I'm a beginner with fondant

The consistency of Fondant can vary, with the brand used - apart from adding shortening to soften it  or confectioner's sugar to make it less stretchy. I have used Regalice, CovaPaste and PME fondant - with different results!

However what is common to most brands is that if you over knead it - as well as making it too soft, can also cause air bubbles to form throughout! Adding too much sugar to rectify the consistency will cause it to dry out too quickly - hence the cycle never ends!

If you allow the fondant to rest for an hour or so after kneading, and knead it again very lightly - before rolling it out,  this does helps. Other factors that you might consider - are atmospheric conditions i.e. room temperature and humidity, and  warm hands will also cause it to become soft and sticky.

You say that you are a beginner with fondant - the more you work with it, the easier it gets to handle! I learnt this lesson from my own experience when starting out, and now love working with fondant, so hang in there and good luck!

Hope this helps!

Regards

Margaret393

Quote:

Originally Posted by Margaret393 

 

However what is common to most brands is that if you over knead it - as well as making it too soft, can also cause air bubbles to form throughout! Adding too much sugar to rectify the consistency will cause it to dry out too quickly - hence the cycle never ends!

 

If you allow the fondant to rest for an hour or so after kneading, and knead it again very lightly - before rolling it out,  this does helps. Other factors that you might consider - are atmospheric conditions i.e. room temperature and humidity, and  warm hands will also cause it to become soft and sticky.

 

 

Hi Margaret, I am in the UK so our brands may be slightly different, but if I am adding colour (Colourflair paste) to fondant, is it best to knead it in and then let it rest for the colour to develop before rolling prior to covering the cake?

I am beginning to experiment with coloured fondants now. Rather than purely covering in white and adding accents. I did buy the black ready coloured though as I didn't think I would be able to get a 'deep' enough black.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeliciousDesserts 

Yes! Also, the color will deepen with a bit of time so it's very important to let it rest. Addin to much color will change the consistency.

Thank you Delicious... I shall try doing that for my next project....I'm thinking purple, fading through to lilac.... :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spireite 

Hi Margaret, I am in the UK so our brands may be slightly different, but if I am adding colour (Colourflair paste) to fondant, is it best to knead it in and then let it rest for the colour to develop before rolling prior to covering the cake?

I am beginning to experiment with coloured fondants now. Rather than purely covering in white and adding accents. I did buy the black ready coloured though as I didn't think I would be able to get a 'deep' enough black.

Hi Spirete I agree with DeliciousDessets - yes the colour will deepen in time, so the purpose of letting it rest is twofold - makes fondant easier to work with and allows colour to develop. I recently made a birthday cake using a coloured covered base (Sugarflair dark brown paste) This was the FIRST time out of my comfort zone  of using white or ivory! I felt it was a bit too brave at the time, but I had reached another milestone in cake decorating and was happy with the results! You can see a photo of this cake in my birthday album on Cake Central.

Knead and mix in the colour at the same time, whereas if you knead it first and then add the colour you will have to knead it again to ensure even distribution of  colour paste. The fondant at this stage could become very soft - due to over kneading, therefore difficult to work with.

I used "THE MAT"  (2 layers of silicone sheets) to roll out the dark coloured fondant as I happened to have one - saves the addition of icing sugar or cornflour, which shows up too easily on dark colours, although it can be cleaned off.

Hope this helps!

Margaret393