Molded Fondant Accent Pieces - Tutorial

Today I'm making molded fondant pieces that I make a little ahead of time and store for later use on my Christmas cookies. This is how I also made all the accent pieces for my Cameo Christmas Ornament cookies. (seen here) I'll show the floral cameos in a later post.
First of all I'll tell you I use Fond-X brand rolled fondant. I usually just buy it in white because I don't use that much, and it's easy to color if I need to. It sort of tastes like marshmallow. I've tried other easier to find brands, but let's just say they're edible (according to the packaging) just not palatable. They do make great practice fondant though.  I also just bought a chocolate rolled fondant recently because I needed to make black and thought this way it wouldn't need too much coloring.  Sweet Inspirations makes it, and it tastes like Tootsie Rolls. They also make a white chocolate fondant as well as colors which I haven't tried yet.

These are some of the many molds I have bought, and made over the years. My favorites are the bright blue ones made by First Impression Mold Company. Most of the other ones I've made using jewelry bits, buttons, etc.

I'm just going to show you how I mold bows today, but I'm guessing this technique can probably be used for any flat mold.
This is a mold from First Impression that I use quite frequently. I love all the different size bows, and the fact that there are multiples of them in this single mold.

Anyway I start by placing a small piece of fondant into the cavity using my plastic baggie wrapped finger. The plastic helps to keep the fondant from sticking to my finger and pulling back out of the mold.

Note: This is how I do fondant.  I'm sure there is a "correct" perhaps more professional way that you're supposed to mold fondant, or prepare the molds, but this is how I do mine, and it seems to work for me.

I push until I'm pretty sure there are no air pockets under the fondant and it's flush with the top, adding or removing fondant with my plastic wrapped fingernail as I go. You'll notice some excess fondant has squished out and is covering the area in between the tails of the bow. We need to take care of that...

I scrape any excess fondant with my fingernail (still in plastic). But the blunt end of a toothpick or skewer can also be used if it works better for you. I just wouldn't use anything sharp as it might damage the mold.
 Once all the cavities you need are filled, put the mold into the freezer for about 10 minutes.

Note: I know that some like to de-mold the fondant piece right away to reuse the mold especially if you need to make a lot of fondant pieces of one design, but I find I get more distorted pieces this way (perhaps I'm just klutzy). I'm willing to go the freezer route, even if it means extra time. I usually have several other different pieces to mold and can do these while the others are in the freezer.

When time is up the pieces should be hard enough to pop away from the mold. You may need to help them out with your fingers. Carefully place them right side up on some parchment paper and leave them to dry. If you need to use the pieces right away make sure they are dry enough to handle without losing their shape or details.

Note 1: As soon as the molded pieces leave the freezer they will start to soften up again, so they need to be left undisturbed until they are dry enough to handle. Time will vary I'm sure with humidity, star alignment and whatever else seems to affect my cookie preparation for the day.
Note 2: The mold might have a slight build-up of condensation on it because of the freezer, so let it dry before using it again. Or if you need it again right away dry it with a coffee filter as these won't leave lint particles on the mold.

Aren't they cute?

If you want, add any detail marks or indentations for sugar pearls after they have dried long enough not to lose their shape, but are still pliable enough not to break. When the fondant shapes are dry enough to pick up without ruining the shape you can use them on your cookies.
 I will usually let mine dry completely and store them in a container for a few days until I need them. I'm really not an expert on this, but through trial and error I've found what works for me. I know you're tired of hearing this, but practice and do what works for you.

 Next time I'll show how I make two colored cameos.

♥ Happy Decorating ♥