"Michael" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
>d wrote:
>
> I uploaded some pictures of some of the stuff I've done. Have a look if
>
> you're interested.
> http://community.webshots.com/user/donneigh
>
> *********************
> Whoa! You made all those? They are absolutely breathtaking! The
> flowers are beautiful by themselves. The watch looked spectacular.
> Right now I'm just gathering information. Yesterday I sat for a couple
Yep, made them all. Thank you! I cheated on the watch though, I made a mold
of my husbands watch using stuff called Elastack.. it's great stuff and food
grade too. The molds made from this stuff can be used for gumpaste, fondant
or chocolate. A friend saw it used on an episode of Food Tv and told me
about it.... she just couldn't remember which show, just that product.
> hours at Borders bookstore reading about it. There was one book on
> making gumpaste orchids that I paid special attention to. I wrote
> down the procedures for basic handling of gumpaste. The book said
> to have egg whites, shortening, and cornstarch at hand. If the gum-
> paste was dry, it said to wipe it with egg white, if too sticky to put
> a
> thin film of shortening on my hands. It said to coat the surface that
> the gumpaste is to be worked with shortening and then wipe the
> excess off with a paper towel. One thing I found confusing. Bouncing
> between different books, one said to spread a little powdered sugar
> on the working surface, and another said absolutely not, to use corn
> starch instead.
That info was correct, sort of. It all depends on you and the weather. I
work with very little cornstarch and/or shortening. The only time I work
with powdered sugar is when I'm rolling out fondant. On dry days, when the
paste is drying out too fast, I work with more shortening than I normally do
just to keep the paste from drying out. I have hot hands so I had to learn
to work fast or my hands would literally melt the paste so that helps me on
dry days when the paste drys out faster.
>
> The orchid book said to color the flowers with powders, but I don't
> find
> them for sale anywhere,
Was that Sugar Orchids by Alan Dunn? It's a very good book and he's an
excellent sugar artist. The orchid that I made was from that book. The dusts
can be bought from many sources online. Most brick and mortars don't carry
it. It took a long time to get my local cake shop to carry them and now they
have just about every color that CK Products sells.
Here's a few that sell the dusts:
www.globalsugarart.com They sell a wide variety of gumpaste tools and the
dusts you are looking for. Right now they are having a sale on some things
and if you buy 50.00 or more you get 15% off your total.
www.countrykitchensa.com This place sells just about everything from CK
Products... I think the owners of those places are related or something
www.nicholaslodge.com He sells pretty much the same stuff as Global Sugar
Art but he does have some of his own stuff that he designed such as cutters
and veiners. He also has videos that are reasonably priced. I have most of
the videos and they are very good. The only problem is that his prices on
everything else is kind of high
www.celcrafts.co.uk I used to order from this place a lot, until the dollar
dropped. Still, it's cheaper to buy things like the celBoards and celPins
from them instead of buying them in the US. They also have a few other
things that can't be bought online or locally from any US store.
even the online specialty stores like Wilton's.
>
> I also eyed the various tools that are used, like the tiny white
> rolling
> pins, and the stylus-type shaping tools. I notice that Wilton has a
> beginner kit for around $20. I wonder if that would be a good bet.
I have that pin from Wilton and when I roll my paste out with it, there are
a bunch of tiny lines in the paste. It doesn't roll as smooth as the celPins
but the end product doesn't show the tiny lines very much. It should work
very well for you, at least for a while.
>
> I have about a billion questions! Thank you for your offer to help me!
>
> I will email you. I bought some powdered gumpaste from the cake
> store. I think I am about a week or two away from attempting some-
> thing.
Looking forward to the email, I'm always happy to help.
I first want to try decorating a cake with a simple rolled
> fondant and some more modelling chocolate. I saw a very striking
> design using an eggshell fondant shell decorated with a combination
> of dark and white chocolate clay in a Collette Peters book that I'd
> like to try. That will be my first exposure to rolled fondant.
> Thank you, Michael
>
Good luck with the fondant cake. Looking forward to seeing how the cake
turns out. Just keep practicing!
Oh, and try your local library for some of these types of books. If your
local branch doesn't have them, see if any other branches has them.
-d
)