Dumb Question Regarding Fondant And Tylose
Decorating By alexius007 Updated 2 Jun 2015 , 8:54pm by Jinkies

Fondant newbie here. I'm going to practice making some basic fondant flowers this week using MMF. I read that you can add tylose to fondant to make it dry harder/faster. My dumb question in, when do I add it? After the fondant is made? Knead it in? Thank you in advance!



I am tackling fondant flowers with added powder also.
I use about 1/4-1/2 tsp for a fist size amount of MMF. It seems to dry pretty well, although it takes about 2 days for a really firm set in the parts of my flowers that meet the pistils...I have broken many of the flowers thinking that they were already dry..oops. Sigh. All that work for a busted flower. :(
Flowers may be the bane of my existence. But I am determined to nail them. I yielded 9 decent hibiscus flowers for 15 I made. Not too bad having never touched a flower before this. (I tell myself this to encourage myself to not hate them.)
my advice, if you want....practice, practice, practice...and if they aren't as awesome as you were anticipating them to be the first time out, don't give up.

I'm just going to try a basic "cut circles and then frill the edges and layer them". I live in the desert so hopefully they'll dry pretty fast.

adding tylose to MMF will also help to strengthen the fondant, make it more pliable, and add stretch...
you can add the tylose during the kneading process when you're making it (same time that the powdered sugar gets kneaded in) or wait until after MMF has been made and rested. I believe the community agreement on average measure is 1 tsp tylose per pound of MMF. but this is not a hard and fast rule, and some batches of MMF turn out better than others ;-)
generally I make my MMF, divide it into tennis ball sized portions, store it, then add the tylose whenever I pull some out to work on a project. how much tylose I add depends on the project. and I don't follow exact measures...I go by feel and behavior.
before you curse me for suggesting the 'feel test' (-; give it a try...take a small ball of premade and rested MMF...knead until it is a warm, smooth, workable clay...use a bit of shortening to mitigate sticking...sprinkle just a little tylose on the MMF... knead and stretch the MMF ball well to incorporate tylose...repeat sprinkling of tylose, kneading, stretching...when the texture of the MMF begins to firm up and starts to behave like a wad of bubblegum, stop...wrap MMF ball in plastic and let it rest for about on hour.

Quote by @virago on 40 minutes ago
adding tylose to MMF will also help to strengthen the fondant, make it more pliable, and add stretch...
you can add the tylose during the kneading process when you're making it (same time that the powdered sugar gets kneaded in) or wait until after MMF has been made and rested. I believe the community agreement on average measure is 1 tsp tylose per pound of MMF. but this is not a hard and fast rule, and some batches of MMF turn out better than others ;-)
generally I make my MMF, divide it into tennis ball sized portions, store it, then add the tylose whenever I pull some out to work on a project. how much tylose I add depends on the project. and I don't follow exact measures...I go by feel and behavior.
before you curse me for suggesting the 'feel test' (-; give it a try...take a small ball of premade and rested MMF...knead until it is a warm, smooth, workable clay...use a bit of shortening to mitigate sticking...sprinkle just a little tylose on the MMF... knead and stretch the MMF ball well to incorporate tylose...repeat sprinkling of tylose, kneading, stretching...when the texture of the MMF begins to firm up and starts to behave like a wad of bubblegum, stop...wrap MMF ball in plastic and let it rest for about on hour.
Awesome advice!!!! I am totally going to try it this way. Thank you! Xoxo

@mccantsbakes - you are very welcome!
forgot I has posted this...here's a basic fondant cut shape with frilled edges using MMF/tylose (not layered but same concept)

Those are gorgeous!
Another question...If I don't want to use a molded center, can pipe a ball of royal icing for the center and stick stamens in? If so would it be best to wait until the flower dries or will this not work?

Quote by @alexius007 on 1 hour ago
Those are gorgeous!
Another question...If I don't want to use a molded center, can pipe a ball of royal icing for the center and stick stamens in? If so would it be best to wait until the flower dries or will this not work?
thank you for the compliment!
I've not tried what you are asking about...but I don't see any reason why it would not work...I would let the flower firm up a bit first, add the RI and stamens, then let the whole thing dry completely.

fyi...here's a fantastic recipe for edible glue...I use it all the time with MMF
http://thesugarlane.com/how-to-make-edible-glue/

Why don't you make gumpaste with egg whites? so much easier than making fondant first from marshmallows and then converting to gumpaste. I use nicholas lodge's recipe and it's great.

Thank you all again for the responses! I will check out the edible glue recipe for sure.
Sweettooth, I guess I was using mmf because I can get the ingredients locally and I happened to have some tylose powder on hand and was going to be making it (mmf) anyway to cover a cake board. The gumpaste recipe you mention looks pretty easy (actually a similar one is on the tylose bottle I have, didn't know that!) so I might give that a try, but it will use up most of my bottle. Is it pretty foolproof? I'm good at following directions but I don't want to mess it up and use up almost all of my powder in the process.

Another dumb question, is the gumpaste from that recipe white? I'm making red, white and blue layered flowers so I need a very true white. Never worked with gumpaste before so have no idea. Thank you all for helping me out :)

I also use the Nicholas Lodge gumpaste recipe and love it. It's super easy to make. Takes about 10 minutes. Yes, it is white and can easily be colored. It makes a pretty big batch as well. I store mine in the fridge and just take it out an hour or so before I want to use it-lasts forever that way-never dries out.
I don't like using the tylose w/fondant for flowers because it never dries as hard as the straight gumpaste and it seems to use up my tylose quicker as well. Tylose is really for the stretch factor. I think it's the egg whites that really make the gumpaste dry hard (??). If I'm doing cake toppers, I'll usually use mmf w/cornstarch so it's stiff but not rock solid.
So, it really depends on what result you are looking for.

Good to know, I think I'll give it a try tonight and I ordered some more tylose online. I just figured I'd use the fondant since I had to make some anyway but it sounds like gumpaste may be the better option. Trying to get over feeling intimidated by it all!

Jinkies is right the gumpaste I make dries hard and seem to hold well even when it is really humid. I beg to differ on the tylose point, I think the tylose also contributes to harden the gumpaste so it could be the combination, i could be wrong.



Ok, reading through the Nicholas Lodge recipe and about to give it a go, but one more dumb question. It says it needs to mature for 24 hours in a cool environment, but then when not in use, it needs to be refrigerated. So, the maturing period of 24 hours is just cool, but not refrigerated, then place in fridge after the 24 hours if not using right away?

Yes,cool spot not fridge, if you are going to be using the gumpaste within a couple of weeks storing in the fridge is fine but if you have extra and not going to need it for a month or so just wrap well and freeze it. Take it out to thaw the night before when you need it.

Awesome, thanks! I made my batch this morning, seems to be as described. It's maturing as we speak and I hope to try it out tomorrow evening.

I don't know how to add an image to my post, but I posted a pic of my cake with the gumpaste flowers in my profile. Thank you so much to everyone who replied, you were all very helpful!
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