9 Fondant Mistakes & Fixes For Beginner Cake Decorating

Let’s uncover the 9 biggest fondant mistakes & Fixes. Say goodbye to elephant skin, dried cracked fondant, and sagging fondant figures that refuse to stick together! With these essential cake tips, you’ll decorate cakes like a fondant pro in no time! Our beginner’s cake decorating guide has everything you need to create flawless fondant cakes.

If your not much of a reader you can watch all of these tips in the video below or directly on YouTube here! But I would definitely scan through the text as there is more tips in this blog than on the video.

How To Use Fondant

Fondant is super easy to work with once you know how! It’s a soft, edible paste used to cover celebration cakes and create simple decorations that stick to the side of your cake like spots strips, small sugar flowers or cute simple figures and animals.

Let’s jump straight into it by exploring the most common fondant mistakes and how to fix them, give you great knowledge and a good foundation to start decorating cakes with fondant!

Fondant mistakes & Fixes which fondant brands to use

Fondant Mistake & Fixes 1: Using Cheap Brands To Cover Your Cakes:

When covering cakes, it’s better to invest in higher-quality brands to avoid problems like elephant skin or tearing. In the UK the top favourites are Couture from Cake Stuff and from The Cake Decorating Company. For decorations and covering dummies or drums cheaper supermarket brands can help keep costs down while still doing the job well.

Fondant Mistake & Fixes 2: Using To Much Cornflour

Using too much cornflour can leave an undesirable white dust on coloured fondant and can dry out your paste creating cracks. I prefer vegetable fat, but if you’re dealing with high humidity or hot hands, cornflour can help by drying out the paste.

 

PRO TIP! If you do use cornflour with your decorations and see a white powered residue on the darker colours, you’ll need to steam the cake or the decorations! Don’t worry if you don’t have a professional steamer just use that setting on your iron! Cool huh!

Remember “Always use cornflower to roll out fondant for sponge cakes, and icing sugar for fruit cakes.

fondant mistake using to much cornflour when rolling out


Fondant Mistake & Fixes 3: Cracked Fondant

One key mistake people often make is kneading dry fondant back into the fresh paste. Doing so leaves you picking out lumps later, which is a hassle. Make sure to remove any dried, cracked fondant from the outer areas before mixing it with good paste. This ensures a smoother consistency for decorating. You might think this is obvious but 10 years down the line I still have a lazy moment and forget this!

 You also want to properly knead your paste making sure you have a smooth texture, Use the heel of your hand to press and turn the fondant until it forms a smooth ball, making it ready for rolling. When I first started doing this it reminded me of how I used to watch my mum make bread as a kid. So if your older than me you might just have that memory too! Its exactly like that! Check out the video below to learn the technique as well as watch all these fondant techniques in action!

Fondant Mistake & Fixes 4: Fondant Not Rolled Evenly!

Rolling even fondant is crucial to covering a cake; if one side of your paste is thicker, your cake won’t have straight-covered sides. You can roll out the fondant using spacers to ensure even thickness.

Roll your fondant evenly by using a non-stick rolling pin. Roll up and down, then a quarter turn, repeating until it reaches the desired thickness. This way, you get even thickness across the whole piece.

How to cut out fondant shapes

Fondant Mistake & Fixes 5: Cutting Shapes Incorrectly

Let’s look at how to cut fondant shapes correctly using a craft knife or cutters.

  • To create long strips of fondant, like ribbon. Start by rolling a sausage shape with the paste, before rolling it out lengthwise. Make sure it’s slightly stuck to a non-stick board before cutting with a blade, as this will keep it in place, with little movement and allow for straighter cuts. 
  • To cut out fondant shapes using metal or plastic cutters, roll the paste out, then flip your paste over so the side that has moisture is faced upwards and the dryer fondant downwards. This makes the fondant easier to move on the surface with out using cornflour and then being left with dry paste or white powder to deal with. Press down firmly with the cutter, wiggle it to clean up the edges, and then remove it.

This video making this fondant bunny cake topper illustrates this perfectly! If we are cutting simple shapes, we won’t have beautiful professional edges. To check out our fondant and cookie cutter range click here.


Fondant Mistake & Fixes 6: Not Learning How to Make Easy Fondant Shapes

Rolling a flawless, crease-free ball, creating shapes and learning how to use your hands as tools is fundamental, particularly for creating fondant animals or characters.

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Fondant Mistake & Fixes 7: Fondant Figures Sagging and Cracking

When making fondant figures, one common mistake is adding additional weight before the existing parts have had time to dry properly. For detailed work, like creating figures or animals, it’s important to mix a bit of CMC into the fondant to make it firmer. This will help the paste hold its shape for more intricate details.

Remember to allow each part of the figure to dry before adding more weight. For instance, if you’re making an animal, give the body a few hours to dry before attaching the head. This drying time prevents the head’s weight from causing the figure to squash or collapse.

Fondant Mistake 8: Not Sticking Fondant Properly

Sticking fondant to your cakes can be sticky tricky business, but I’ve got you covered. For my top two tips on sticking fondant decorations with and without glue, check out the video below or watch on YouTube here.

Fondant Mistake & Fixes 9: Not Storing Fondant Correctly!

To store fondant, roll it into a ball, coat it with a layer of vegetable fat, and place it in a plastic bag. Remove the air, twist the bag, and seal it in a Tupperware container. Surprisingly!! Cling film is breathable, which means air will pass through it and dry your paste out!

To store fondant decorations, pop them in box to keep them dust free and make sure you keep them in a cool dry dark place, away from sunlight or moisture.

Want to Learn More Fondant Cake Tips - Check out "Fondant Cake Mistakes" Blog Here.

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