I am taking the Wilton III class right now and on Wednesday, we are doing the gift/present cake out of fondant. Here is my question: do I have to add gumtex to the Wilton ready made fondant for the bow or is the gumtex only necessary for flowers?

In your first night of class, you should have colored and added gumtex to a certain amount of fondant (12 oz) - this will be used for the following class for the bow and the rose.

Is that what you did first night?

We added the gumtex in the last 30 seconds of class to 12 oz of fondant. We did not tint it. This class seriously needs to be more than 2 hours as we never get done on time. She told us to take a small amount of that and tint it green and the rest pink. I want to use purple instead, so could I just tint it purple and then worry about what color to do my roses for the last cake later?

You will need to add some gum tex to the fondant, this helps the loops dry in enough time to put them on the cake without falling in on themselves. You could also do a 50/50 blend of fondant and gum paste. I have also allowed my students to make the bow totally out of gum paste if they want to.

OK. so you have the gumtex in there already - if you want purple instead of pink, this will be used for the bow and some practice roses - you can make more fondant with gumtex/color for your final project later.

Enjoy!

Thank you so much for your replies!

How much of this gift cake can I do ahead of time? We never have enough time to complete the project in class...if I did the bow and the curls and cut out the flowers ahead of time, would they be too hard to use several hours later??

You could cut out the applique flowers and place them on a cardboard circle, then place that inside a ziplock baggie to keep them flat and pliable so they don't dry out - you want them to be able to take the shape of the cake.

The second night of Course III is notorious for having a lot of content and so little time.

I think the classes just need to be longer every night. You're just always rushing and it would be easier to learn if you weren't rushing. Goodluck.. sorry I just wanted to slide that in there!

I have never been able to finish a cake in any of the Wilton classes. They need to be about 1/2 hour to an hour longer.

Again, I had to finish my cake at home, which frustrates me. I have a great instructor, but Wilton has her on timers!