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Duff Goldman Buttercream Fondant, reviewed

Red Buttercream Fondant
Fondant is a really neat product to work with when you’re decorating a cake because it allows you to do things that you can’t quite do with regular frosting. For instance, you can create a perfectly smooth and firm surface that is not only a good canvas for even more decorations, but it helps keep the cake moist underneath. There are downsides, however, and the biggest one is that fondant is not particularly tasty, even though you can add flavoring to it.

So, when I saw that Duff Goldman had some colorful flavored fondants in his new line, I wanted to give it a try. The line includes green, red, blue, yellow, pink, black, white and chocolate. All of them are buttercream flavored, except the yellow (lemon) and the chocolate (chocolate). I tried the red.  The fondant was very easy to work with and held up really well, even when I rolled it out very, very thin before I transferred it onto my cake. The color was bright and bold, and since it already came colored, I didn’t have to worry about getting dye on my, my clothes or my work surface. And as for the flavor? I won’t say that it is going to beat out a real buttercream in a taste test, but it did have a nice buttery smell and flavor to it and was a huge improvement (especially according to my tasters) over the basic, unflavored fondant that I would typically use.

They sell this fondant both online and at craft stores, and it is definitely worth a look if you like to work with fondant and want to infuse some bright colors into your work!

Fondant with shapes

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32 Comments
  • Marisa@make happy
    July 6, 2010

    Have you tried making marshmallow fondant? I’ve never tried pre-made fondant, but I hear it’s pretty bad. I’ll have to check Duff’s out.

    I make marshmallow fondant often. It’s easy, cheap, and really yummy.

  • Cat @ Oh My Sugar High
    July 6, 2010

    I was just looking at all of the new Duff products at my local Michael’s craft store this week and have always been hesitant to buy premade fondant, I tend to like making marshmallow fondant at home. But the idea of not having to mess with gel colors really sounds enticing.

  • I saw this at Michaels and wondered if it was any good. Thanks for the review.

  • Kate
    July 6, 2010

    I keep seeing Duff’s new products. Glad to hear that it taste good as far as fondant goes. To eliminate the step of coloring the fondant is definitely worth the price! I

  • Lagne
    July 7, 2010

    Actually, I disagree somewhat with this review. I agree the fondant tastes great (I used the white, black, and red), but I actually found it a little difficult to work with. When I cut shapes with cutters or with my Cricut cake, I had to freeze the fondant before cutting and then again before handling. I also found it nearly impossible to form figures with the fondant – it was too soft and sticky. I can’t imagine trying to cover a cake with it.

  • jenny
    July 7, 2010

    Cool! I bought some of the ‘white’, which was actually ivory and it was an improvement over regular fondant, it has fat and whey added, which helps with the flavor, although I cant imagine all that hydrogenated oil is very good for you! I found it to have an overpowering scent of candy corn, which is either good or bad depending on your preferences?!!

    I prefer fondx, and satinice for color, it seems to set nice and smooth so you dont end up with dents and prints on when you work with the cake. This duff stuff never really stays set, which is useful for beginners, as you dont have to work so quickly to cover the cake.

  • Glenda
    July 7, 2010

    Thanks for the info since it is expensive to buy I am glad to know it is worth the shortcut when needed. I am wondering where Lange lives. I am in Florida and think that humidity may play a part. Could you post this info. I have to use the Tylose gum paste recipe for my flowers for this very reason and was wondering if this could be the case for the rolled buttercream as well.

  • Lagne
    July 8, 2010

    I live in Tennessee, where it IS pretty humid lately (not to mention miserably hot! haha). I just had some problems with Duff’s fondant that I’ve never had with other fondants; it seemed much softer and stickier than other storebought and homemade fondants. I’d love to find a way to make it work, though, since it’s definitely one of the better-tasting kinds I’ve tried.

  • DeAnne
    July 9, 2010

    After Duff put his name on that gawd awful kid’s cake decorating set that was such garbage, I’ve sort of lost faith in his branding choices. 🙂 Especially since Duff’s fondant is just rebranded Fondarific that has been marked up 200%.

