Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I am making a top tier with a straight-sided square cake dummy but having real problems as the corners keep tearing through the fondant. I’m just wetting the dummy with water but is there anything else I can do? There’s no decor going on it so I can’t cover it up! Thinking about attempting to cut the corners off..

I have done square dummies…not easy….I tend to make the sugar paste a little thicker, once you have it over the dummy you have to work quickly to get the top inch or so adhered all round to prevent tearing. Then work your way down. I usually use the Sweetwise mat in which case the sugar paste is still sticky so no need to wet the dummy but when rolling normally using icing sugar it does not stick as well. I also don’t leave a lot of “skirt” as this can weight the paste down and cause stretching and tearing. Please let me know how you get on.

You can now buy the chamfored dummies on EBay (not sure if that is the correct way to spell it) the dummies have a slight bevelled edge making it easier and naturally a cake would be that shape.

Hi Doodlecake

If you cover your square dummy with marzipan first you’ll find the fondant will not tear on the corners, keep the marzipan fairly thick to absorb the sharp corners. Wet the dummy with vodka and apply the marzipan then round off the corners, wet again with vodka to stick the fondant. Once the fondant is on smooth as usual and sharpen the corners with two smoother.

Take your dummy and run a rolling pin heavily over all the edges to help soften the styrofoam. youll want to get ride of that point on the corners as that is what is poking through the fondant.

Thanks Ladies, brilliant ideas. Will be giving it a go this afternoon!

Better late than never here’s what I did: snipped off the top corners, rolled around the top and side edges with the rolling pin and then I put a thin strip of sugarpaste along the top edges and smoothed it into the polystyrene with wet fingers. This left a really sticky strip for the fondant to adhere to and it went on like a dream! Thanks for all your tips 🙂