I have made hydrangea blossoms out of gum paste. I used Bartels gumpaste. I have made some on Friday and they are still not dry. I did the oven trick with the light on and that dried it some. However, they are still soft and I need them to be dry so I can paint on them by Thurs. This is for a wedding cake this Saturday. Is there any other tricks that I don't know about? They are in a gladware container now. I have about 200 hydrangea flowers and want to paint them or luster dust them on Thurs. Will they be dry by Friday for me to start decorating the cake?
so here are my questions.
1. How long does it take to dry hydrangea blossoms and is there any tricks to drying faster?
2. After they dry and I apply luster dust or paint on the blossoms will it take along time to dry again?
3. Can anyone give me tips on why they are still so soft?
Please help.....
Mandy 
I have never used that type of gp before so my advice might not be the best. With the gp i work with which i assume is somewhat like any gp...I wouldnt be keeping the flowers in a gladware bowl...that helps keep things from drying out.I do store my dried pieces in that type of bowl but only after they are rock hard. I would have them hanging from the stems somewhere that the air can dry them. if they arent on stems I would still have them exposed to the air lying on something, I always have a little clip on fan in my kitchen that i turn towards things to help speed it up.hope this helps
I have never used that type of gp before so my advice might not be the best. With the gp i work with which i assume is somewhat like any gp...I wouldnt be keeping the flowers in a gladware bowl...that helps keep things from drying out.I do store my dried pieces in that type of bowl but only after they are rock hard. I would have them hanging from the stems somewhere that the air can dry them. if they arent on stems I would still have them exposed to the air lying on something, I always have a little clip on fan in my kitchen that i turn towards things to help speed it up.hope this helps
if you're using Bakel's I've found it takes it FOREVER to dry. You can use a food dehydrator if you have one but they need to sit in it at least overnight to get totally dry. I tried Wilton's new ready made gumpaste (not the mix...that stuff is awful) this weekend at a WMI meeting and it is great....dries quick and holds it shape really well.
The flowers would need to dry a little after you paint or dust them. It should not take long if you're using lemon extract or vodka because of the alcohol and if you're using the dry dust, they are ready once you finish dusting them.
Bakel's unfortunately just takes a long time to get totally dry...I've had flowers that sat around for two weeks made from Bakels and they never got totally hard and dry like they should have.
OK Thank you..... I have the Wilton gumpaste as well. Should I just make another 170 flowers out of those and just do that? This is my first time with making these flowers. The shape is holding really well but just not drying. They only take me about three hours to make em all. So shoudl I just start over using Wilton? If I do start over will they dry by Thursday?
I wished I would have known that Bartels takes a long time to dry......
Mandy
if you can make them that quickly and think you might could reuse the bakels...or bartels ones...I say make the wilton ones...NOW...lol. If the other folks are correct and that gp sometimes isnt like it should be after days and days then I wouldnt take a chance. edited to add...i think in my experience that if you use the wilton..they should be dry by morning
Could you put them in the dehydrator over night? I would try that before remaking them all. That sounds like an easy solution. I would DEFINATELY not try to dry something in Gladware. They are designed to keep the moisture in. Good luck!
Thank you guys so much for all your input. I am going to save the other flowers for the future. I am getting straight to work on the Wilton gum paste. I will make 200 .... which I think I cna do in about four hours. They are just little flowers..... I have the other batch of flowers sitting with the fan on them. This away I can have close to 400 flowers for future cakes.
Thank you so much!!!!!! I love this site!!!!!!
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