When we asked others how they cleaned their cake dummies, the response was so varied. Some soaked them, others tediously removed the layers of fondant off the cake dummy to expose the foam and some even threw them out once their project was complete! Knowing that these pieces of foam can cost so much to purchase and ship, this surprised us!
Some would ask how on earth could you manage to peel the fondant off the dummy? When we have used water in the past to attach fondant to a dummy, it glues the fondant on so well, it won't release without taking some of the precious foam with it thus leaving you with a pitted surface that really isn't ideal for recovering with fondant.
Piping Gel - Perfect alternative to covering a cake dummy with fondant. Brush a small amount of piping gel over all the surfaces being covered on the dummy. This attach the fondant to the dummy as well as water
Crisco (Shortening) - Using Crisco or Solite to attach the fondant to the dummy will make removing the fondant much easier. The fondant will simply peel off! Perfect for those of you that don't have a dishwasher!
Another tip we learnt along the way researching this topic, is to soak the dummy. If you really aren't keen on placing fondant covered cake dummies into your beloved dishwasher, it is recommended to place the dummy into a laundry tub and completely cover in hot water. Using hot water will melt the fondant fairly quickly. For stubborn or thick fondant, leave the dummy to soak over night until the fondant has completely melted away.
Hot Tip - A heavy weight will be required to hold the dummy underwater until the fondant melts away.
To demonstrate that there really is no ill effects washing cake dummies in your dishwasher, I took a series of photos showing the dummies at the start, in the middle of the standard wash cycle and at the end. We did use a Finish powerball tablet, however I'd suggest that you could simply wash them in hot water.
We had a few of our instructors dummy cakes from our Foundation Skills class floating around and we decided it was time to put the dishwasher to the test. As you can see, the dishwasher is clean, the cake dummies are covered in fondant (with piping gel) and has a fair amount of royal icing over the dummy.
Halfway through the wash cycle we opened the dishwasher in trepidation wondering what we were going to find! Apart from being blasted in the face with a heap of steam, we found that the most of the royal icing had melted and the fondant was well on its way to being fully dissolved.
The dishwasher water was a milky colour, however it was not a thick sugary sludge as others had suggested. Upon seeing this, my fears were allayed that the pipes would be blocked by chunks of fondant!
At the end of the wash cycle, the dummies were spotless. No trace of fondant or royal icing is to be seen. The only marks on the dummies remaining was from the hot glue gun, or flower wire holes into the dummy. The dummies were also subjected to a full drying cycle.
Hopefully this blog post detailing our test empowers you to go grab those competition and display cakes that you no longer need, take off all the things that will damage the dishwasher. Im thinking of flower wire, cake boards, non dissovable materials etc, and clean those babies! Cake Dummies can be expensive, so stop throwing away good money when you can simply clean and recover the dummy!