How To Make Gelatin Bows & Flowers

Decorating By justdi Updated 24 Jan 2017 , 12:26pm by CalaMom

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bobwonderbuns Posted 22 May 2009 , 2:32am
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Bakingangel, I thin the piping gel with a little water. Not much, just enough to loosen it.

Katiekake, Pixie dust and Disco dust are different. For the gelatin flowers, bows and butterflies you want to use Disco dust because the particles are considerably larger than other dusts on the market. Pixie dust is just that, a very fine particle like dust which will smudge and ruin your life in this application. I believe pixie dust was originally developed for use in the airbrushes if I'm not mistaken.

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KatieKake Posted 22 May 2009 , 3:07am
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Thanks, Bobwonderbuns I would have felt really bad if I had ordered the wrong thing, you relive my mind a lot.

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bobwonderbuns Posted 22 May 2009 , 3:09am
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Well even Pixie dust has it's place -- I have every kind of dust known to man and with the exception of the dust in my house I have a use for all of it! icon_lol.gif

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Dinny2222 Posted 22 May 2009 , 3:15am
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Can someone explain how to do the flowers and butterfly? What do you use for the body of the butterfly and how do you attach the wings. For the flowers do you "paint" the gelatin in the mold and then let them pop out? How do you put them together. I know this is a stupid question but I just don't get it on my own.
Thank you

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cuttie431 Posted 22 May 2009 , 4:58am
post #185 of 887

i havent done these butterflies
but i done different things with gelatin
for the flavor i add clear vanilla flavor ,even if you add sugar it wont taste good only ok

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Loucinda Posted 22 May 2009 , 11:55am
post #186 of 887

Yes, you "paint" the gelatin onto the impression mat for the flowers, butterflies, and bows. It will literally "pop" off the mat when they are dry!

The bodies can be made with either gumpaste (Diane sells the mold - has big and small butterfly bodies, a bumblebee and a ladybug) or you can use royal frosting to make the bodies.

I just use a small amount of the warm gelatin to attach the parts together. I have left the wings together and cut them apart both, it will work either way for the butterflies. I haven't tried the piping gel, but that will work too.

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bobwonderbuns Posted 24 May 2009 , 3:40pm
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Soooo, are there any new bows, butterflies or flowers in our midst??? icon_lol.gif

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Parable Posted 24 May 2009 , 6:53pm
post #188 of 887

Lou and BWB:

I have been following all of your experiments and am ready to try myself.

DH is at the store right now buying the ingredients. I am going to attempt to make some butterflies first. I want to try them with the SF jello added because it is for a cake for a bunch of teenagers and they probably will try and eat them. icon_surprised.gif

The only SF jellos available were various red flavors, orange and lemon. I asked him to get the lemon in hopes of tinting it a light purple (lavender preferably). I don't have Diane's impression mats but am going to try using some veining mats I picked up last year at the ICES convention.

Wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Will check back when I have some results to share.

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Parable Posted 24 May 2009 , 7:51pm
post #189 of 887

OK, lemon + hint of purple = puke. icon_eek.gif

On to second attempt. Plain gelatin + clear vanilla flavoring + hint of purple = lots better! icon_smile.gif

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jimandmollie Posted 25 May 2009 , 1:42am
post #190 of 887
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parable

OK, lemon + hint of purple = puke. icon_eek.gif




That gave me my chuckle for the evening. Thanks! icon_lol.gif

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Loucinda Posted 25 May 2009 , 1:55am
post #191 of 887

Me too!!! I will know not to mix those colors!!

I have been busy with cakes this week, several graduation cakes/birthday cakes and a wedding cake. Now that those are done, I have a couple of days to play again......

Now, where are those butterflies???

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Alice1230 Posted 25 May 2009 , 4:00pm
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NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!

ok so I made my mixture according to directions that came with mats. heated gelatine mixture....waited 10-15 min.....NO foam/scum. whats going on? do I need to wait longer? I used Knox gelatin.

I tried what I had made on bow mat and it wouldnt spread right. It seperated into small droplets of gelatin no matter how much painting I did.

Oh I also have my sheet on a heating pad. Can someone help me?

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Loucinda Posted 25 May 2009 , 4:17pm
post #193 of 887

I don't use the directions that came with the mat, I used the ones she gave us for the bows to do all of them. (4T. gelatin to 12 T. water) I heat my gelatin up until it is pretty hot (10 second intervals for about 60 sec total) I have always had some "scum" and I use knox gelatin.

To me it sounds like the gelatin is too thin, I would let it harden up again, then reheat it and see how that works out. ( that isn't in the instructions - I just have good luck with doing that)

What kind of brush are you using?

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Alice1230 Posted 25 May 2009 , 4:24pm
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I did 4T gelatin and 12T water also. The brush is just a regular soft brush. Its been sitting since I posted and still no scum.

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Alice1230 Posted 25 May 2009 , 4:26pm
post #195 of 887

will it harden on its own if let out? should I microwave more? thanks for helping...I'm so bummed!!

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Loucinda Posted 25 May 2009 , 4:34pm
post #196 of 887

Yes, it will harden on it's own - it won't take long. You may not be putting it on thick enough (which is why I asked what kind of brush you are using) I think I have a pic of the one I use, I will upload it so you can see which one it is. (it is about 1/2" wide)

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Loucinda Posted 25 May 2009 , 4:43pm
post #197 of 887

I just loaded some pics.....one is the "scum" (there are 2 views of that one)and the other is the one of the brush I like to use.

