Hi Trish,

I was wondering if you can let me know if I need to put anything in the chocolate mold that I will be using fondant in.  Do I put corn starch in the mold?

Do I let the fondant dry before I take it out or should I take it out right away?

If the cake I'm going to use these one will be for Sept 8th can I make them now or will they be cracked and dried?

One last question... Is fondant easy to color after it's dried or should I do it before it dries?  Is it better to use color fondant or just paint it?

Thanks so much for your help.

Joanne

Hi Joanne,

Rather than putting anything in the mold, I roll a ball of fondant that is close to the size that I anticipate I will need to fill the mold. Then I gently dust the ball with cornstarch and press it into the mold. No need to wait. It pops right out because the cornstarch prevents sticking.

You can make fondant decorations ahead of time, but they will not be as nice to eat as they will be somewhat dried out. But they won't likely crack.

I color my fondant before molding. I try to avoid painting color on unless it is just for details. Painting details can be tricky and requires very exact precision.

Thanks Trish!  I knew you would know the answer.  I don't think anyone is going to want to eat the fondant bits anyway.  YUCK!  Well unless I had that chocolate kind.  Maybe Cake Camp will sell it huh?

If I do scissors what color would I use for them?  I wanted them to be silver so maybe make a grey fondant and then dust with silver luster dust???

Hope everything is ok with you.  I have not heard from you in awhile.  You must have been busy huh?

Joanne

Hi Joanne,

That chocolate kind is pretty darn yummy. I am hoping to taste'test is against the Choco-pan that Linda Shonk will be selling at Cake Camp. Once I make the comparison, I'm going to get some because it is super tasty. You have that whole bucket of FondX and it tastes pretty decent...

I would use a light grey for the scissors. If you go too dark with the grey, it won't look as nice. Then you will need to paint them with luster dust, as just dusting will not give you heavy enough coverage to get the look you are going for.

I have been a bit swamped. I had my mom in town last week and was up till 3 am for 3 nights in a row making new displays for my store to advertise classes. I would not have worked so long and hard at it, but I had my annual instructors meeting on Saturday and was entering my displays in a display contest. I'm glad I put all I did into them because they turned out really cute and I won the contest :-) I'll attach a picyure so you can see what they looked like.

No I hate that FondX!  It's not good.  But it is good enough for the molded pieces.  I forgot that I had it even.  LOL  Sure that's not the only thing I forgot I have. 

Your displays are absolutly darling!  I knew you would win when you were just telling me the idea you had.  To see it come to life is so fun. 

Did you win anything?  Did you learn anything fun at your meeting? 

Joanne

Really? You hate the FondX? I love how soft it gets after kneading. What problems did it give you?

I was pretty thrilled with how the display turned out. I got a little cake pan for winning, but I did it mostly to have great new displays for my store.

We got to play with Wilton's new gumpaste product. They showed us how to make gumpaste calla lillies, which I already knew, but they gave us a cool way to make a former to put them on to dry in order to get a great shape to them. We also did daisies, which I've already shown you. They did them a bit differently, so I'll show you the new way that they are doing it. The carnation was very fun and easy though. You'll love that one.

I really love their new gumpaste. I have some extra. You'll have to come over and play with it!

It has not given me any problems.  I just don't like the taste.  So far the only fondant I liked at all was the chocolate one.

Carnations were my moms favorite flower.  I would love to learn to make them.  I happen to like them too.  I know a lot of people don't care for them and think of them as cheep flowers but I think they are nice.  Same as the dasiy.  I don't care how much a flower cost.  I love all flowers.

The dasiy rememinds me of my brother who was killed many years ago.  His girlfriend loved them and he was always giving them to her.  She told him that since they are cheep flowers he had no excuse to not give them to her :-)  She was such a great woman.  She really loved my brother a lot and never got over his death.  Sadly she never got married.  She said he was her one true love and no one came close to him.  So the dasiy has always held a special place in my heart also.

I have some Wilton gumpaste.  Did they get a new kind that is not out yet? 

Yes we do need to get together for a play date.  It's been awhile. 

Joanne

Hehe... you have expensive taste in fondant. I do love the white chocolate one though. It is my favorite as well.

I love all sorts of flowers, from cheap and simple to wildly unusual (some orchids just look like they couldn't possibly be real!). That's great that all the flowers have such special meanings for you. I think that it will make flower modeling much more enjoyable for you because they have a value to you.

Wilton's ready-to-use gumpaste is a new product. I got to work with it in the past few weeks and have found that I really like it. It dries very quickly, so you have to keep cut pieces covered up so that they don't dry out. But the great part is that you can make flowers for use almost right away because the drying time is so quick.

I'm looking forward to seeing you for our "playdate" next week! It really has been just too long!