How long should I dry out fondant to make decorations for cupcakes?

[Alycat6390]

Hi I need advice on how long to dry out these decorations for cupcakes. They need to stand up straight on top of the cupcakes and it's a child's birthday party so they need to be edible. I've provided a couple pictures. Thanks

 

[Becky]

Welcome to the forum!

How long fondant takes to dry out depends on your humidity and the thickness of the fondant, so it depends. If you roll the fondant thin then it will dry more quickly, but it will be fragile. Sometimes it just needs a few hours to dry, sometimes overnight, sometimes longer. If you want something that is tougher than fondant then use gum paste (or maybe a combination of the two). It's also worth bearing in mind that once the fondant comes in contact with frosting, the moisture in the frosting can soften the fondant, so be careful of that (ie add the hooks at the last minute).

 

[Alycat6390]

If I were to use a 50/50 combo of gumpaste and fondant would there still be a possibility of it softening in the frosting? And would it still be edible?

 

[Becky]

If I were to use a 50/50 combo of gumpaste and fondant would there still be a possibility of it softening in the frosting? And would it still be edible?

It would take longer to soften when it comes in contact with frosting, but hard to say how long exactly. Gum paste is technically edible, but you wouldn't really want to eat it! Have you thought about making the hooks using chocolate? If you used compound chocolate (ie chocolate that doesn't have cocoa butter, such as Candy Melts) then you wouldn't need to worry about tempering it, and there's no risk of it going soft. You could pipe it onto a template (put it underneath greaseproof paper) to make things easier

 

[Alycat6390]

I actually have thought of it and am highly considering it. I just wanted to use fondant because it would look nicer

 

[Becky]

Yeah I know what you mean. If you have a toy version you can get moulding gel to make your own chocolate moulds - this video shows how it can be done: