I made a dummy cake in late Janurary and now my fondant is getting weird. I used crisco to get my fondant to stick. It looks like the crisco seeped through. Has this happened to anyone else? This was my first blue ribbon cake and I'm super sad

If heat and humidity have gotten to your dummy cake over the summer, that will ruin your fondant.

I live in Colorado so no humidity and it was in the AC all summer.

For the few dummy cakes I've done, I always used piping gel to adhere the fondant. Pure guessing here, but I would guess that if there is enough crisco and the fondant is thin enough it could possibly bleed through. Like I said, I'm just guessing but it seems to make sense. Fondant will absorb moisture so I would guess it's possible. If someone else can't answer this for you with certainty, maybe experiment with just a small piece of foam and put down piping gel in one area, crisco in another and maybe water or even buttercream in a 3rd and put a piece of fondant on it and watch how it behaves for you. (I'm hoping someone else can simply pop in here and have the answer for you)

What color was your cake? Is it possible that your cake is just fading?

I've used all kinds of things to attach fondant to cake dummies, even crisco, and haven't had any problems with it.

It's the hatbox cake in my pics. I'll post pics of what it looks like now when I have a second.

Hope this helps.

Wow, I am so sorry to see this. I looked at the cake in your photos and it was absolutely gorgeous. Which brand of black fondant did you use? I know Duff's has a very high shortening content. I love using it and the flavor, but it is very greasy (for lack of a better word). I notice your flowers still look perfect, and they are not against the black fondant anyplace. I'm sure there are those who clearly know much more than I do, but to me it does look like you had shortening bleed through on this. I'm guessing that it could be a combination of what was used on the dummy itself to make the fondant adhere, plus what was in the fondant itself. I thought I would end up seeing that it faded, but you can see on the bottom tier that it's blotchy, not faded out. And yet your flowers and leaves look perfect to me.

You know it could just be the nature of black fondant. Drying, age and such might have an effect on it. Why not just get some black gel coloring and some vodka or extract and paint over it. It will hide the shortening spots and keep the color dark.

I have used paste shoe polish to help keep the colour consistant on my black and brown faux cakes. I just rub it on and then polish it up a bit. Since the cake is not being eaten there is no worry about it being food safe.

Dummy cakes don't last forever...Eventually you have to trot on out to the garbage can and toss them in. It could just be that since you used the black fondant it's more noticeable than a white one changing would be.