Hi All,

Ok by no means am i an expert in this - but after reading many cricut posts on this on the forum i thought I would add my experience and also try to create a thread that contained information only in regards to using the cricut and gumpaste itself.

This thread doesnt need to be bogged down with comments reagrding what a cricut is - or how the sure cuts alot software works.
I would appeciate it if the only people posting to this thread are people using the cricut and their experiences in the kind of format as below, to make it easy for people searching for information on it.


Cricut Model - Expression
Software Used - Sure Cuts alot
Blade - Deep Cut on Both 5 and 6 Setting - found 5 to be a little gentler
Speed- Various - still havnt settled on whats best
Pressure - tried 2/4/5 settled on 4

Gumpaste - Tried MMF with Tylose and Satin Ice with Tylose - Satin was hands down winner.

Drying time - from 20 mins onwards - if the gumpaste is too soft it tears as opposed to Cuts!

Pasta Roller - Kitchenaid - Tried on 5 and 6 - 6 seemed a little too brittle, so settled on 5.

Cricut Mat - 12x12 soaked in Hot water and then scrubbed and dryed to remove sticky stuff.
Then a liberal layer of shortning - not enough will make getting the more detailed pattens almost impossible to get off the mat without it breaking.

Hints/Tips - Clean or at least check the Whole blade after each picture cut.
The gumpaste seeps up inside the blade housing and then result in tearing of your next patten.

Be careful how thick or thin your rolled gumpaste is - too thick and the circular housing of the blade pushes down on it causing tears and sliding of the gumpaste on the mat.
To thin and it can become immensly brittle.

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Attached are some photos of the success and failures of my trial and error with this.

*The large Tree and pumpkin Head were cut with mmf fondant which was rolled too thick and caused teared edges.

* the Letter , damask pattens, witch and scooby doo were cut with pasta roller 6 settings using satin ice and tylose - they became very brittle, and the thin parts on the letter B broke slightly when removing from the mat.

*Bugs bunny, Blues Clues and Winnie the poo and Kanga were my final tests. And came out the best imo, very smooth edges and didnt feel as brittle, these were run on pasta machine to no.5 setting.

Cricut Model - Personal
Software Used - Sure Cuts alot
Blade - Deep Cut on Both 5 and 6 Setting -
speed- 3
Pressure - 4

Gumpaste - tried 50/50 mix not so great, wilton premade so far best for me, not tried straight fondant yet.

Drying time - 15-20mins

Pasta Roller - no name brand manual tabletop on setting 5, then rolled to size on mat gives me correct thickness.

Cricut Mat - 6x12 soaked in Hot water and then scrubbed and dryed to remove sticky stuff.

Crisco applied with a paper towel evenly so you can see a shine but not a thick film.

Model: personal
software: cartridge
Blade: regular (green housing) set to 4
speed: 1
pressure: 1

Pasta roller: Atlas rolled to #7 (#9 being the thinnest)

Fondant- wilton fondant works great for this did add alittle tylose. Tried satin ice, that worked well too. Homemade fondant, worked with some tylose added but not as well as commercial fondant and has a longer drying time. I also, tried some old frosting sheets i had, these cut like a dream with this.

Matt: 6x12 tried first with parchment paper stuck to the stickiness, worked but paper wrinkled easy effecting final cut. Tried with the plastic protection piece over the stickiness and it worked but was a pain to clean. Ended up using a graffiti cleaner i had and it took the glue right off, but if left to set to long will take the
paint off of the mat itself (ended up having to buy another mat)

Oh and i use crisco to stick paste to the mat, if using a frosting sheet just stick the frosting sheet with its backing right on to the sticky mat.

Krud Kutter (at Lowes) works FANTASTIC for taking the sticky right off. It's non toxic and biodegradable so when you are done taking off the sticky, just wash with soap and water.

I've been practicing with a mix of gum paste and fondant that has a little tylose added... Will try gum paste next. I agree... clean the blade after each cut. Every time I push down on the little knob, crumbs of dried paste fall off.

Thank you so much for starting this thread. I have probably read all the Cricut threads at least twice, and I've been saving pieces of pertinent info. Sounds like the blade, pressure, and speed is variable among cakers, but it's a great starting point for folks like me.

okay... I did my first cricut cake last night.

I used:

speed - 1
pressure - 2
blade - 4.5

I notice the deeper I set my blade, the more jagged my cuts. I'm finding my paste slides around on the mat a bit when it is cutting. Which makes it hard for it to end in the same spot. Tiny details get torn. But long smooth stretches are easy.

I'm using wilton fondant with tylose. I've also tried gumpaste and fondant mix.