    Here’s a link toa fondarific’s page, where you can order sample sizes of all their flavors: http://shop.fondarific.com/product.sc;jsessionid=1D8C6EDC2F578EFC7D0B4006FEEC146C.qscstrfrnt02?productId=16

  • Mike
    July 12, 2010

    Okay here goes, I have bought the Duffs Fondant and actually hate it for making figures and flowers and so on….it never sets up firm. While creating figures they tend to fall over while working on them like they are melting. It is very oily when working with it.
    It appears to work well on the cake but it better set up or the cake will slide.
    I personally will not purchase more of it. It is very hard to work with.

  • Jewel Scarborough
    July 18, 2010

    I had a very hard time with the Duff fondant. I live in Las Vegas where there is very low humidity, and it still was very hard to deal with and get what I wanted out of it. Once I rolled out the fondant it was very hard to cover the cake and make it look decent. I was overall disapointed. The taste on one hand is much improved over others.

  • Diane
    August 22, 2010

    I have previously tried Duff’s fondant and cake mix. The cake mix is awesome – so moist, yet still holds up to shaping. The fondant is a different story. This time was much better than my first. Last year I made a red brick looking building for Spider Man to stand on and throw his web over Doc Oct who was in a park. Had trouble getting the fondant to stay on the form.

    This time, I used chocolate and white cake mixes. Made three pieces of cakes baked in coffee cans. Placed them on a dowel to build a rocket. Covered the cone in white fondant and the body in red. Trimmed in black, green, yellow and brown fondants. Don’t know how to send you a picture. Turned out better than I hoped.

  • Trish
    October 3, 2010

    I am a cake designer who generally makes marshmallow fondant… which is inexpensive, and tastes good.. but tiresome at times. I tried the black and also the red from Duff, while they taste REALLY good, I also found that they become incredible soft when trying to work with it… I did manage to cover a cake once, but other attempts were tossed out. I felt it was best used for making detail work for fondant cakes… and I too found that I had the best results if I rolled it to the thickness needed, then froze it for a few minutes, cut it with shapes, etc… then refroze so that they would retain their shape. Just minutes out of the freezer and the warmth of your hands were enough to make them melty. I did love the flavor, and I did love the fact that I did not have to knead for hours to get the perfect shade of red or black… so for that reason I think it is worth the purchase… but not for an entire cake.

  • mary
    January 24, 2011

    I bought a small tub of white.. well its more like Ivory to try it, thinking maybe I could cover my nieces wedding cake which was to be a black and white cake…but it was not white enough….so I tried to use it to make embellishments for other cakes but I found that it does get sticky and does not harden like other fondants,,,so it would not be good to make bows or flowers that have to get hard .

  • Katherine
    March 17, 2011

    I bought a tub of chocolate fondant last night at Micheals. It was an emergency, I usually use Satin Ice. But the shopt hat carries was already closed.

    I am incredible unhappy with the product. It is a brick. It says it is dark chocolate, but it is a very pale brown color. The flavor is fine, but it is dry and unusable for covering a cake. I am using it to make some trees. So I can make it work. But would never use it for a cake.

  • Lynn
    March 21, 2011

    I’ve tried both the Wilton’s and Duff’s fondant. I will purcahse Duff’s from now on. I found Wilton’s hard and not very good taste wise. Duff’s was easy to work with and very good. Although I found it a little pricey. So, I bought the white and added food coloring to it to get the colors I wanted.

  • Lynn
    March 21, 2011

    If you find the fondant hard to work with. Put it the mircowave for a few seconds to soften. The directions are on the container letting you know how long to microwave it.

  • Michelle wilzer
    March 27, 2011

    The Wilton stuff is great if microwaved, even up to a year old. I just used the Duff Fondant and will never use it again. I agree with everyone who said that it’s too oily and stretchy. It refused to smooth down over a cake properly because it had become too stretched. It may taste great, but when you end up with an awful looking cake, I’d rather add flavor to a brand that I can work with.

  • priscila
    August 7, 2011

    As far as the comments about it being too soft to make flowers or other shapes with, i was always taught to mix fondant with gum paste when making flowers and different shapes to keep them firm. You can also knead in powdered sugar to stiffen the consistency. Great tasting fondant is hard to come by. For me its all about the taste, everything else can be adjusted.

