And the Winner is....

 Photo courtesy of Ballina

Last week, I stopped by my friend Lynn Clark's store, CakeWorks, and bought a small tub of red buttercream flavored Fondarific.  It tasted great and handled well but I noticed that it had a tendency to get very soft in a warm room.  Fellow cakers in the Tri-State area who used Fondarific also had the same situation.  So, I decided to use the tasty stuff as an accent rather than cover the entire cake with it.

So far, Massa Grischuna and Satin Ice are still my work horses when it comes to covering an actual cake with fondant.  I covered cupcakes with dark chocolate massa last month and people are still raving about it. Nothing beats that warm chocolate taste.  Wilton fondant I personally use for covering cake dummies and show pieces.  Many of my caker friends add candy flavorings to Wilton before they cover their real cakes.  Although in my opinion Wilton fondant tends to dry and get that "elephant skin" faster than the other brands, once it dries, it's not moving anywhere. That's a plus if you're making a tiered cake.

I recently learned of Ballina fondant.  Chef Janet Ben-Ami, Hey!Cookie, highly recommends Ballina for flexibility, smooth coverage, and taste.  So now, I just have to try Ballina before I give my final weigh in.  Anybody else use Ballina?