My love-hate relationship with fondant...

Yes, fondant.  That silky-smooth covering that creates a clear canvas for your cake creations.  IF you can only figure out which is the right one...

I have made my own marshmallow fondant for things like my

Death Star cake...

and these adorable snowman cupcakes!

Island Engagement cake...

If you don't use it immediately, though, it becomes really hard to work with.  It alternately cracks and gets extra gooey.

Last year, however, I entered a cake competition and decided to purchase the fondant since it would take a long time to make enough marshmallow fondant.  Well - the stuff you can buy at all the local craft stores, which might rhyme with Hilton, is HORRIBLE.  It tastes lousy, dries out and cracks on cake dummies even with a large amount of frosting to cushion it, and cannot be rolled into thin ropes to form a nautical rope border for a cake. In the end, I entered this for the contest:

Not too bad for a true novice at anything of this magnitude.

So before deciding whether or not to enter a cake into this year's contest with a seasonal or holiday theme, I thought I might want to research better fondant options. 

Satin Ice was giving away small samples during last year's cake show.  I used it when I found the rest of my purchased fondant had turned disgustingly moldy in a short period of time and needed fondant in a flash for a fairy tale inspired cake to be auctioned for a local YMCA.  It was wonderful to work with!  My cake sold for $60 - a single 14 inch layer of vanilla with 4 disguised chocolate cupcakes on top. (7 cakes raised a total of $200 so I guess mine was the creme de la creme!)

Snow White's Cottage

Rapunzel

However, shipping 5, 10 or 20 pound buckets gets a little pricey.  After an exhaustive search, I found another highly recommended brand with a decent price and free shipping if I signed up for a subscription on Amazon.  If this stuff is as awesome as I hope, I'll be getting automatic deliveries every 6 months.  Wonderful for your part time baker!