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Help -- MMF cutouts sticking and losing shape!

post #1 of 3
9/26/12 at 9:47am
Thread Starter 
Hi! I'm making two different pizza cakes for an anniversary event and I'm having issues with cutouts sticking to the mat I'm cutting on as well as the shapes losing their shape when I try to remove them from the mat. At first I thought perhaps I had too little powdered sugar on the mat and too much Crisco on my hands, but after adjusting those, I'm still having issues.

I'm using DMJ69's MMF recipe, colored a dark red for pepperoni. I made it yesterday and let it rest overnight in the bottom drawer of the fridge. I took it out, cut off a portion, kneaded it until it felt "right", then rolled it out and made circles using a circular fondant cutter. When I tried to slide them off the mat (it's a plastic mat used for rolling out pie dough) with an small offset spatula, they immediately decided to morph into weirdly shaped oblongs.

I smushed them altogether into a ball, kneaded, and tried again, thinking perhaps I rolled it out too thinly, This time I made them a bit thicker -- a smidge under a quarter inch, maybe? They made weirdly shaped oblongs again icon_cry.gif

I added more powdered sugar when I kneaded and less Crisco on my hands.... icon_confused.gif Repeated everything. Same thing.

Any thoughts? Should I make them even thicker?

BTW, I'm having the same issue with cut-out mushrooms. The only items not giving me issues are the green MMF for peppers and the faintly magenta MMF for red onion...

Many thanks!
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post #2 of 3
9/26/12 at 10:38am
Couple of ideas. Let your cut outs dry a bit before taking them off the mat. In fact letting your fondant dry before cutting them is even better. Right now it sounds like the fondant is way too soft. And when I say 'dry' I'm not talking about completely stiff--just dry enough to hold the shape.

Another idea is to add gum paste to your fondant. People will tell you Tylose works...and it does--- to a degree IMO, but I hate the consistency and thickness the fondant has after adding Tylose. Again...that's just me and my experience with it. I use Wilton's premade gum paste and it works great on its own for decor that needs to dry hard and for when I need to stiffen up fondant.
A closed mouth gathers no feet.
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A closed mouth gathers no feet.
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post #3 of 3
9/26/12 at 12:41pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by carmijok

Couple of ideas. Let your cut outs dry a bit before taking them off the mat. In fact letting your fondant dry before cutting them is even better. Right now it sounds like the fondant is way too soft. And when I say 'dry' I'm not talking about completely stiff--just dry enough to hold the shape.



LOL -- right after I posted this and did a couple other things I went back to the fondant, and you're absolutely correct -- they needed to dry out a bit! I had no problem picking them up, and they held their shape nicely icon_smile.gif

Quote:
Quote:

Another idea is to add gum paste to your fondant. People will tell you Tylose works...and it does to a degree (IMO) but I hate the consistency and thickness the fondant has after adding Tylose. Again...that's just me and my experience with it. I use Wilton's premade gum paste and it works great on its own for decor that needs to dry hard and for when I need to stiffen up fondant.



I've never worked with Tylose, but I've heard people talking about it for this type of instance. It didn't even occur to me to use gum paste either. Luckily I still have a partial can of Wilton's!

Thank you!
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