Hi! I am very new to cake decorating, but i've been learning alot just from this website! There are some very talented, creative and helpful people on here. I am making a cake for my anniversary in 2 weeks.... I am wanting to make hibiscus flowers and also a banner with our names on it.

I am wondering what are the differences in fondant and gum paste? How do you decide which to use for different things? I have heard alot about the marshmellow fondant and how easy it is to make. What about gum paste? How do you make it?

Thanks so much!

Hi there! I myself am pretty new also, but I've been completely addicted to anything gum paste related since September. What I've learned is that gum paste will get really hard and is good for delicate flowers and things you don't want/need eaten. Fondant will not get totally hard, but adding tylose or gum paste to fondant will make it stronger, but I am not sure if it makes it get totally hard. The Nicholas Lodge recipe for gum paste has been the one that I like the best. Designmeacake.com has the recipe and lots of usefull infomation. She is tonedna1 on here and she's got lots of tutorials on youtube that I found to be extremely helpful. HTH

fondant is mostly used to cover cakes. Gumpaste is used to make flowers, figures, etc. it dries faster and hard to hold it's shape. You can use fondant with tylose instead of gumpaste and will give you a similar effect to me it just takes longer to dry. I use Nicholas Lodge gumpaste recipe which is found on his website.

Hope this helps.

Like they said gumpaste is used for things you want to be hard and are not planning to eat and fondant is for things that can be soft and you want to eat. Michele Fosters Delicious Fondant recipe is really good and I use the pre-made Wilton gumpaste for my flowers. If you are interested, I made a hibiscus using circle cutters (the picture is in my gallery) and if you want I can pm you instructions.