Hi!

I would so so appreciate it if anyone could watch the very first part of this video and tell me what the girl is using to cut out the fondant snowflakes? It's within the first 5 seconds. It's red, and it looks like something used for scrapbooking. I looked at Joann's today and could find anything that resembled it. That said, I had my two young children with and they had reached their shopping limit. THANKS!

http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/dc-cupcakes-candy-cane-swirl.html

I don't find that exact thing, but if you put "snowflake punch" into Google, you will find some similar. There are two or three pretty Martha Stewart ones.

Yes, they are paper punches, similar to these: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001JSQYZW/?tag=cakecentral-20
I have a few of them, I find they don't work so well on straight fondant because you have to roll really thin, but fondant with CMC works great.

Thanks! They do look like paper punches. I noticed she seemed to punch several out and they fall forward.

I got in touch with Georgetown Cupcakes. The very nice catering manager, Sarah Goldman, told me that yes, it is a paper punch that they are using (in the video) to cut the snowflakes, with the punch held sideways so that the fondant snowflake came out toward them. The fondant was made as thin as necessary for the punch.

Their source was paper-source.com, but evidently they don't have that one any more. I found this one: http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/item/Nordic-Snowflake-Punch-All-Over-Punch/2904.011/433477.html. Sarah looked at it and said it should work the same.

Shanter-Thank you for contacting them! That was so nice of you! I'm definitely going to look into those. I could tell that their snowflake, reindeer, and Christmas tree fondant cutouts are much thinner than their flower cutouts.

CMC and other are explained here:
http://thesugarlane.com/2009/05/12/whats-the-difference-tylose-powder-cmc-powder-trag-powder-gum-tex/

I hope someone else answers because I don't have enough experience to tell you.

According to the author of that article, yes you should be able to use GumTex, she says so in reply to the same question by someone in the comments. I haven't tried it as I only use CMC (I add 1/2tsp to 8oz fondant and knead well - not sure how much gumtex you would have to add).

Great article and thanks for sharing the link to it. I always use Tylos Powder because it dries out the fondant quicker and cheaper than using gumpaste. If I were making those snowflakes I would roll out the material as thin as I wanted and let it dry for a while (depending upon the humidity in your home) and then punch it. Otherwise, the material will stick to the punch. Kinda like a poor-man's Cricut, ha, ha!

Sorry to have to be the one to bring up the food safety issue... but paper punches really do not seem clean enough for food. I have a few (for paper) and the ones that I have cannot be cleaned at all since they don't come apart.

I know Wilton came out with a set of punches to go with their icing sheets - not sure about the quality or selection.

Or maybe just stick with regular cookie cutters and plunger type cutters that are made for food?

CMC and Tylose are the same thing. It's the man-made gum trag used in fondant to stiffen it up.

If you cannot find a good paper punch you like with that snowflake design, here are the PME snowflake punches that have a similar design and work wonders. I used them on my winter wonderland cake (in my pix.) http://www.globalsugarart.com/product.php?id=20761&name=Snowflake%20Cutters%20by%20PME

well I'm not exactly saying it's a health concern - I'm sure no one will get sick. I just don't think it's food safe. They are not manufactured to be used with food items, so who knows if there are oils or lubricants used in them... and because they cannot be taken apart easily I don't see them being cleaned really well. There are a lot of cake shows on TV that do things that aren't really sanitary. There are a million threads about food safety issues, so I'm really not trying to get into all of that... but I think it's important to think about what chemicals, dirt, oils, etc. may be touching food items when using items that are not made for that purpose.