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1377136&done=1

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Alice1230 Posted 25 May 2009 , 4:52pm
post #198 of 887

my brush is very similar but a bit wider. That doesnt seem like much gelatin in the bowl. Is that all of your mixture?

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Alice1230 Posted 25 May 2009 , 4:56pm
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ok my mixture is much thicker now! should I paint it on now or wait longer then reheat? if I reheat wont it thin out again? sorry for all the questions

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Loucinda Posted 25 May 2009 , 5:08pm
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the bowl in the picture is about 1/4 of the total recipe!

If it is thick now, go ahead and use it. You want it to be about the consistency of fingernail polish.

While using the gelatin, if it gets too thick, just reheat it 5 to 10 seconds at a time - you don't want it to get real hot again, that will thin it out too much. (I now use a "coffee cup" warmer to keep my gelatin warm - it works out really well!) When you heat it up, (while you are painiting a mat) there may be some spots of thicker gelatin, just keep stirring and it will all meld together again -hope that makes sense.

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Alice1230 Posted 25 May 2009 , 5:17pm
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Yes! thank you SOOOOOOOOOOO much! fingernail polish....good to know. I'm going to try reheating it right now! wish me luck! thanks!

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monkeydust Posted 25 May 2009 , 6:15pm
post #202 of 887

I can't wait till mine get here, this looks so much better without the wires!
Thanks
Taresa

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Parable Posted 25 May 2009 , 6:38pm
post #203 of 887

I made mine yesterday and really didn't have any scum either. But it worked just fine. Wonder if the clear vanilla I added had anything to do with that? detective.gif

After I used what I could, I just left the remainder in the cup and it firmed up. Reheated today for about 5 seconds, stirred and was ready to go to town again. thumbs_up.gif

I'm working on the painting of the wings, so pictures will come later.

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bobwonderbuns Posted 25 May 2009 , 6:50pm
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I don't get the scum but I do get the foamy bubbles on the side that I have to skim off (or it leaves bubbles in your finished product -- NOT cool!) -- [Don't ask me how I know that...icon_rolleyes.gif]

The recipe will only make a small amount of the gelatin liquid but out of that I got like 5 pages of butterflies. I let it set overnight and get hard and the next day nuke it at 5 second intervals for no more than 30 seconds (usually not nearly that long) and paint with it again! icon_biggrin.gif

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JCE62108 Posted 25 May 2009 , 7:12pm
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I never waited for any scum. I was just impatient. LOL. However I did get little bubbles in my gelatin after it dried, maybe that is why. It didnt matter to me because I was just making them for fun and plus, the teeny bubbles almost made it look "sparkly". icon_smile.gif If I was brushing the gelatin on too thin it would start separating and leaving holes everywhere. When I did it a little thicker I stopped having that problem.


So has ANYONE tried my recipe that uses SF gelatin? Im so curious to see how it works for you. I know the colors are limited, but at least no one will puke if they try to eat it. LOL.


I was playing with the stuff last night and put the slightly cooled gelatin in a disposable piping bag with a tiny round tip and I let little droplets fall onto a piece of wax paper and dry. They look like pretty little jeweled polka dots! I think that would look neat on a cake to have shiney round jeweled polka dots. Does anyone know if they will melt or bleed into BC?

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Loucinda Posted 25 May 2009 , 7:35pm
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Ooohhh.....another cool idea!! I bet those little jewels are gorgeous!! I would bet that they hold up ok - put them on a crusted buttercream - we'll have to experiment now again......LOTS of leftover buttercream here and SF jello just waiting to be played with.

Tune in for more later today..........

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Loucinda Posted 25 May 2009 , 10:09pm
post #207 of 887

Sorry - I didn't realize we were not allowed to put such pictures on here. They told me they had to remove the picture of the brush and the gelatin with the scum on it. icon_redface.gif Hope that doesn't mess anyone up.

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bobwonderbuns Posted 25 May 2009 , 10:26pm
post #208 of 887

can you post it right in the thread itself?

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ziggytarheel Posted 25 May 2009 , 11:35pm
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I want to try to make a bow sometime this next week. I'm very excited about this! But I had a thought today that might be ridiculous, but since I've not tried this method, I don't know!

I had first thought about "painting" a figure with this method. For example, tinting the gelatin the color of a school logo then placing waxed paper over an outline of the figure and painting inside the lines. Then I realized that the particular logo I was thinking about has lots of feathers and I would probably have a hard time working fast enough, even if this technique would work. Then, I wondered...could you paint a square of gelatin and then cut a figure from it?

Or is that ridiculous? icon_smile.gif

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bobwonderbuns Posted 26 May 2009 , 12:55am
post #210 of 887

Ziggy, you can try painting on a large surface (impression mat) then cutting out the outline but for what I think you are describing it won't work. One thing you can do that's pretty cool though is to paint on a large impression mat like you would for a bow but then take a paper punch in the shape of a flower or heart or whatever and punch out shapes on the dried gelatin (after it's removed from the impression mat). Then glitz the edges with disco dust and stick on the sides of your cake. Very cool indeed! icon_lol.gif

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