Hey,

I live in the UK (probably guessed that from the title) and I am not kidding when I say I am seriously hacked off with the lack of decent products here. It's totally soul destroying when you come on this forum and listen to all the Americans talking about the 32 million different brands of seriously amazing fondant that can be rolled paper thin, won't stretch, won't crack etc only to find that it is not humanly possible to get it in the UK. I've tried emailing satin ice, I've tried to get Massa (this is the one I want the most), and what gets me is that I'm sure (if I'm not mistake) that Massa is IMPORTED into the United States from Switzerland??? So it has to fricking fly right over the UK to get there, yet we don't get a sniff of it, or even an inkling as to where in Switzerland it comes from! Everything in the USA is cheaper, you have great shops full of cake decorating goodies that us brits can only dream of.
I'm not kidding when I say it makes me mad.
Is there anyone out there at all, who knows of anywhere in the UK or from the EU that I can order some decent cake decorating items - especially DECENT fondant???

Have you looked into Squires Kitchen?

http://www.squires-shop.com/ibf/index.php?p=home

See I use regalice and find that either end when you take it out the plastic has gone hard and if you don't remember to cut them straight off, you have to pick tiny hard lumps out for ages before you can roll it. Some of their coloured ones, mainly lincoln green and atlantic blue, no matter what I do, end up like elephant skin. P's me right off too. Waste of money and time. I wondered about covapaste. Has anyone tried it?

I've tried ALL UK online shops and if you want to use M&B or regalice, then you are sorted, but having read a million posts and seen how amazing some of the United States products are, I just feel like we are using sub standard products. Having watched videos on Satin Ice and Massa, I am more than desperate to be able to use it over here and I think they would have good sales over here, because it's not like we've really got much to choose from. Here is a list of items I would love to be able to buy over here:

Fat Daddio Cake Leveller
Satin Ice
Massa
Fondx
Elite by Fondx
Cake Separator plates (the good ones)
Stress Free Cake Stackers
Ateco Turntable
Ateco Silicone Mat

and probably a whole bunch of other things that I've likely forgotten. I know that you can buy some of those things from the states and that there are also alternatives, but I don't want alternatives and I don't want to pay more in shipping than the item is worth.

It's a fine line between workability and decent taste. Covapaste is horrible to work with (v.delicate), tastes OK. Pettinice is good to work with, but I don't like the taste. My favourite fondant of all time was Icecraft - gorgeous on both accounts, BUT they stopped making it as it had storage issues (was going mouldy well before the best before dates - I threw out kilos of the stuff myself ). As the PP metioned, design-a-cake is brilliant. They stock several different brands of fondant. A new one is 'Sweet Success', you can also order it directly from the company (www.sweetsuccess.co.uk), and they sell small samples of it too, so you could buy those and see what it's like. I am going to try Sweet Success soon, but for now will stick to Regalice as it it's the most reliable for workabilty & taste that I have found.

Oh, and I am reliably informed by several of my professional US cake decorating friends, that something has changed with Satin Ice that is making it nigh on impossible to work with these days - so the grass isn't always greener !

If I can make you feel any better: I really think that Regalice (the good one from sugarcraft shops, not the grocery) tastes much better than Satin Ice and is about equal in workability. Satin Ice smells like Play Doh and I think it tastes vaguely like it too. I can't comment on Fondx or Massa, but Regalice is a pretty good product. (I use M&B for red and blue because I like the color better... but it's a bit soft.)

Edited: oops... I forgot that the word that begins with "sugar" and ends with "craft" is blocked!

Have any of you tried the PME sugarpaste? I used to use Regalice til I tried PME. It has great workability and tastes much nicer than Regalice. It comes in 2.5kg packets, in white or ivory (at least that is what I get over here in Spain).

You are tired??

Try living in China, we get NADA at all here, plus a lot of shops won't ship over here and if they do, shipping is more expensive than the products themselves.

Then you get clients, who think, that because they live in China, EVERYTHING has to be cheap

It's the same here in Dublin, Ireland. In the whole city we have one shop that sells colours, tints, sprinkles, sugarpaste etc. and it's way overpriced. There is one shop about 45 minutes drive away and that's it.

I order most of my supplies over the web from America or the UK as they are so much cheaper and have so much more selection. Last time my mother visited England she brought back a huge bag of supplies for me

I totally agree! I also hate that I have to generally order online as there arnt many cake supply shops. I love sweet success cakes. The professional shops use them instead of baking, they also use covapaste which I find is ok alot smoother to work with an doesn't have that strong sweet taste. I've got some sweet success silk fondant to try. I used to use tescos own when I was learning but I'd never touch it now. I only use regalise in black an red, I find it too soft an mushy. I have realitives in America who are coming over to us in the summer an have asked what supplies I need. Now I'm at a total blank as I just make do lol.

I agree too, I live in a big city, Birmingham and there is only one shop that sells cake dec products, I went to the sugarcraft fair at the NEC back in November, unfortunately hadnt got much money on me at the time so came out with hardly anything. It comes around again in Novenber this year so I suggest you and I take a stash of money (start saving now), you can buy absolutely everything you need there.

I'm in Scotland we don't get anything like the NEC roadshow, it sucks But we do have a very poorly stocked an way overpriced hobby craft store lol

Lol anyone coming to Shanghai, China, got a boatload of stuff I could use

HEY, ANYTIME I have 2 guestrooms AND I can cook, not only bake, if the guestrooms aren't taken and we are not on holiday, come on over, I could use cakebuddies

It's the same here in Australia...I tried buying a Wilton Fondant Imprint Mat online and finally found one within my price range, only to find that the postage was three times the price of the mat!
Try asking shop owners for certain products and they look at you strangely...it's very frustrating.
I've decided that the only way I'll have a chance of being in the know as far as supplies go, is to enrol in some cake decorating classes and to see what the instructors say.

Naeh, 2 with cake supplies, you can wear my clothes, or my daughter's if you are slim

Sure, why not? ROFLMAO

r u coming to shanghai after that and bring me the goodies????

then yes

Hey, the year is long and a week is nothing, just make sure I am here, don't want to miss out on the fun we could have together, otherwise you are stuck babysitting my teenage daughter