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Hi everyone, I have been having a problem with my home made fondant when I try to achieve darker colors like red, black, dark brown etc.  The fondant becomes crumbly and looks dry and no matter what I do, I can't change the texture back.  I don't know what I am doing wrong.... Any advise?

 

P.S. my fondant is made with confectioners sugar, gelatin, glucose, glycerin, shortening, water and flavoring.

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When the humidity is low and my fondant dries out, I wet my findertips a little at a time and kneed the fondant.  A little water goes a long way, you don't want to use too much.

Thanks for responding but, I don't actually think that the fondant is drying out.  I have tried adding little bits of water, glycerin and shortening and nothing helped.  I'm wondering if there is something wrong with my fondant recipe....


 
Pauline Mckevitt said:

When the humidity is low and my fondant dries out, I wet my findertips a little at a time and kneed the fondant.  A little water goes a long way, you don't want to use too much.

I make the homemade mmf just with store bought marshmallows, not your recipe. Your recipe is a bit too industrious for me... hee hee.  I add corn syrup in making my mmf as that helps the fondant "take' colour. If my fondant becomes dry, I just add shortening and knead it in until It has the consistency I want. Sometimes the fondant doses become dry with the addition of food colour, not sure of the how or why, but know the shortening works.

Hope this helps. :o)

Celly - what type of colouring are you using?

Wilton icing color (gel)
 
Katy Nott said:

Celly - what type of colouring are you using?

OK - so it shouldn't be your colouring then.........

However, I have searched a few forums and found this from someone - 

Red and black take a lot of color, especially red, and that can make your fondant crumbly.

Could this be the problem, I wonder.  If you add your colour to the fondant after it is made, that seems to be when the problem occurs.  The poster of the above comment suggests the following - 

If you need to make red, the best way to do it is to add the coloring to the melted marshmallows. That helps you get around the crumbly issue. The best way to make black is to replace about 1 cup of the powdered sugar with 3/4 cup cocoa powder, which will make a brown (and chocolate flavored) fondant. It doesn't take much color to turn brown fondant into black.

I see that you don't use marshmallows, but perhaps you could add your colouring to your original mix before combining?

Yup Katy
That will work. Adding the colour while making it. And  most times I make chocolate mmf if I want black. Or at the very least add brown & black food colouring when making my mmf. Then you don't have to add so much black later to the fondant. :0)

thanks for the help you guys! I might have to try making marshmallow fondant.  That probably tastes better too!

 

 

Yup
Marshmallow fondant tastes awesome. :0)

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