How would you make gum paste have a shiny exterior? Like, for an apple. I made an apple before but, of course, when it dried it was like a matte finish. What can I use to shine it up a little? Thanks!

You can paint it with gel color mixed with vodka and it will be shiny for a few days, or paint it with confectioner's glaze and it will be shiny forever.

Hmm confectioner's glaze...this is new to me. I'll look it up. Thanks!!

I have some chili peppers to make for an upcoming cake. I was going to use modelling chocolate or fondant and just spray with PAM. Will that work? or will it eventually dry and go back to a flat matte apearance?

Just steam it for 3-5 seconds, until it gets shiny. It will stay that way. It will give it a waxy shine. If you use bakers glaze it will look like lacquer. Maybe a little to shiny.

You can paint it with a mixture of water and gum arabic.
When added to royal icing gum arabic strengthens it a lot.

Seems there are a lot of ways to achieve this. I'll try the steaming first, since I won't have to purchase anything. If that doesn't work, I'll move on to one of the other methods.

I'll have to look into gum arabic, too. I haven't used that either.

Thank you everyone!!

I've been experimenting with this too and I can tell you what did NOT work...painting it with glycerin. It stayed sticky for weeks...by the time it dryed it wasn't shiny any more! and Crisco didn't work very well either...hard to get it into the crevices. HTH!

Gum arabic is cheap. When you might be ordering something from Global Sugar tack on a bottle--it's worth having on hand. Or it might be a good excuse to work up a juicy order!

Will do, K8. What else do you use it for?

Gum arabic is easier to clean up than confectioner's glaze too. Not as shiny, but less mess and less smell for sure.

You can make cake glitter with gum arabic too...mix it with a bit of water and food color, add a pinch of luster dust if you want, spread it very thin on a silicone baking mat and bake at a low temp until it's dry. Let it cool and then break it into flakes. It looks just like the large, clear flakes that Wilton sells

Cool! Thanks

A while back someone mentioned using corn syrup for glazing gumpaste, but I can't remember if it was mixed with vodka or something too, so that doesn't actually help much

Shiny fondant question!
How would I steam my fondant bow topper? I guess I need a steamer?

I've already made the bow.. half gumpaste/half fondant... Any ideas?