Help! I Need Anti-Ageing Treatment For My Penguins!
Decorating By BakingGirl Updated 9 May 2007 , 1:34pm by martyz
I am making little penguin figures for a cake which is due on Saturday. I am modelling them out of half and half fondant (Satin-Ice) and gumpaste. The gumpaste is the CK powdered stuff which I made up yesterday and let rest until tonight.
The problem I am having is when I form the shapes and set them to dry, the modelling paste is quite soft so the penguins start to sag. The outer "skin" starts to dry, and as the insides sag the "skin"wrinkles and puckers. Paints a lovely picture, doesn't it? I am trying to dry the figures on a curved surface but they still look like they will come out a bit misshapen due to the drooping.
Should I make the paste stiffer? What should I add? I am afraid to add more gumpaste powder, I do not want it to dry to quickly as it is hard to get the figures molded quickly enough.
Any good ideas?
How big are they??? I find when modeling if you are making them solid and they are too big this can happen. Also if I "play" too much or for too long and the paste is starting to dry this happens.
You could make them in 2 sections, head and body then let dry and join. (maybe add a bow tie around their necks to cover join)!!!
If not you might need to make your paste 60/40 fondant sugar paste.
or you could try adding a little copha/crisco.
or add a little gelatin.
If they are rally big try modeling them on a straw or something similar so they are a little bit hollow.
HTH 
Thanks for getting back to me Torki. The figures are quite small, 1 1/2 to 2" at the most, but a bit tubby since they are penguin shaped. I only made two in the end last night, which is just as well as the two I made were horribly wrinkled and misshapen when I looked at them this morning. I cannot re-shape them either as the outside is dry so just cracking when I touch them. So it is back to square one.
Thanks for your suggestions. I have just one question regarding adding gelatin. Do you dissolve the gelatin first or do you add the granulated gelatine straight to your modelling paste?
If anyone else have any good ideas on how to do this I would be thankful.
I'm sorry but your title is just too cute. You made me laugh.
Anyway I had the same problem witha chipmunk I'm making. I ended up trying to hollow out some of the body and it seemed to do the trick. I rubbed crisco on the cracks which also helped alot.
Good luck.
I had the same problem with a Tigger I made this week. I rubbed the cracks with Crisco and it seemed to help. I don't know what to about the sagging either - I added Gumtex to my MMF with the hope that it would help but it didn't seem to do any good. Maybe I need to add more (added 2 tsp to 24oz)??
BrandisBaked, it is actually my gumpaste which is too soft. I usually have a bag of the ready made Wilton stuff which I quite like using, but I have run out and I cannot get it where I live. So I had to resort to my bag of CK powdered stuff. I made it up according to the instructions but it was just too soft. I let it rest for the required time and then added some more of the gumpaste powder, but the consistency still was not right. It dries really quickly though, so I found it hard to mold the figures quickly enough.
Oh I wish there was a figure molding fairy who could come and swing a magic wand. I so want some cute penguins for this cake.
"Thanks for your suggestions. I have just one question regarding adding gelatin. Do you dissolve the gelatin first or do you add the granulated gelatine straight to your modeling paste?"
Oops sorry i got my products mixed!!!!...
I meant to say, use glycerin, just kneed a little into your paste!!
Ah, glycerine, that makes a bit more sense. I assume this is to make the paste more elastic?
I tried again making some more figures. This time I only used fondant. Much easier to mold. I had time to get them to look like I want without the "skin" starting to dry. Hopefully they will keep their shape. I guess it does not really matter if they are hardened as long as they hold their shape. Something very satisfying about making penguins. They are so tubby and cute!
As requested, here are the finished penguins. The theme for the party was Pingu's Pool Party. Pingu is a children's clay animated cartoon, which the birthday boy absolutely loves.
I meant go over the top of the cake with a knife to make the surface more uneven like real snow, but forgot, and when it came out of the fridge the top was rock hard so could not do it. So looks like a very badly smoothed cake. Not like the birthday boy cared.
Ah the Igloo... I totally underestimated how long it would take to cut out those little suckers. I figured I have a cutter, I have fondant - easy! Well, easy it was but it took waaaaay longer than expected.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%