How to Stick Fondant Decorations to Cake
As beginner cake decorators, there are a lot of questions that come up over and over again and this is one of them. So today I’m sharing How to Stick Fondant Decorations to Cake.
When cake decorating, do you struggle with how to stick fondant decorations to cakes? Or maybe you don’t like your current method!? If that’s the case, then this post is for you. I’m sharing 5 ways to stick fondant decorations to cakes.
Some of these work for sticking fondant to fondant. Others are better for sticking fondant to buttercream. And you can use some of these methods to attach fondant to both buttercream and fondant.
How to Stick Fondant Decorations to Cake
1. Water. This may be the most convenient and obvious way to stick fondant to fondant. BUT, it’s my least favorite. When working with fondant on fondant, if you’re not very careful, water can drip or run down the side of your cake. And let me tell you…. water running down the side of a fondant cake is not pretty! It will turn into a mess in a hurry! The water dissolves the fondant and you’ll end up with stripes. If you use a small brush and a very minimal amount of water, this can work well for putting fondant on buttercream. That’s exactly what I did on this Toy Story Cake with the clouds and logo. Just be certain to use only the tiniest brush of water.
2. Tylose “glue”. This is a method I used for ages, when I rememberd. The issue with making tylose glue is that it must be made ahead of time. Take a tiny bit of tylose, mix it into water in a containter with a lid, then let it sit over night. It will be chunky and gloppy when you first mix it up, but by morning, it’ll be a clear, gelatinous glue. This actually works really great but waiting all night for it to congeal can be a problem for us decorators who are super scatter-brained don’t always think that far ahead. It would work perfectly for attaching lace medallions like on this Elegant Lace Wedding Cake.
Maybe the easiest way to stick fondant to fondant… sugar glue!
3. Sugar glue (or fondant glue). For this type, you melt marshmallow fondant with a little water! I learned this trick from CorrieCakes on Facebook years ago and it’s a perfect, easy “glue” for all fondant decorations. It only takes seconds to make and if you decorate with mmf, you have everything you need on hand to make this “glue”. It’s thicker than water, doesn’t “run” easily and well… it’s just a great solution! You can get all the details for how to make this sugar glue HERE (warning – old post with not-so-great photos).
4. Shortening. When I can get away with it (when the decorations are flat), I rub the entire surface of my cake with shortening and apply fondant on fondant. A good example of that is this Chevron Cake! All of those stripes are adhered to the cake with shortening alone and it works great!I also use shortening almost all of the time now to put letters on. I can move them around without damaging anything if I discover that I’ve put a name on off-center or too high or low! With the other types of glue mentioned, moving things around is not always possible! I talk a little more about using shortening for letters in this post on How to Use Tappit Letter Cutters (near the bottom – when I’m putting them on the cake).
5. Diluted Corn Syrup. Corn syrup alone is super sticky, so I sometimes dilute it with a bit of water to give it a more glue-like consistency. It works beautifully for sticking fondant to a cake board. I just water it down so it brushes on easily, then “paint” the surface of a cake drum before covering it with matching fondant. That’s what I did for the matching marbled fondant on the wedding cake seen here.
I almost forgot candy melts glue!
Updated to add #6: Melted Candy Melts. We’ll call ths my “bonus” method. Reasons I would not use melted candy melts are that they harden very quickly and can be very clumpy (so decorations won’t always sit flat).
But if you need something heavy to be held on – melted candy melts hold very well. I often use them to attach popscicle sticks or skewers to decorations that need to stand up (like numbers on cakes).
I also used them to attach the tassels to the top edge of the Balloons & Tassels Cake above and the tassels to the bottom of the balloons. The tassels were a little heavy for my usual “glue” solutions, so melted candy melts were the perfect solution!
My best tip to keep candy melts melted? Put them in a piping bag, melt them (10 seconds at a time in the microwave), then place the bag on a heating pad, fold it over on itself, and keep the bag there between uses!
Now you have six different possible solutions for attaching fondant decorations to a cake. My suggestion would be to experiment with the different options and see which you’re most comfortable with and/or which works best for YOU depending on your cake situation.
