I am just getting into making sugar paste flowers. Really pleased with my first attempts. Decorated our valentine cake and one for my friend’s birthday. The problem I am finding is that when the flowers are put on the cake (cak Covid first in fondant) after awhile the flowers seem to go soft. They keep their shape but don’t stay hard, any suggestions as to why this should happen. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks.
I am guessing you used plain fondant. When you want make decoration that lasts, you need to use a something to counter the sugar and gelatin in the fondant. Fondant is mostly sugar. Sugar is hydroscopic meaning it pulls water from its environment. So even though it will initially try out, it will eventually re-absorb water from the air. The gelatin is a polymer, which is a long chain of molecules. The gelatin keeps the sugar together. So the gelatin and the sugar work together to keep the fondant pliable.
Gumpaste: 50/50 blend of fondant and gumpaste. Gumpaste contains cellulose gum; it dries very quickly, so it cannot be left exposed to air. But blended with fondant, the mix is pliable; if you are using color fondant, it doesn’t damage the color; if you color the mix, it takes the color well (at least Fat Daddio brand does); you can paint with food color.
Tylose: This is takes a bit more thought. You have to work abut 4g - 5g tylose powder into 250g fondant. It can dry out the fondant fast. If you use cheap fondant like Wilton, just don’t.
This is a 50/50 gumpaste fondant blend. Something this thick still takes about 4 days to dry completely. But it dries hard. you have to make sure these type of decorations are not exposed to any sunlight. They will fade to almost no color within a couple of hours—I’m not exaggerating.
A6B5E100-692E-4678-A6F7-D16F7E785530.jpeg
8A3A3363-D180-4558-ABBD-1F2E03BA85F9.jpeg