Hi -
Still with this weekend's cake, which I've posted two other threads about already... I'm trying to make a sculpted figure out of gumpaste, something I've never done before - I'm not a good enough sculptor to just get it right directly, but can I wait until the gumpaste hardens and then carve at it with blades like clay?
Also - i'm making an animal - body and legs - do I just use icing to stick the body onto the legs?
Thanks
Dave
dang. Ah well, no problem. I'm just a much better "subtractive" sculptor than I am with shaping gooey media =0)
I can buy the figurines I need (and half of them I couldn't have made in the first place), and the cake itself is going to be sculptural anyways.
thanks!
Dave
Dave I don't think carving gumpaste after it has dried would work well, I think it would develope cracks in the surface. For modeling I like to knead together gumpaste and fondant half and half. You get the smoothness of the fondant but the faster drying time with the gumpaste added. To connect legs and arms it depends on how you want to attach them. If they are dangling free from the body you will need to use doweling or bamboo skewers and I would use gum glue to glue where the pieces attach to one another, then prop them carefully until they have dried.
Oh then to add legs and arms there are many ways. Glue with a little egg white. Or cut from the sausage roll but don't cut the arms or legs all the way through......check out Aine2's blogspot for some demo's http://extra-icing.blogspot.com
HTH
When one cuts into dried gumpaste, one cracks it.
Don't ask me how I know this... 
Not a good idea... 
What kind of sculpted cake are you making with figurines? Sounds interesting...can't wait to see the finished product! Good luck!
Well, for my mom's 50th birthday, there are going to be several "theme tables" with various things my mom is into - so I thought I'd incorporate everything she loves into one big cake.
The main cake is going to be a lighthouse on some land, with rocks and water and all that jazz. I wanted to also put an elephant at the shore (one of her collecting hobbies is elephants), the Cat in the Hat and Barbie standing at the lighthouse with Starbucks cups in hand, and "flying" overhead the Starship Enterprise. Sounds ridiculous but my mom's into a lot of disparate things =0)
Anyway, the elephant was the biggest thing, and the first I tried with gumpaste. I know now I'll not be able to do all the others even close, but that's ok.
I don't know how involved you want to get with this project or how much time you have, but I have read on here where people make their own molds of actual objects by using silicone. Then you use the silicone mold to make your object out of gumpaste, fondant, chocolate or whatever edible product you want.
You can do a search on here of making molds or silicone molds. Here's one with some suggestions I found after doing a quick search.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-274663-silicone.html+mold
Maybe that will inspire you....
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