Do you have any other methods or suggestions for sticking fondant decoratins on cakes? Tell me in the comments!
Happy Caking!
Rose
To attach it to buttercream I use a dab of buttercream on the back and it sticks very well.
Thanks!
Hi Rose and Carla
Would the buttercream work for larger gumpaste peonies that will be cascading down the side of the cake?
Thanks so much
Trish
Oh..It is a buttercream cake 🙂
I’m not sure I’d attempt to stick large flowers on buttercream. I think they’d be too heavy.
Too heavy. I wire my flowers and then cover the wire or you can use a straw tube inserted in the cake to hold your flowers and stems. Royal icing or a stiff buttercream to “face” and hold them in place and your done!
Do you perhaps have a tutorial of how to attach fondant flowers on a fondant wedding cake. Do you use toothpicks?
How can you prevent it from breaking out of the cake if the flowers are heavy?
Hi I am making a Christmas tree shaped wedding cake and coveting it with royal icing. I am making lots of snowflakes from fondant. Letting them dry thoroughly and decorating them. How should I attach the snow flakes to the royal icing which is not smooth
Can I use Vidka x
Yes, you can use vodka!
You left out egg white!
You use raw egg white to attach decorations? I’ve never heard of that!
Raw egg white mixed with icing sugar (powdered sugar in America?) is a fairly common icing recipe, I believe it’s Royal icing? Anyway, it’s used to ice biscuits (cookies), cakes, and adhere things together in the UK
Pasteurized egg whites are maybe a better option for H&S
Yes, I justwatched a video tutorial on Bluprint and the lady used pasteurized egg whites to adhere the fondant.
We used to use egg yolks with food coloring for paint too. Not recommended now do to issues with salmonella.
Yikes! I hope you are using pasteurized egg whites! Otherwise you risk making people quite sick. Also be aware that some people have egg allergies that are only a problem when the egg is not cooked with flour. Cake baked with egg would be fine for them, but egg whites would not!
A very good point! Either powdered egg whites, or pasteurized will work. I only make cakes for friends & family, so would not run into that issue. Great for holding flower parts together also.
That is powdered egg white, not meringue powder.
They are the same thing in the US
Thanks for these suggestions! I am going to use fondant for the first time this holiday season. For some reason, I have always been afraid of it. Love the idea of marshmallow fondant as an adhesive. Thanks for the Tips Rose! <3
I sometimes use corn syrup mixed with a bit of water. This is especially good for adhering fondant to sugar cookies. I’ve also used vodka to adhere fondant to fondant. The alcohol evaporates as it dries. This works for attaching letters to cake boards, too!
Me too! I used it just yesterday to put together some flowers. But mostly I use the fondant/gumpaste with piping gel mix.
A bit of the cake colored fondant mixed with piping gel to form a paste works like RI. And it is quick & easy to make, because you already have the fondant &/or gumpaste.
I mostly use piping gel or sugar water. I have used water on buttercream.
melted candy melts for heavier/dimensional decorations. it’s very strong and sets up quickly!
That’s a great idea. I have to add sugar flowers at an angle on the front of a wedding cake. I have them on long sticks. But I can’t take a chance! Thanks
I have used royal icing as well with good success, it dries quickly and doesn’t make the mess sometimes corn syrup can
Great idea!
I use piping gel
Hi Rose,
Bit off topic, but I’m struggling with sticky fondant! It rolls and covers well, but goes shiny and sticky when left overnight, instead of drying nicely. Any ideas on why?
Thank you
Debbie
Are you covering a cold or frozen cake? That will make it get sticky. Also if you have a lot of humidity in your home.
Think it may be humidity. Cakes I made in the summer were fine, but as the weather has turned colder, the problems started. I’ve also moved house, smaller kitchen, and windows steam up pretty quickly. I’m wondering if the cooker extraxtor hood is working properly! Any tips on how to combat this?
I wish I knew. Every situation is different. I’m sorry!
