hi guys i dont post too much but at the mo i am having a major problem. i needed purple sugar paste lik what you use for making flowers and couldnt get any so i dyed the white a dark purple but it went quite soft and it wont harden now. I need for tomorrow and i dont know what else to use!

I add cornstarch--maybe called corn flour over the pond there.

Or can you get it warm--that would be under 150 Farenheight which I think is 65 Celsius according to http://www.dabhand.org/cgi-bin/convert.pl.

But if you do the warming thing--wait till it cools off before touching so it can solidify.

Hope all goes well!!!

I'm guessing that this was pre-made flower paste?

I'd suggest taking a bit of it and see if adding some tylose, cmc, or gum-tex to it might help it harden better. Knead in a sprinkle to an egg sized piece, wrap it well, and let it sit for an hour. If it works, then about a tsp/pound--sorry, no metric conversion....

Another option might be to knead in some icing sugar a bit at a time, but obviously too much, as that would change the color.

Hope it works out OK
Rae