While drooling over all the awesome gumpaste creations in the gallery, I noticed how lovely and shiney most of them are. How'd you do that??

I've only just started playing with gumpaste and making a few figures but I noticed that, as it dries, the colours fade a bit and it looks .. well .. dry.

Should I give them all a rub with some shortening when I assemble the cake or is there some other trick to that?

There are some tricks:

- some are dusted with pearl dust
- some, you can polish with shortening (be careful not to let streaks)
- sometimes, it is enough to rub the figure - dry, trying to melt the sugar in the top layer

- you can get shine when you steam the figures. Simply get water in tea kettle to boil and move the figure through the steam

Please, try it before you attempt a big/important cake. I don't know what gumpaste/fondant you use - bought or home made ... and it could make a difference.

Good luck!

Thank you very much!

I bought the RTU Wilton gumpaste, ran out of that and made some with MMF and Gum-Tex, so there's a mixture. I've got some little "practice" figures that I can experiment with first.

Thanks for the tips!

you will get the ultimate shine if you use confectioners glaze. otherwise im a fan of a gentle steaming!
xx