A couple of months ago I made a cake with a gum paste rose topper. I used the Wilton mix and made it myself. I never had a problem with the gum paste. I am now making a jungle animal cake. Just to see if it saved time, I purchased the pre-made Wilton gum paste. I can get it worked out and soft but when attempting to shape it I get lines that I cannot work out and it seems to dry very quickly, even keeping it in airtight containers with plenty of Crisco on hand. Is there something I am missing? It just seems that the kind I made myself was a much smoother texture. Are there any tips I can try or should I just give it up and go buy the mix? Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

When you are kneading it to soften it, are you mixing some shortning in to it also? I have found that you need to add the shortning to it to make it so it is truely supple.

Yes. I even took one little piece and worked it a little at a time, working Crisco in each time. It eventually just fell apart and never quite got to the softness I needed.

Have you tried mixing it with a little bit of fondant? Maybe that would help. Even perhaps up to a 70% gumpaste/30% fondant ratio, depending on how hard you need it to set up. The more fondant you add the slower it will harden. I'm not an expert but it might work. I have some decorations hardening now which are a mix of the two, hoping it works for me! HTH!

I haven't used a gum paste/fondant mix myself yet but I know that many people do. It is certainly worth a try. Thanks.