I bought some patchwork cutters and the directions say to make Mexican paste. Can I just use fondant or gumpaste? Is either one preferred or do I need to make the mexican paste?

Yes you can use gp or fondant. Mexican paste is just a slightly different recipe of fondant. If you are interested I can look it up for you.

They gave a recipe for it in with the cutters, but I would just prefer to use gp or fondant.

I was cutting out letters last night, and they were really difficult to get out of the cutters. I was trying to follow the directions, but the fondant kept sticking inside the cutters and when I would try to get it out the letter would get all messed up. Is there a trick to this?

I had the same trouble, but found if I rolled out the fondant and waited a minute before I used the cutter it worked better. Don't wait too long or it won't leave the impressions. Also very lightly dust cornstarch on both sides of the rolled out fondant so that it doesn't stick.
HTH!!! ~ Julie

I found that you really need to add some tylose to your fondant and slightly grease your cutters, to not have sticking problems. HTH,

christie

Hi, I did have the same problem. But the lady who in the shop that I buy my cake decorating products told me to use lots of shortening before using the cutters. And she also told me to use mexican paste. So I bought a packet of mexican paste, used lot of shortening and tryed it. It came out so easily.

I found mexican paste more easy to use. It has a softer texture than GP. So I use mexican paste after that, only for the patchwork cutters.

Hope this helps.

Good Luck!

Oh, so your not suppose to cut all the way through the fondant?

I was trying to cut them like a cookie cutter. I couldn't figure out how the letters were suppose to stay within the piece of rolled out fondant; mine kept coming up with the cutter.

Also, I'll try the tylose. The one good letter I made took forever to dry before I could even pick it up.

Thanks all.

Patty, it does comes up with the cutter sometimes. When that happens, use a dress makers pin to take it out from the cutter.

Thanks, maybe I'll give the mexican paste a try.

You are supposed to cut the whole thing out. When I said impressions, I meant that my letter set has scroll indentions that it leaves as part of the decoration of the letter. Those don't cut entirely through the letter, they just make a mark on top of it. I used the funky letter set - in my pics on the frog cake. Maybe they are different from regular letters.

Jules - My letters are just the regular capital letters. I'll try it again tonight now that I have a better idea what I'm doing. Love your frog cake, it is very cute. Thanks