Rolling Out fondant icing

recovering_spendaholic

I like to make cupcakes and novelty birthday cakes for friends and family, but the thing that annoys me is the rolling out/modelling of the fondant icing. It always sticks unless you use cornflour/icing sugar and this makes the icing look dusty and sometimes it cracks because it gets dry. Yesterday I went to buy some black regalice to make some graduation cupcakes (for the mortar boards for the tops) and I was talking to the assistant in the shop (cakecraft shop) and saying about the rolling out/modelling thing and she told me that she only ever uses clear vegetable oil! She said that you need to put a tsp or so of clear flavourless oil into an egg cup and then dip your middle fingertip in it and rub this all over your rolling surface. Then you do the same with your rolling pin and finally the palms of your hands. The key thing is not to make anything look even a bit greasy. I tried it when I got home and when I had rubbed the oil on I thought there was no way it could work because the oil seemed to have rubbed in to nothing but how wrong I was! I rolled out the black regal ice and it was soooooo easy to do - it didn't stick and didn't look at all "crackey" (IYKWIM) - I made the mortar boards in no time and then left them to dry overnight and this morning they are perfect! I used a silcone rolling mat but a wooden rolling pin. The regalice was also very easy to handle for modelling too - I can't believe I didn't know about this before!