Cricut Settings For Gumpaste
Decorating By spanky62798 Updated 17 Apr 2010 , 2:57am by TobiasWilhelm
Hi guys! I am so sorry if this is a repeat question, but after looking page after page of threads I haven't found my answer. If someone can share the answer or forward me the thread that would be awesome!!
I just bought an expressions and I'm trying to get my settings figured out. I've rolled my gumpaste out with a manual pasta/clay roller to a .006 inch (.125mm) thickness. I'm using the blade (and tried that on several numbers) that came with the machine. I've tried different speeds & pressure and to no avail. It's not giving a clean cut and is pushing an pulling it alot. I've let the gum paste set as a flat sheet for up to 45 minutes and that doesn't seem to help.
All help is greatly appreciated!!
I'm having the same problem I have nothing but jagged edges. I haven't had time to sit and figure it out either, but I do think the gumpaste can't be fresh. They told me to go to you tube and look up Linda Mc Clure and gumpaste. ( She did via the email) and I watched it and have yet have time to try what she's said. That's what I said got a cricut bought the SCAL and can't cut the paste so what good is it? Scrapbooking I guess, but I refuse to give up they will have to show people or they will be getting machines returned. Good luck!!!!
I'm having the same problem I have nothing but jagged edges. I haven't had time to sit and figure it out either, but I do think the gumpaste can't be fresh. They told me to go to you tube and look up Linda Mc Clure and gumpaste. ( She did via the email) and I watched it and have yet have time to try what she's said. That's what I said got a cricut bought the SCAL and can't cut the paste so what good is it? Scrapbooking I guess, but I refuse to give up they will have to show people or they will be getting machines returned. Good luck!!!!
You can check our blog for settings and times on the expression side by side compairison at www.cuttingedgecakeart.com. If you are still having trouble you can contact either Tobias or Myself at the numbers listed on our contact page. The expression is a finiky. The new cricut cake machine is less so. As with every new product there is always a learning curve.
Yes I know once I get the gumpase JUST SO I've got it licked, but I'm working with the smaller cricut. I was wanting to see how it went with that to know if it was worth investing in the new one that's made for cakes. Thanks MUCH!!!!! I'll let you all know when I get the Victory over the gumpaste war.
Don't look at the compairison. Just look at the expression side. Next to each picture it says s=speed and p=pressure and the time it was allowed to sit out before cutting. Maybe you can get closer using those as everyone has different environment issues.
Thank you sooooo much for this! I'm going to be giving it a whirl tomorrow!!
Many blessings to you all!!
Keep in mind, too, that your gumpaste might be different than someone else's. so your settings will need to be different. You have to get everything perfect or you'll end up with a big ball of mess in the machine.
My biggest success came after I learned to let my gumpaste rest after I rolled it out. As Linda McClure showed in her Youtube videos. Once I tried it like she said I had much better success. I use a "clay" machine dedicated to only cake items and roll it out to a 5. Then place it on a criscoed mat and place it in a big ziplock bag and I let mine rest overnight and then cut. Works much better for me that way.
Does anyone know how small we will be able to cut with the Cake Cricut? It would be nice to be able to cut really small letters, etc which I cannot do now with my expression, no matter what I try.
My biggest success came after I learned to let my gumpaste rest after I rolled it out. As Linda McClure showed in her Youtube videos. Once I tried it like she said I had much better success. I use a "clay" machine dedicated to only cake items and roll it out to a 5. Then place it on a criscoed mat and place it in a big ziplock bag and I let mine rest overnight and then cut. Works much better for me that way.
.
Just out of curiosity, what recipe for gumpaste are you using? If I let mine set out overnight it would be dried out. I've noticed that the recipe that Jennifer uses isn't really gumpaste, it seems to have more gelatin in it (if I remember correctly). Whatever the difference is, it has a weird marshmallowy, stretchy texture and doesn't snap like gumpaste is supposed to. It does dry out eventually, but it's a lot springier. Maybe Jennifer can answer this? I'm curious because the drying time would be a lot shorter for the gumpaste that I've always used.
