I just tried the gum paste recipe from Nicholas Lodge's website for the first time and somehow screwed it up completely. I used 4 large egg whites, 2lbs. of ps minus one cup, and 12 level tsp. of tylose. I mixed it in a KA at the recommended settings for the recommended time, and it was a dry mess that had to be thrown away.

Any thoughts about what I did wrong?

When I've made it, it was dry until it was kneaded together with a little bit of shortening. I even forgot to take out the cup of powdered sugar before and it was still usable.

my last 2 batches have turned out this way, the 1st batch was unusable no matter what I did, the 2nd batch i mixed with fondant and it worked like a charm.......................... now if I could just get my flowers to dry by friday I'll be happy.

Try mixing some shortening to it or maybe do a 50/50 mix with fondant.

You do need to knead in a bit of crisco before declaring it unuseable. If it's still a bit dry, adding small amount of egg white at a time should bring it back to life.

HTH
Rae

when i make nick lodges recipe.. i go right by the recipe.. i take out the cup of 10x sugar... i sprinkle little powder sugar on table.. i grease my hands good with the crisco.. i usually don,t have to mix all the powder sugar in. maybe , put little more crisco on hands and knead and knead and then it is great. just try again, and it will come out next time. please don,t add any fondant to it.. then it is not strickly gumpaste. and certainly not nick lodges recipe anymore. mixing the fondant , will make it hard to dry also. hth my first batch 12 years ago. didn,t turn out either.. but the next one did. and all from then on. don,t get discouraged ..you will love his recipe..

Unfortunately I can only get the Tylose by mail order and right now paying shipping is more than I can afford, so I won't be able to try the recipe again, at least right now. I did knead in the 4 tsp of shortening but it was nowhere near enough, so I threw it away.

Looking back, maybe I overbeat the egg whites and sugar. The recipe says it should look shiny, like meringue, but mine was dull looking. So far I'm hating my KA -- aside from giant batches of frosting, it overbeats all my recipes, even when using the settings noted in the recipes.

Thanks for your suggestions, though.

I've made it quite a few times and never had a problem with it. It starts out rather dry until I get the shortening needed in well. Did you mix the egg whites until they were soft peaks? If they got too stiff, that could have caused a problem. Mine usually softens up pretty quickly.