  • Tiffany
    August 12, 2011

    I just made the minions from Despicable Me for my daughters birthday cake with this and will attempt to cover the cake later today. I found the consistency nice at first, but agree that as you work with it, it becomes an oily squishy mess. It’s nice that it isn’t so hard beginners can’t work with it, and the buttercream smell and flavor are really good, but I will definitely be adding some confectioners sugar to the fondant that will cover the cake. I bought white and added color, because it is so soft the color blends in quickly and easily. Overall, I’m not thrilled with the product, but it’s much better tasting than marshmallow or Wilton fondant, and taste is king in my house!

  • Stephanie Veglia
    September 2, 2011

    I am making a three tiered Toy Story cake for my little boy’s birthday. I bought the Duff red and blue to save some time coloring. I was surprised at how soft and easy to roll it was. I did pop the blue in the micro for a total of 20 sec on power 3 like the box says. (10 secs per lb.). When I tried to cover the cake though, it became a stretchy mess, tearing, and I had to start all over wasting the whole container. I thought for the red cake I just wouldn’t put in the microwave and see how it turned out. I rolled it thicker too. While it was slightly better, it still did not turn out very nice. The middle layer, I used Wilton white and it came out perfect. Super easy to work with. No sticking or tearing and smooth as satin. I know the taste sucks, but I peel it off anyway. I definitely won’t buy this product again. I would rather find another brand that works good with a better flavor or maybe make my own. Not easy to do with two little boys running all over. I don’t usually leave reviews, but I wish I would have just used another brand and added the color myself.

  • Gypsy
    September 20, 2011

    I tried duff’s fondant for the first time in june for my husbands birthday cake and am now using it for my daughters 1st birthday cake this weekend I love the colors and the taste is not bad at all either, plus we always peel it off anyways.

    But it held up perfectly fine I had not any problems with it so I have no complaints here!

  • Irma
    September 30, 2011

    I made the marshmallow fondant, the cake looked awsome but when the cake was cut the fondant was a little hard and chewy, maybe because of the cold weather? any advice?

  • Brittaney
    October 9, 2011

    I recently tried this fondant and liked that it was precolored because reds and blacks are so hard to make when coloring premade fondants so that was a plus for me. However, it seemed like no matter how much powdered sugar I put on my rolling pin and work surface, the fondant was so super sticky and no matter how thick I rolled it, everytime I would go to move my cut out decoration pieces, it would stick and then stretch out of shape! It also took a very long time to dry to a firm enough state to start placing them on the cake without the shape stretching or it sticking to me when I picked it up.

  • jazz
    November 18, 2011

    I’m wondering if anyone tried using corn starch on their surfaces before using this product. I am a suuuuper beginner and haven’t even tried doing fondant on an entire cake yet so I’m scared to go out and spend money on this product if it’s not good. When I was on “duff’s” website checking out the fondant, one of the tips they gave was to use cornstarch instead of powdered sugar. Does anyone think that would help with the sticky/stretchy problem? Any info would be great. Thanks guys!

  • Luke
    November 18, 2011

    jazz, don’t use corn starch for this fondant. Use powdered sugar like it says but some surfaces don’t even need anything. But use powdered sugar if you use anything.

  • ChefAmi
    December 8, 2011

    I have to say I’m so surprised that everyone is complaining about the streachiness of the fondant that’s what you want when your covering a cake. If your doing decorations you must mix 50/50 fondant and gumpaste. It will hold it’s shape. I have made Duff my #1 fondant, It’s totally worth the price for the product. I make flowers, animal shapes, cut outs, cookies, cake shapes you name it if you have any other questions just hit me up and I will be glad to help you out! chefami@yahoo.com

  • DJ
    February 14, 2012

    I personally love using Duff’s fondant. It’s easy to work with and very easy to cover a cake with. I did not like the yellow. It was a sticky mess and I couldn’t use enough cornstarch or powdered sugar to make it better. I do have a question about Duff’s white fondant, which is actually off-white Can you add a pure white coloring to make it truly white for a wedding cake?

  • Emerald
    April 12, 2012

    i am planning on using this for my wedding cake. . i hope it turns out good. i’ve never done this before tho . . .

  • Disapointed
    July 3, 2012

    WARNING: I bought the Duff Goldman fondant in ‘blue’, now that is in quotes because it says blue but it is acually a turquoise. Also I did not find mine to smell as good as the winston brand does. I quess I will keep coloring my own fondant from now on.

  • mari
    August 7, 2012

    Duff fondant is the best tasting fondant by far next to satin ice and wilton which are not so good.

  • Jim
    March 20, 2013

    I agree mari

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