I used some Wilton fondant with gumtex kneaded in - 8 oz of fondant with 1 tsp of gumtex. (I am also experimenting with plain old Wilton gumpaste.) I rolled it out and placed it on a mat that I had brushed with crisco and placed the mat with the gumpaste into a 2 gal ziplock bag, got as much air out as I could and left it overnight. The next day I took it out and cut out some samples and it worked okay. I find that if I "flip" my pattern on the Cricut, that when I cut it out I can flip it over and the rough edges I get sometimes no longer show and I have clean edges.
I had some gumpaste I had rolled out and stored away and forgot about it during Easter and decided to get it out and see what happed if I cut with it. The first mat just tore up, nothing good came out. On the second one, I removed the gumpaste and flip it over so that what had been the top now became the bottom and using a papertowel with a little crisco lightly rubbed it all over the gumpaste and then cut. Worked great! I cut a design that had some fine detail and I was really really pleased with how it cut out.
Hope that helps 
My biggest success came after I learned to let my gumpaste rest after I rolled it out. As Linda McClure showed in her Youtube videos. Once I tried it like she said I had much better success. I use a "clay" machine dedicated to only cake items and roll it out to a 5. Then place it on a criscoed mat and place it in a big ziplock bag and I let mine rest overnight and then cut. Works much better for me that way.
Does anyone know how small we will be able to cut with the Cake Cricut? It would be nice to be able to cut really small letters, etc which I cannot do now with my expression, no matter what I try.
The Cake Cricut cuts from 1/4 inch to 24 inches.
I believe that for the cake cricut; they will be selling some premade gumpaste sheets. Now for how much $$$ i don't know. But maybe it will be good if you dont have time to make your own. It will definitely save alot of time.
I used my personal Cricut with some pettinice and it worked fine. I did notice that I had to let it sit for at least 15 min or else I would get the jagged edges.
I saw on some website that they'll have "icing sheets" for sale, and someone on the cricut forum said they're going to be made by kopy kake. I have some of those, and they cut much better than gumpaste, but I don't know what they're made of. They should be called "semi-edible plastic" sheets, but I guess they're no worse than using gumpaste. I can't find the website now, but it also had three cartridges that you could buy as accessories.
Here is it...Thanks to Tiggy2 for this link http://www.cutncrop.com/Cricut-Cake_c_24.html
costumeczar: Sorry for the delay - we were traveling. Any sugarpaste with gum added is technically gumpaste. If it feels marshmallowy, it has not been "processed", meaning it still has too much air in it from the production process. You will need to either handknead or run it through a sheeter or pasta machine for a while. As you work the gumpaste, the air will come out and the gumpaste will go from a matte look to developing more of a semi-gloss. Once this happens it also develops the "snap" you were talking about.
Tobias
debster: If you are adding lots of color for dark tones, you may have to go up on the tylose and shortening just a bit - I would say as much as 5% - I would increase the tylose before I try the shortening.
Tobias
costumeczar: Sorry for the delay - we were traveling. Any sugarpaste with gum added is technically gumpaste. If it feels marshmallowy, it has not been "processed", meaning it still has too much air in it from the production process. You will need to either handknead or run it through a sheeter or pasta machine for a while. As you work the gumpaste, the air will come out and the gumpaste will go from a matte look to developing more of a semi-gloss. Once this happens it also develops the "snap" you were talking about.
Tobias
I have to say that I did roll it through the pasta machine and knead it much longer than I would otherwise, and it never got "snappy." That recipe had more of something in it, I can't remember off the top of my head, (It might have been more gelatin than usual?) but it is pretty strange in terms of the texture and the stretch. I'm not the only one who's commented on it, so I know I'm not hallucinating! It also takes a LOT longer to dry out than normal gumpaste does. I used some to make flowers, like I said, and it was a lot more difficult to use for that purpose. The petals wouldn't thin out the right way, and it stayed wetter than it should have to be used as a good flower paste.
At any rate, it works fine in the cricut, you just have to get the right setting, as I'm sure you've done a million times. I'm going to try my regular gumpaste in it and see how that goes. I think that I did that when I first got the machine, but now that I have the first learning curve out of the way I'm going to see what happens. I don't remember how it went the first time I tried it.
Oh, I'm not disagreeing, it definitely acts a bit differently than your off the shelf Wilton for example - but like you said, it works. Now, just to make sure, which "snap" are you talking about? Maybe we are talking about different "snaps" ... 
Tobias
Oh, I'm not disagreeing, it definitely acts a bit differently than your off the shelf Wilton for example - but like you said, it works. Now, just to make sure, which "snap" are you talking about? Maybe we are talking about different "snaps" ...
Tobias
Gumpaste that you use for flowers can be rolled really thin without bouncing back. One of the chefs in my culinary school made the comment that good gumpaste will snap when you pull it apart, and I've noticed that to be true, I never use the Wilton stuff, so I couldn't tell you how that works, but when I make a batch for flowers it actually makes a popping kind of noise when you pull on it and a piece breaks off. I usually just do a quick gumpaste, basically homemade fondant with tylose in it. It does make a sharp "pop" noise when you pull pieces off, which the recipe that you guys use in the cricut definitely doesn't make.
I just looked at your recipe again to compare it to my gumpaste recipe that I use for flowers. Yours has 2x the water, 2x the gelatin, 2/3 cup less corn syrup, and over 4x the gum that mine uses. I also don't put any shortening into the water when it's cooking, I just use that to knead into the paste after it's done. So there are some BIG differences. When I first made your recipe I thought that it felt more like a marshmallow, and the moisture in it was a lot higher. It definitely is spongier and shrinks back when you roll it out, which mine doesn't do. You can roll mine out thinner and it doesn't have the same texture that yours does. I found your recipe to have a rougher surface feel to it, and it was harder to color evenly with petal dusts. Yours also really didn't need to be covered as carefully as mine does, because the moisture in it keeps it from drying out as fast.
I'm going to be making some of my recipe today and try it in the cricut again, It might just be that your recipe works better for cricut-cutting purposes, mine might dry out too fast. I still think that the icing sheets are the best way to go overall, since there's none of this rolling and drying and trying to figure out what settings to use. Take that sheet out of the bag and slap it on that sucker then cut away!
costumeczar...................when do you add your color? I made a batch and it seemed good then I tinted it black and it got wet and doesn't seem to want to get back to the other consistancy. Would adding some corn starch dry it out? Thanks
Debster,
Red and black are the two colors of fondant that I buy and don't make myself. You just need too much food coloring for them to get a good color. If you want to make them you might want to start by substituting some black or red food coloring for some of the water in the recipe, or use gel, paste or powder colors instead of liquids. When I make colored fondant I usually start by adding a little food coloring to the liquid before I mix it into the sugar, then knead more in to get the color I want. I would use liquid colors to add to the liquid, then either the paste, gel or powder once it's made up. I also tended to just paint the black color on the top of the fondant as opposed to kneading the color it.
costumeczar: Now you have my curiosity going. For one I think you still have too much air in the gumpaste as I tried a piece of ours and it does snap and doesn't have the texture you described after the air is worked out. But to demystify the issue, I have put in a call to a chef instructor at a culinary school and will report back with their thoughts.
Tobias
I do that with fondant , but I was making gumpaste. So you treat that the same as fondant? Thanks
That's the easiest way.
costumeczar: Now you have my curiosity going. For one I think you still have too much air in the gumpaste as I tried a piece of ours and it does snap and doesn't have the texture you described after the air is worked out. But to demystify the issue, I have put in a call to a chef instructor at a culinary school and will report back with their thoughts.
Tobias
Forget the chef instructor, I can just make another batch of it and see what happens! I think that I made it in a mixer, which is what the recipe calls for, right? (I don't have it in front of me.) I'll make it by hand this time and see if it's less spongy. It did seem to calm down after I rolled it out in the pasta machine, but it was still a lot wetter and springier than my recipe. I was going to mess around with the cricut this afternoon so I'll make a batch and report back. I made some of mine this morning, so I can do a side-by-side comparison for curiosity's sake. I feel a blog post coming on!
Tobias,
Do you make your own gumpaste to use with the Cricut, or do you buy a commerical product and use it?
Okay, Tobias, I made another batch using your recipe, and it's reeeeeeaaallly wet compared to mine, but it's sitting and resting now. To clarify, I'm using the recipe for gumpaste for the cricut, single batch. You haven't made any adjustments to it recently, have you?
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%