week......I have to make a red and black cake!! I'm a little nervous over it.

Ya, I understand the pinholes!! I just keep a good balance of cornstarch and shortening to keep the right consistancy. Having an airbrusher really helps I must say.... then you don't have to worry about visable cornstarch, because you just airbrush the final cake with vodka and it all goes away, giving a really clean look.

This the same reason why I stopped making fondant at home. Dark colors are a nightmare... So this is what I do.... I buy Sating Ice Fondant and charge more $. Never had a problem again... Always great, smooth, stretchable, etc... Yes, it costs more but I think it is worth every penny.

I swear on the Cake Bible that I didn't add too much shortening when mixing the color in. I only mixed it in in small amounts. And that I'm probably going to start buying Satin Ice. And yes, the color was a drk green but I also had this problem with the orange and black. It always tastes good though. Weird.

I am thinking that it's either the extra Crisco that I use OR that adding the extra liquid (from the color) is messing up the consistency. I think that because it only seems to happen with the darker colors (erego more gel/liquid/). I'm going to try the cornstarch and see if that helps. Otherwise, if I need a darker color, I might leave out the liquid and use the liquid color in the melted marshmallows. We'll see.

Okay, so I used some extra cornstarch and tried to work with it a bit more and that seemed to help slightly. Then I got the brilliant idea of trying to add a little corny syrup for stickiness. Not a good call.

I'm going to chunk that batch (it was a bit old and perhaps that was part of the problem) and try adding red powder and see if that helps.

BTW, I think I forgot to mention (kind of obvious) my mmf turned funky last night when I tried to get it dark red.

I made a batch of MMF with some marshmallows that were a little sticky out of the bag...ie: not 100% fresh; and it was a huge mess . No amount of cornstarch, Crisco, kneading, whatever, would help . Now I make sure that my marshmallows are super fresh, fluffy, not sticky, before I start. If they're even a little sticky I throw them out and buy new ones.

This may not have been your problem, but since the subject is unruly fondant I thought I'd throw that in .