Hi Hargreaves,
I totally feel you. Where i live, the humidity issue is all year round. I have had very frustrating moments working with fondant in humid environment. Air conditioning really helps with this. I now work in an air conditioned room and the cake remains there until delivery. Air dehumidifier also helps when i am working with fondant.
me and my partner gonna make and put roll out icing on the cakes and we will stick snakes to the cake now when making different colors with fondant can u use food coloring
When you do fondant decorations do you let it sit out and get harder before applying or apply strait away. I am making a cake this week with fondant grass on the sides for a fishing cake. I also plan to put her name on the front. Any tips?
Hi Catherine, thanks for stopping by the blog! I can usually put the fondant decorations on right after cutting them out, but some shapes are easier to put on after letting them sit for a few minutes, like lettering. You don’t want them to sit out too long, or they won’t be flexible enough to curve enough to lay flat on the cake. Happy Caking!
Hi Rose,
I have to stick a thin ribbon on a wedding cake. It has to be in a wave!!!! The cake is fondant. Any ideas so I don’t get that show through of glue on the ribbon and hope so I get it to stay in place on the wave?
Thanks
I’m sorry but I’m not understanding your question.
Hi Rose! Great advice on fondant. I was wondering if you had any suggestions to color fondant grey? My husband wants to tackle a superhero cake for our sons 5th birthday this weekend and we need batman grey… we’re doing a mmf & only have access to the wilton brand gel colors due to how soon it is needed. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
There are a couple of things that I do. My first choice is to actually knead in a tiny bit of store-bought black fondant. The second option is gray gel coloring (which is hard to find, but works beautifully). When I’ve tried to knead in black gel coloring, I often end up with a purple-ish hue which I don’t like as much.
I mixed some premade wilton pink and green fondant once and got a gray. You might try these gel colors together with a small test piece of fondant and see what you get.
Hi! I have always used my own apricot or peach jam, I brush just a little bit and it’s done. No raw egg, no complications. Turns out perfect and the flavour goes totally unnoticed.
I also use corn syrup.
Hi. My mom learned how to make fondant from scratch about 15 yrs ago and she has always used clear apple jelly to stick fondant to cakes. And up to this day she still uses jelly. Now we buy the ready made fondant but before it was all done by hand.
Heap of thanks for sharing. Very helpful. God bless you!
Hi.i use water to stick the designs..how do i make my fondant glossy?
You’ll have to steam it to get it shiny!
I use 1 teaspoon of Wilton’s meringue powder and 1 teaspoon of water mixed together for attaching fondant to fondant.
Hey!! I just wanted to know if that fondant decorations sticks on a truffle cake!and for how much time we have to keep the decorations to let them dry before sticking them on the cake?
Basically I want to make a truffle cake and I want to stick fondant decorations and I am a beginnner and I am very confused..please help me out!!
Thanku
Hi Rose, please can Royal icing be used as well?
Yes. It will not dry as quickly though.
I’ve used vodka to stick fondant to fondant on cakes
Hi, I’m looking for the best way to attach my fondant pearls on to a wedding cake. I’m worried they’ll slide down off the cake layers. I’m not sure yet if i’m covering the cake with fondant or icing , but either way I still need something that can hold the pearls on. They are all sizes, but the larger ones will just set on top and wont need to adhere to the sides.
Any suggestions?
thanks
Deb H.
A light brush of water will work. Or melted chocolate or royal icing.
How do you store the cake after sticking the fondant decorations? Wouldn’t refrigerating cause condensation? And would leaving the cake at room temperature cause the buttercream to melt and fondant decorations to slide down? It’s my first time and I am confused about what to do 🙁
I box the cake up then refrigerate. If it’s in a sealed box (tape the seams), it will not get condensation when you take it out as long as you let it come to room temp before removing from the box. If it does get condensation, turn a small fan on to blow on it and it will dry pretty quickly.
Hi Rose! I’m looking at doing the same method as your toy story cake and I was wondering how long you let the buttercream set before applying your fondant decorations? How long in advance also were you able to make your fondant decorations! If you haven’t guessed, I’m a complete novice! Thanks
I let it crust for about 15 minutes before adding the decorations. You can make them a few hours before – or a day or more if you store them in a ziploc bag in the freezer.
I used some corn syrup to stick very small chocolate decorations to a fondant cake, but how you can see shiny bit of corn syrup around the decorations and I can not figure out how to get it off. Any suggestions?