No Crisco Here, No Shrtening Either!
Decorating By oilili Updated 29 Aug 2006 , 9:12pm by MikeRowesHunny
Hello from France everyone!
I've started making cakes with fondant for my girls' birthdays as children's cakes in France are literally inexistent. I find I really like doing this and I started doing cakes for my neighbours, work colleagues...
My problem: can't get my rolled fondant right, it either sticks to the work plan (albeit the amounts of confectionners' sugar I put on it to avoid sticking) or it crackles and can't roll it out. 
I presume that this is because I cannot find Crisco or an equivalent of shortening in France. Would it be bad to use just butter?
How on Earth am I supposed to get a good consistency of either roled fondant or buttercream without shortening??
Perhaps I should use a coat of marshmallow cream instead of buttercream?
I'd love to hear your experiences. A big thank you in advance.
Wish I could help, but all I can offer to you is a bump!
Hi!
I'm not from France but I searched at google. Shortening is made from coconut oil. There must be something similar in France. As I said I searched and found something called Cocose. I don't know if it's still available because I mostly found old advertisments. I also found Vegetaline but I don't know if it is white.
Hope I could you help a little.
Luggi
Here is a bump in hopes someone in europe can help you.
As for the Buttercream you can use all butter (I am assuming you are talking about the wilton recipe) It will be softer to work with so if it is warm you may need to refridgerate your buttercream.
But there are also different types of buttercream, you may want to check out the recipe section of this site.
Sorry I can't help with the crisco/veg shortening
Leily
can you order it online?
they have it here
http://www.thebakerskitchen.com/BAKEWARE_SHOPPE/Baking_Ingredients/Food_Items/Buttercream_&_Shortenings/ready-made_buttercream_&_shortenings.htm
Oilili, ça va? Anyhow, my french is terrible, eventhough I live in german-french canton 
But what I wanted to tell is that here in Switzerland you can get sth, what is called coconut fat (in german Kokosfett) and you can buy it in most of the market chains (coop, migros, carrefour). I think I have seen it in carrefour as well, but can't recall. I will have a look tomorrow in one of the shops and give you french name for that (here all names are given in german, french and italien ). I think it might be this what you're looking for. I have some recipe for so called Zebra cake, which is simply a lot of chocolate and petti beurres, the consistance of chocolate is based on this coconut fat.
hope that helps
Kasia
Greetings from the USA, and welcome to Cake Central. You are going to love it here.
Do you have access to cornstarch, or what the call cornflour in other nations? You will be better off using this instead of confectioner's sugar. Just be careful, as too much will dry your fondant out.
Solid coconut oil would be a good substitute, if used sparingly.
Theresa 
Hi everyone,
thanks for all the answers. I will see if I can get a solid coconut oil but I wonder if the buttercream won't have a coconut taste... 
Doug, the only equivalent of "graisse vegetale" I found here is liquid.
and you are right, Leily, if I use an "all butter buttercream" I doubt it will be suitable to cover the cake as it will be to soft. perhaps it will work if I also cover the bc with rolled fondant. i need to try.
I had already thought of replacing the confecionner's sugar on my work surface with cornstarch but heaven's! as I cannot get the consistency of my rolled fondant right, I do think it will get even dryer... i will also have to try this out.
I am so gald to have found this web site. it is amazing! 
Thank you all from hot and sunny Paris
I roll my fondant on clear vinyl/plastic--I buy it at the fabric store.
I don't have to use any powdered sugar or shortening on it as long as I lift the fondant every now and then. Works like a charm.
Then to put the fondant on the cake, I just lift the entire sheet of vinyl/plastic with the fondant on it and flip it onto the cake, then slowly pull the vinyl/plastic off of the fondant--no tears in the fondant.
And I have sprinkled a small bit of powdered sugar on the vinyl on humid days when my fondant feels sticky.
I asked my friend who just graduated from the London Cordon Bleu. She says they use this recipe and roll it out on cool dry marble with very little powdered sugar.
455 g icing sugar (powdered)
1.5 tsp powdered gelatin
2 tsp liquid glucose
4 tbsp water
2 tsp glycerine
-sift sugar
-warm water, add gelatin and gently dissolve.Stir in glucose/glycerin and remove from heat.
-stir in sugar 25% at a time, until it's too thick to stir in pan any longer
-remove to clean table and knead in remaining sugar by parts.
-knead until clear and homogeneous (and take an aleve!)
Cover and chill for 24 hours before use - necessary to convert sugar crystal and stabilise them.
Sorry oilili--
I didn't get the whole idea. I buy pre-made fondant. There is not much market here (YET) for fondant cakes. I have made the MMF. I was just thinking that you wanted to use the shortening to keep fondant from sticking on a surface while working it.
Hi there,
To keep you informed, just wanted to say that I have managed to buy some albumen powder from a UK provider (as I said on my previous message, i cannot find Crisco nor most of the Wilton products here) and I replaced my egg whites with this. I also added some gelatin to my fondant.
I have succeeded in rolling out a fondant really well and placing it on my cake for the first time ever! However, I did have trouble in smoothing it - crackles showed up - and it was a bit hard to cut.
I didn't want to try too many things at once to be able to see what works best for me but perhaps I should add the glycerin I bought to the fondant mixture - perhaps this will avoid it from crackling and going so hard? I didn't dare adding some glycerin this time because the weather in France is extremely hot these days.
I will keep you informed....
no crisco here in australia either.....grrrr. We do have a few shortening products one which is coconut based called COPHA but it certainly does not do the job for buttercream... yukky. But I have managed to find a product called "cream cup", its a type of shortening and I buy it from a cake supply store, its great and apparently pretty close to crisco.
In regards to rolling out fondant, we usually do it on our glass top table and maybe use a little pure icing sugar (confectioners sugar ) sifted first, but not much. Never had any problems. I would not be using shortening of any kind to roll it out, it may change the consistency of it.
karen
Actually, DKY, the confectionner's sugar worked out fine to roll the fondant out. It was actually the consistency of the fondant that wasn't right. I couldn't event get it going on my rolling pin - mystery solved.
I keep on searching for a shortening equivalent.
Hello from France !
You're right ! what is shortening ?
To answer oilili ; I am very keen on decorating cakes and I have to go to England to buy my ingredients. To I read all the messages you sent. You say graisse vegetale is liquid : try VEGETALINE it is solid. You asked a uk shop for glycerin : you'll find it by litre in a chimist (pharmacie).
Fondant we sell in France is liquid after melting.
You should find English shops in France who sell ingredient, more expensive of sure ! Try Hediard perhaps. You can also find professionnal shop for bakers and restaurants, some need a professional member card, sother don't
I have a translated book of decorating cakes by Debbie Brown , here is the translation of sugarpaste with french ingredient :
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp liquid glucose (try chimist too or ask bakers who can sell it to you)
625g icing sugara little amount og graisse vegetale if necessary.
Put egg yolk and glucose in a bowl.Add icing sugar and mix until it thickens. Put the mixture on the table and and mix with hands (on sugar iced table) until softened . If it crakles add a little graisse vegetale and mix again.
Immediately put in plastic bag .
Hope I helped you !
Could you tell me what is shortening and what you call a pound cake in Usa ?
I'd echo the comments of a few others that I've heard coconut fat works as a good substitute for vegetable shortening . . . but be careful about those with food allergies - some people with tree nut allergies are also allergic to coconut, so you need to warn people that you are using coconut fat.
I guess the lack of vegetable shortening in European baking might explain why they have lower incidences of heart disease than we do in the US . . . all that hydrogenated fat can't be good for us . . . .
In england meringue powder is known as meri white and can be obtained from any cake decorating store
Crisco is white vegetable fat and is sold under the brand names of Trex and White Flora
Hope this may be some help
Tell me if Trex or white Flora could travel from England to France when I go there ? I will check for the the recipe that uses it then. It must be Vegetaline in France then.
Do you think ready rolled icing from Supercook or any else is the same of the recipe I gave in my last message, because I've never did myself the recipe, and it would be better to do it instead of having a huge case !
I don't see any reason why it shouldn't travel to France.
I usually use the supercook or Renshaws regalice ready to roll icing as it is a very good quality and tastes fine. For the amount of work in making it I think its far easier to buy.
If you don't want to come over and carry icing back why not try this shop?
http://newlook.design-a-cake.co.uk/
They're used to shipping abroad and are very helpful
thank you very much for the shop website. I'll have a look at it later.
I usually buy the same as you. Happily I found some last year in Tesco with a large date delay which I used for the wedding cake I made for my boss in August. My cake was not as fine as the one I saw in this website but I decided to try anyway ! I usually make my rich fruit for Christmas and I'm the only one in my town ! (french people don't know anything about rich fruit and cake art). It's always a great success and for that wedding,people was amazed because it was tottally unusual and they appreciated it a lot, but you can look at it in wedding whimsical 1/176 artist wedding country). You'll surely laugh about my work ! I did it with no course and decorated within 5 hours and I had much fun.
I can only get ready roll fondant, powdered sugar & crisco in expat shops here and all are very pricey. I make my own fondant because I think the Regalice Miss Baritone uses tastes nasty (to me) and what I make myself is much better and tastes however I want it too! I only use crisco to work my fondant, but any white vegetable fat should work. I only ever use an all butter buttercream and it works just fine under fondant, just put it in the fridge first to firm up before putting the fondant over it. I too stock up when we go home - I just brought back 20kg of powdered sugar from our trip for the summer holidays!
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