My business partner purchased an entire case of Bakels Gum Paste that will not dry! What can we do about this???? Please help!

a. send it back (obviously)
b. add some cornstarch

wilty gum paste ideas for you

I'd definitely be calling the company and sending it back.

I was wondering....


Assuming it's not a shipment of faulty/defective gumpaste, could you use a food dehydrator machine (I think Ron Popeil of Ronco made one) to speed up the drying process? Has anyone tried this tactic?

Or add some gum paste powdered mix.

Yes I use a food warming drawer in the bottom of my oven--need to keep it at 150 degrees or under--yes, some cake buddies use food dehydrators.

K8memphis- omg i never thought about the food warming drawer! how long do you keep things in there for??

I usually do two hours on--then let it cool --if it's thinner stuff like cut out flowers that's probably enough. Otherwise I'll cycle it for a coupla two hours on --let it cool--and repeat.

I let it cool so the dryness penetrates the piece. I'm not sure that makes any difference except in my brain but that's how I do it.

On my oven I have low medium and high--medium is 150 degrees on mine--but you gotta test that so your stuff doesn't melt.

Yeah you can do bows & stuff in a few hours--no worries.

But a lot of people add tylose which just kills me because it's so expensive--I use added cornstarch. And what i've learned is the fondant pieces dry really well and that gelatine in there keeps my fondant pieces from cracking like gum paste will. They have a little give which makes them sturdier to me. I'm talking like for bows & plaques & stuff not orchids.

But I dry gum paste in there too of course.

I ran into the same problem when I attempted to use Bakels last month for my sister's baby shower gumpaste roses. I had an assembly line set up for all the roses I'd need; and two days later, the first stage of the rose (that little bulb at the end of the wire) was still sticky and I could tell they would just never dry. I wound up throwing the whole thing out and making my own, which is what I usually do anyway. (I never have a problem making my own, but I thought I'd try a commercial brand to see what it was all about.) I was very disappointed, considering I drove 2+ hours (one way!) to purchase it and it was one of the most expensive brands I could find.

I am a hobby baker, but I say if you can send it back for a refund, go for it. I know that there are some out there who probably never had a problem with it; but unfortunately, it didn't work for me.

Good luck with your decision.

I was having the same problem with gumpaste this week (not Bakels) due to the humidity. I have no warming drawer on my oven so I placed them in the oven with the light on and a couple hours later they were dry. HTH

I had bought a packet of that once. And only once. I had the same problem. I even added more gum trag to it, and it still wouldn't dry for me. The vendor, who knows nothing about her products, and never amde a gumpaste flower in her life, told me that she never had a problem with it. I told her what she was full of.

Theresa

I have used CK's gum paste mix for years--just add water--I love it. Dries fast. I used another brand once ordering online and it was super wet--took an extra long time to dry. I colored it a deep dark red and I didn't want to redo it because I colored a large amount.

So I really like CK's mix.

K8 - you have given me 2 GREAT pieces of advice on here this week - just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing some of your tips!

I have had horrible results with Bakels gumpaste also - it never, ever dries. I even put it in my food dehydrator for several days - still soft. I didn't try corn starch - I used the trash can instead Tylose did make it firm up some, but why buy two products when you can make it from scratch with the CMC powder. Sigh - such a waste. I have very high humidity, and my cheap li'l food dehydrator is a life saver. It is an old, round one with about 9 trays that stack up. My DH made a couple of tall "collars" that fit inside the tray rim so that I can dry taller pieces. Wish I had a warming drawer.......

lol okay so i tried putting a gumpaste banner in the warming drawer last ngiht (i make my own gumpaste)...my oven has the low, med and high settings. I put it on medium and left it for like 45 mins, and the edges of the gumpaste got kind of brown (lol kinda like a marshmallow over a fire)...but it did dry the gumpaste out...so my next experiment I will put it on low and leave it...
Thanks so much for the tip K8

Thanks everyone for the tips...I wish I could return the entire case, but the distributor does not allow "food" products to be returned! I will try these options to see if any of them work...Thanks again!

Ouch..sorry 'bout your luck with this
I'm sorry to state that I've used Bakels twice, each time that sh@! never dried. In fact i had a cut out cross in my baking cupboard for a year and still it was flexible after all that time. It royally ticked me off because i bought it from a cake shop in town and it was expensive. Never will i buy it again! I would try like a dickens too see if there is any way you can return it, or at least get some sort of reimbursment for the product. I really hope your whole bunch isn't all the same, but unfortunately i'm not very optimistic about it. Bakel's = garbage..in my book. JMO.
Good luck.

I have left my pieces in the oven with the light on...dries it a lot faster than sitting out. Just have to be careful about putting colored pieces too close to the light, it'll make it fade (happened on my girl figure I made for some cupcakes last week and her left shoulder is lighter than the rest of her body - LAL).

If you can't return your gumpaste, add tylose to it. That stuff works wonders. I even used it on some mmf since I had so much of it left over and it dried wonderfully (took about 2 days in the oven). I've used CK's gumpaste before and it dried within the day without any problems. Haven't tried Bakels and after reading the comments, I don't plan on trying it either.

Hope it works out for you.