Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi All

Im having difficulty with my fondant figures leaning or falling over. Im leaving the bottom half of the figure to dry overnight after using fondant & tylose, but when i put on the head the figures still fall/lean. Is it that im not leaving to dry long enough or perhaps not enough tylose. its really frustrating. should i use wire supports??

any help would be great Sharon x

Hi Sharon. What you’re doing sounds right. I have done a few and always find what works best is a cocktail stick (or spaghetti) inserted into the neck part of the figure with at least 1cm sticking out to place the head on. If you did this you wouldn’t have to wait overnight for both parts to dry either, just put some water at the joints. The support is very important though.

Hi Sharon

The recent humid weather won’t help either, try adding a little more tylose or use gum tragacanth which makes stronger gum paste. I’ve been using Mexican paste for models, it dries quicker and harder but I find any left overs doesn’t keep as well as gumpaste and has to be used up within a couple of days. x

I had the same problem-I used spaghetti for the heads, and stuck the figure to the board (ganache) until it was finished. This way all of the heads stayed fixed, and the figure didn’t move until I was ready to transfer it.

Thanks everyone- i do do the spagetti & cocktail stick- i have a feeling it was the weather this week – i will try the mexican paste & the fixing with ganache. id better get it sorted lol have a load of figures coming up xx