Ok, I'm running out of days to do these gumpaste roses! I'm not having a whole lot of luck.
First.....I need a LIGHT LIGHT baby blue color and I just can't seem to get it light enough. I've mixed up a can of the powdered wilton gumpaste mix (couldn't find the ingredients to make my own) and I started with a small amount of dough .....added a tiny bit of delphinium blue and that was way dark so I added a bunch of white dough and it didn't help. I added some sky blue color and it's better but not great. I added almost all the rest of the white and it didn't really make a dent in lightening it. Any ideas???
Second....since I've been mixing and playing with it all night .... it's starting to get dry. I added a few drops of water but then it got massively sticky. I added a tiny bit of powdered sugar but all that did was make it dry again. What am I doing wrong?!?!?
How long do roses have to "dry" before they can go on a cake?
To moisten gum paste you need to add a few drops of egg white or knead in a dab of Crisco.
As for the color, if you don't want to make more gum paste, you can brush the finished flowers with pale blue or white petal dust or super pearl dust. Steam them lightly after that and the color will hold nicely.
The blue gum paste will dry lighter than it is when it's wet, so you may want to roll out a thin piece and let it dry to see exactly what you've got.
When you make these types of flowers, it's best to do the dough a very light color of the final color you want and then colore them with dusts to finesse the final shade.
HTH
Rae
I wish I could buy pedal dust here!! I can't find it anywhere!
Thanks soooo much!!! I was thinking they were going to dry darker for some reason. Lighter is definitely better in this case.
Thanks for the tip on moistening it, you're a lifesaver! I have to drive an hour each way to get supplies and I really wanted to salvage it!
Once again, thank you!
The safest way to color gumpaste or fondant is to make a ball of paste about the size of a large marble, small ping pong ball. Add paste or gel color and knead, you want the color to be about 1 shade darker than what you want the finished paste to be. Now knead that colored ball into 1 recipe of white gumpaste or fondant and you should have just about the color you are looking for. I know it is too late for this time, but something to keep in mind if you make it again.
I actually buy very little retail petal dust.
I purchased a large box of non-toxic chalk pastels at Michael's for $4.99--48 sticks of all colors, I believe--and I grate those through a small tea strainer from the dollar store. If I want to lighten a color, I add cornstarch to it. I can also mix custom colors this way. I can make lots of flowers completely white and then color them with the ground up chalks as I need them
Rae
Hi,
Don't keep adding icing sugar to the gumpaste as it just dries it out - add a little water,couple of drops at a time until it's smooth, soft & pliable again. If you can't get the colour right, the easiest thing to do is buy some non-toxic chalk ( a mass of colour choices !! ) scrape enough off,so its powdered ( like dust ) & dry brush it onto the rose - the more coats you do,the darker the colour.
I would usually give it at least a couple of days to dry properly..
Hope this helps you 
I purchased a large box of non-toxic chalk pastels at Michael's for $4.99--48 sticks of all colors, I believe--and I grate those through a small tea strainer from the dollar store.
Did you find these in the art media section?? I used to have a set of pastels (when I had time to draw 
) but I can't remember if it said non-toxic. Can you also use steam to set the chalk on the flowers?
TrinaH - I've found that if I have a dab of Crisco on my worksurface that also helps with the drying out.....I suppose that some of the crisco would transfer to your surface anyway, but I purposely put some on the surface and rarely use the cornstarch or powdered sugar.....As a newbie working with gumpaste I'm sure I will be told that is wrong, but it seemed to work okay, and altho' I work with modeling clay all the time the texture and drying out of the gumpaste really tried my patience! This is the only way to keep it pliable and allow me to keep working.
I also keep all cut pieces covered in plastic wrap until ready to use. Be sure the plastic wrap is sealed to the surface (crisco on the surface again 
)
No, using shortening / chrisco with your gumpaste isn't wrong ! I always use it when it gets dry but sometimes if the gumpaste has really dried out ,water is the best thing to use . Steaming your flowers after colouring with chalk stops the colours from fading.
Steaming is just holding the finished flowers over a steaming pot or kettle for a fews seconds. It adds shine and sets the color of the dusts. I also use non toxic artist chalks to color with.
I buy the chalk pastels in the aisle where the supplies for oil and watercolor painting are sold. Make sure that they are chalk and not oil. The gum paste needs to be completely dry before applying the chalks. Steaming the flowers after they're dried and chalked sets the color. I have a travel clothing steamer that I use, but you can do it over a tea kettle or pan of water--not too close and not too long.
As for keeping the gum paste pliable, Nic Lodge was the one who taught me to use egg white first and then a dab of crisco. He says that crisco alone changes the balance of the gum paste and eventually creates more problems than it solves. The egg white is more a part of the recipe than water or crisco, so it helps to re-balance the mixture.
Rae
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