Gum Paste Elvis is about to leave the building...without his legs.

Im making a cake for my running clubs annual dinner (and race) but Elvis is not co-operating. His origional legs were a little stubby, so I made him new ones lastnight. 50%MMF 50% wilton gumpaste. My gp seemed to have some dry spots on it, I cut them off but I missed a few so I kneaded and kneaded, added some shortening (added some more) and kneaded the heck out of it to make it nice and smooth. I made him some new legs and laid him down so they could dry. I checked on him a few times today but they are still very soft!! There is no way they can hold his body. The cake is due saturday afternoon so I have a few days but with the added shortening do you experts think it will harden up? Do I try to cut my losses and make him another set of new legs? I have him in my office, with the ceiling fan on and I am crossing my fingers but Im losing hope

can you put thin skeewers inside the legs to help hold him up? I wish I could help... good luck

Oh! I should have added that! He does have a skewer in each leg. But his body is pretty heavey (he is fat elvis ) and Im afraid if I stand him up his legs will just squish down.

Is there any way to rethink the set up? Put a wall behind him, having him sit on the edge of the cake or something?

Good for you to have all this delicious time to regroup.

Do you have a pilot light in your oven and can you tell the temperature in there? Or if you have a light bulb in your oven that will help. You wanna keep it under 150 degrees and don't touch it till it cools off.

Im trying to figure out some way to get him to lean, or be set up against something that I can attach him to but he will be standing on our club logo which is laying flat. Im mind blocked.

I have a gas stove but itll be busy pumping out cakes for our banquet. I put him in my (warm) office and put the fan on high.

He is still super squishy. Do you think itll harden by Saturday? Im guessing its soft because of the shortening so Im not sure if itll ever set up hard?

MMF takes a while to dry but yeah, he should be dry by Saturday. This is only Tuesday so you've got time.

When I've added shortening to gumpaste, it still dries.

If you don't think they'll be dry enough in time, maybe make them agian with some tylose gumpaste.

And I want to see a picture when he's done...the title of your post was too funny to resist!

Yes you could have a back up ELvis in the wings hehe, just in case he cracks up....it should be dry, but I was thinking of making a new one and using tylose also....I CAN HARDLY WAIT TO SEE THIS ALSO. GOOD LUCK

I dont have any tylose-where would I get that? Is there any other name for it? I live in a small town (and just do the cake thing for fun )

Tylose is like gum-tex but it works better. You'd probably have to order it, which rules it out for this time, but next time you order cake supplies online you might order some. It's about four dollars for a jar and it will make two batches of gumpaste, using Nicholas Lodge's recipe.

Thank you Texas Rose! I will add that to my next order!!

How's the hunka hunka burnin' love doing today???

I LOVE ELVIS!!! You did him justice!

Thank you!! Last year at this same race (it is in Las Vegas) my infant daughter and I ran the half marathon in matching Elvis costumes. SO much fun!!

Here is the whole cake, its messy but it travelled over 100 miles. By the time we got there I was exhausted and over excited (about the impending race) so I didnt even fix the bottoms or bumps and what not. The cake was *demolished* in minutes. Think nearly 100 marathoners carbo-loading. It was awesome.

I'm so glad it worked out...GREAT cake!!!

Jen