As is the case in many areas, it's 99.9% humidity here, with temps in the mid 80's today. I have fondant/gumpaste stargazer lilies that have been trying to dry since Monday for a Saturday 3 tier anniversary cake. They wont. In fact, they are getting worse by the minute. I've tried everything, including my food dehydrator (which turned out to be a big mistake because the one I have has a heating element and was melting the petals) and now I'm stuck with no way to put them together since they're turning to mush.

Does anyone know of any possible way to make them out of buttercream somehow? I saw the tutorial on the Chirstmas pointsettias and I'm wondering if maybe I can attempt something along those lines. I know they aren't going to look exactly right, but at this point, I'm running out of time. Stupid weather!!!

I can't do fresh flowers because it's a cake for family and I'm already eating a huge majority of the cost and can't afford to spend any more on it. I thought about trying silk ( ick) but my trip to Hobby Lobby (the only local craft store we have) was unsuccessful. They had all sorts of (ugly) silk lilies, but no stargazers.

Help?

You can make lilies out of Royal Icing! Use the old fashioned Wilton Method.

Hmmm...considering I had to glue my petals with RI anyway, I can't believe I didn't think of that myself. What a goof I am!

tiptop, THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!! You saved the day!!!!!!!!!!

You're welcome

(Sometimes the simpliest things stare us right in the face but we are so close we can't see it.)

I actually bought a dehumidifier for the house because my fondant wouldn't dry I told my husband we needed it in order to lower our electric bills...but that turned out to be true, lower bills and a more comfortable house, in addition to the fondant drying better.

Yeah you can definitely try the royal icing lilies if you think they will dry in time. I'm wondering if you would have had better luck with the lily petals drying if you had used straight gumpaste. I find this dries so much harder than any kind of fondant/gumpaste blend. Anytime I make fondant/gumpaste flowers they don't get rock hard like my straight gumpaste ones.

Yes, thinking back pure gumpaste would have been a better choice. I had no idea this kind of weather was coming when I started mixing on Sunday night. I cut, shaped, and painted on Monday and by Tuesday things looked like they were drying welll and going to be ok. Well, by Wednesday night when I tried to put together a couple of them, I realized already they weren't quite ready and by Thursday morning the humidity started and has only gotten worse. Looks like we're in for humid, rain and storms until next Tuesday

I'm going to hope the RI ones dry in time. Fortunately, I only have to make about 10 of them!

I think pure gumpaste should dry better and faster than RI. Here during summer I can't work with RI at all, today was 100% humidity though which is too high even for pure gumpaste, with aircon in dehumidifier mode blowing directly over it.

You could try modelling chocolate, that I've never had a problem with no matter how humid it is.