I'd love to get true cuts each time... still working on that. Anyway... here's my project from last night. ALL the appliques on the sides of this cake were cut with the cricut.

Thanks OP, I like how you did this thread.

i read on another thread that you need to modify your cricut? Did you do this or did it work using the machine as is.

I modified by sliding the rubber feeders off to the side, removing the adhesive from the mat, and by changing from the standard blade to the deep set blade and housing. That was it.

(bump) There are a lot of new Cricut owners since Christmas, so I just wanted to put this out there in case anyone missed it.

I thought I'd read just about every thread there was on here about the Cricut & gumpaste. I'm SO glad I found this!!! I've been trying for the last 3 days, and still don't have it right, and I'm about to go nuts!!

Cricut Model - Expression, rubber feeders moved to the sides
Software Used - Sure Cuts alot
Blade - Deep Cut on 4, 5 and 6. 4 was smoothest, but didn't cut all the way thru.
Speed- tried 'em all
Pressure - tried 'em all

Gumpaste - Tried Wilton pre-made gumpaste...that was a mess. Tried Satin Ice with Tylose, that was a mess. Finally settled on Wilton pre-made fondant with Tylose...works a lot cleaner, but still not where I want it to be.

Drying time - at least 20 minutes! On the DVD it says 10 minutes....shew what a mess when I tried that! But with the 1 semi-clean cut I got...it was so dry & brittle. Not at ALL how hers is in the video!

Pasta Roller - Had a hand-crank clay roller, was a disaster. Getting the KitchenAid attachment tonight & trying yet again!

Cricut Mat - 12x12 with parchment paper to cover the sticky, with Crisco applied to that. Now I think I'm gonna go ahead and scrub the sticky off like most everyone else and see if that helps.

Hints/Tips
I don't really have any to offer, but I SURE AM looking for any and all that you guys might have!!! How is it that she's able to make so many cuts, so perfectly clean, without them being dry & brittle, and without having to clean the blade after every cut???

Thank you so much for posting this stuff. I just got a Cricut expressions for Christmas and didn't know where to begin.

SUCCESS!!!
YAHOO!!! YIPPEEE!!!! HORRAY!!!!

Can you tell I'm excited? After 3 days of trial and error (mostly ERROR) I finally did it!!! Just as I suspected...my fondant roller was the culprit. I simply wasn't getting it thick enough. Now, I've whined about my issues in several Cricut forums over the last few days, so I'll now post this message in all of them, in hopes of helping someone else!

Cricut Model - Expression, rubber feeders moved to the sides
Software Used - Sure Cuts alot
Blade - Deep Cut on 3, 4 and 5, depending on thickness. Generally wold reccommend 4.
Speed- 3
Pressure - 2

Gumpaste - Wilton pre-made fondant with Tylose (2 tsp per pound).

Drying time - 10 minutes once on the mat. At this thickness, could probably do 8 or 9 minutes.

Pasta Roller - KitchenAid attachment. Just got this tonight and it was the magic trick!!! If you have a hand-crank...trash it and GO GET THE KITCHENAID!!! Got mine at Bed, Bath & Beyond with the 20% coupon, and thru tomorrow, they have a rebate as well. Anyways....rolled my fondant to level 5, that was plenty thin.

Cricut Mat - 12x12 with stickiness removed, crisco applied.

Hints/Tips
This worked PERFECTLY. No jagged edges at all. No torn fondant! The only thing, I used a 5 on the kitchenaid roller, and it's pretty thin. Am going to try it a little thicker to give the cut-outs more stability. It takes a while to get your settings right, but believe me, it's soooo worth it!!!

Pics attached. You can see how small & intricate the hydrangea is. I was so excited to post about my success that I didn't even pick out the teeny tiny cut-outs of it!!!

<trash it and GO GET THE KITCHENAID!!! >>

OK you've convinced ME I'm going tomorrow. I hadn't even taken my Cricut out of the box yet (got it black friday) because I was waiting to see what the other's did (and to see if other's said they wished they got the E but I don't really have the $ for that right now)

Waiting for my cricut expression to arrive but this info will be invaluable.!

Okay, so I finally tried my Cricut Expressions. Scrubbed the sticky stuff off the board and put the fondant on with crisco. I used Wilton fondant with tylose powder. I pushed the rubber rings to the side but make sure you don't have any fondant in the way on your board (learned that the hard way). You can move the cutter over by pressing the navigator arrow so the cutter is more centered. There were my settings:

Drying time on board - 10 min. - there was still some give to the fondant - it wasn't completely dry.
Blade - 5
Speed - 3
Pressure - 2

I got pretty good cuts. I still had to do a little manuvering to remove the fondant from my cut-outs, but I was pleased with the results.