Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Fondant vs Gum paste

Some people have asked me what's the difference between fondant and gum paste and how to use it when it comes to cake decorating. I thought a would give a quick in sight of the difference between  fondant and gum paste.

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FONDANT:

It is a dough-like paste extremely versatile.It can be rolled out and used to cover cakes, cupcakes and sometimes cookies. The basic ingredient for fondant is confectioners sugar with the addition of gelatin, corn syrup and glycerine to provide a malleable sweet paste.
Fondant gives the cake a beautiful porcelain look surface that can be painted, piped, stamped and quilted. White fondant can  be tinted in any color you want or fondant can be purchase in many colors and comes in vanilla, -the most popular- and also chocolate flavour.There are many recipes on the web if you want to make your own fondant. I personally buy fondant online by the tub because I buy big quantities. The only fondant I would make from scratch is marshmallow fondant, which I don't use often.

You can use fondant to make:
  •  some sugar decorations
  • cutouts
  • plaques
  • frills
  • impressed patterns
  • little flowers
  • cupcakes toppers
I love fondant because I have more flexibility in incorporating a design onto a cake...and I am really bad working with buttercream





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GUM PASTE:

It is used primarily for hand modeling figures and can be rolled very thin for petal flowers, leaves and very detailed decorations.It is similar in texture to fondant but it dries very hard, gum paste is an edible product and taste very bland, but I do not recommend eating it. First, why would you eat a doll,or a shoe? then you can loose a tooth in the way! I think it is worth to tell you that you do not cover a cake with gum paste.

You can use gum paste to make :
  • flowers
  • 3 D figures
  • bows
  • cake toppers
  • straps for hand bags
  • belt buckles
  • shoes

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Sometimes I use 50% percent gum paste and 50% fondant when I make certain details or decorations on a cake. Why do I do that? maybe I do not have enough gum paste or I really do not want what ever decoration I'm doing to dry too hard.

STORING GUM PASTE AND FONDANT:
Fondant and gum paste can dry very quickly. When you are working in a project using them always keep them tightly wrapped in a plastic wrap.
Store at room temperature in an airtight container away from heat and humidity.
Never get them wet because they will become very sticky to handle.

A few Tips that works for me:

-If I 'm working with a small amount of gum paste or fondant on a cake, I like to cover it with a big coffee mug instead of the plastic wrap, because is easier for me to go back and for using it.
-When I'm making flowers I like to make a lot of petals at one time but I do not what my petals to dry,  I roll out the gum paste, cut the petals and cover them with plastic wrap and place a damp cloth on top of the plastic.Then I can work with one petal at the time.
-When I'm kneading fordant or gum paste I always use shortening.

Well, I hope this helps someone. Do you have a fondant or gum paste favorite brand?

60 comments:

Jenniffer said...

Kathia, I have been using a lot of Fondarific and Fondx lately. The Fondx stretches nicely and is not prone to tearing. I am using it on all my sculpted cakes. Great post!

Daydreamer Desserts said...

Great tips Kathia! I think it's about time I played a little with fondant and gum paste, thanks for the inspiration! :)

La casita said...

Muy buena la entrada. Ya veo que tú lo compras, normal si tienes mucho trabajo poque el de nubes te quita su tiempo. Me gustó mucho tu explicación

Besitos

Manni said...

Thanks so much for the tips! I love using Satin Ice fondant and for gumpaste its the Wilton. I've had really good results with both these brands. I have tried Fondarific, especially for the taste!

CakeWhiz said...

Great summary and tips :)

As for brands, i have tried wilton....it's not the greatest but gets work done.
I really like MMF so i just make my own.
________________
www.cakewhiz.com

MaidenShade Too said...

Oh how beautiful! And YUMMY!!!

My actual blog is: http://MaidenShade.net and NOT the Google one - but that is my only option to "comment as..."

Jennifer Swan Hopkins

SweetThingsTO said...

Excellent post and good tips!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the info doll!!!

Wedding Cake Toppers said...

nice tip, thanks for sharing.

Simply Sweet by Enma said...

Good to know!! I'm new at this and your blog has been super helpful :)

Unknown said...

Thank you for posting this info! I'm making a baby shower cake and want to mold a pregnant gal for the top. I have been playing around with it, mixing 50/50 because that's what I read. However, her legs did not dry hard enough for what I wanted (I want crossed legs so they need to hold up). I put together my "tester" Momma and she was cute...but after playing with her legs for too long, she lost a limb, lol. So, I'm going to try with gumpaste only today and see how she holds up.
I have a couple more weeks until the shower to get it down. :)
Thanks again!

Serena said...

I'm planning to make a birthday cake for my son. I will use fresh whipped cream icing to cover my cake. I would like to make some 3D Yo Gabba Gabba characters.
Questions:
1. Should I use gum paste for those characters?
2. When should I put them on the cake?
3. How do I store those gum paste characters that I will make?
4. Where can I buy gum paste?

Please advise. This will be my first time using gum paste.

kimkizzies said...

GREAT ADVICE....WILL BE USING YOUR TIPS WELL.

Mama Durso said...

Thank you so much for this comparison! I've been using fondant for my animal figure creations (marshmallow fondant at that since I'm a beginner... and cheap...) and NEVER even considered using gum paste. I'm going to have to try it. And the coffee mug idea is genius. I'll be using that, too. Thank you again for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for pointing out the difference! I recently bought gum paste for my birthday cake but it looked and tasted the same as fondant. How long does Gum Paste take to dry completely, though? That way, I'll know when to start making figures to put on my cake. The brand I have is Satin Ice gum paste... Any good?

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Unknown said...

Thank u for ur help...I never knew their differences,I'm knew to the cake world lol..plzz would like to get instructed on how to make fondant and gum paste at home since where I live ready made products r difficult to get.plzz help me with ingredients and method.lots of appreciation.

Unknown said...

My husband makes cakes on the side and we found the store brought foundant to be not very good when it came to taste. Not something youd want to eat. Because of thatbhe start making his own gumpaste and covering cakes with that. It works just as well and taste a lot better. It does not get real hard and works just as well he says as the foundant. People seem to like it and don't know the difference

Unknown said...

Thanks for pointing out the difference between the two, Kathia! I suggest using fondant with tylose. Gum paste is fragile in that it easily fractures. These tips are great, by the way!

Kelsey Turner

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Unknown said...

LOVE fondant made from marshmallows!

lheo said...

hi! can i ask/have your recipe of fondant and gumpaste? thanks in advance... :)

Unknown said...

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Unknown said...

I always wanted to know the difference between these two and have asked at stores but could never get the answer. Thank you very much this puts light into perspective for me . I am just learning the basic uses of these items and learning basics in Baking . Thank you very much .

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