What about the corn syrup?

Oh yes, I got so busy talking about sugar and crystals I almost forgot about the corn syrup portion of the recipe. Regular readers may remember several posts on corn syrup from last fall in which I drew an analogy between a bottle of Karo and a cement mixer filled mostly with ball bearings (free glucose molecules) with a few lengths of rebar and chain (big starch molecules) thrown in to make it less free-flowing (and hence thick). Those components are useful in a fondant because none of them crystallize as easily as sucrose molecules. They therefore add to the syrupy portion of the fondant matrix, keeping it malleable.