It's time for me to take the plunge, and make my first fondant/gumpaste flowers--pointsettias--so I tried to do some research. Problem is, clicking on anything in the search results just takes me to the main page! So I guess I have to post a whole new topic of something that's been done before.

How MUCH tylose should I add to fondant--say, a pound of it--to make it dry hard? Or am I better off just making gumpaste to start with? Cake's not sue until the 27th, so I have time, but I need to start soon, anyway.

Thanks!

I say do them in gumpaste. Is easier when you are learning.
Edna

For flowers, I'd say start with gumpaste too. Fondant with Tylose is good for making figurines etc but gumpaste is better for getting it really thin for the petals while not tearing etc.

Thanks! Gumpaste I shall use, then. ...and because I am feeling increasingly lazy, I shall probably go out and buy it tomorrow, or Monday, when the roads are clear of snow again.

If you are gonna buy your gumpaste I would not recommend Bakels gumpaste. I've bought several pkgs of that ready made gumpaste and it will not harden for NOTHING. Just thought i'd warn you before you buy it and find that it never drys hard.

Like 1t to a #? IDK, I never measure...

so is tylose and gum tex like the same thing, they both make fondant harder, so what is the difference.

I've used tylose in fondant to tighten it up before cutting with the cricut, worked really well.

Those who say you can't roll out fondant + tylose as thinly as you can pure gumpaste must not have tried it....because nearly 100% of my flowers are done with fondant + tylose, which I switched to after making them for years with pure GP.

The advantage of using fondant + tylose is that you have a longer working time with your petals/leaves and the end result is a MUCH stronger flower. I made a cluster of f+t roses for a cake some time ago but needed just ONE more rose to put on the cake...so I found a rose I had made in pure GP in my collection. OMG, it was so brittle. I had just spent an hour brushing petal dust on my f+t roses without any breakage, yet I broke 2 petals right off the bat off of the pure GP rose using the same brush, technique, and pressure (I use Nick Lodge's GP recipe). That really opened my eyes.

In the classes I've taken with Nick, we've used pure GP for everything, and boy, when it comes time to dust them and wire them, all you hear is the plink, plink, plink of broken petals. LOL. Then Nick walks around with a tube of Superglue for repairs. In the flowers classes that I teach, we use f+t and even my clumsy new GP students don't have a whole lot of breakage.

So yes, you definitely can roll fondant + tylose just as thinly as you can with using pure GP, and IMO it makes for a better end result due to the increased strength of your petals. Plus, if you make your flowers and arrange them in the same seating (meaning not leaving them overnight to dry), your petals will have a little bit of play in them so that you can arrange them very nicely without a bunch of spaces.

Use a pasta machine for best results.

I have also achieved these same optimal results using equal parts of Nick Lodge's GP to Wilton fondant. I choose 50/50 if I have not taken the time to make f+t the night before, as the tylose needs some time to mature in the fondant.

OK sold!!! Now where do i get some? I think Michaels has gum-tex, but what about tylose? Tia

Local and online cake supply shops carry Tylose. I most recently bought some from fondantsource dot com

I actually used the recipe that came with my pointsettia cutters--mostly because it was a much smaller ammount! ...of course, because I am lazy, I also made up three batches of it (which is probably roughly the same amount) so I didn't have to knead the color into white dough. And I now have three foam bricks full of red and green leaves drying on my dining room table! That took all day. (I did centers yesterday; they're dry and ready to go.)

Tomorrow evening, I can assemble these things, since I'm told I should let them dry for 24 hours. ....yeah, the first ones I did will be dry by about eleven tomorrow morning, but hey. Assembly shouldn't take NEARLY as long as making 150+ leaves!

I was surprised at how easy it was to work with the gumpaste. I was expecting MUCH worse, but it rolled out smooth and easy--as long as I wasn't working with too much of it at once--and stayed pliable enough to work easily for far longer than I needed it to.

Hopefully, it will be smiles and pictures instead of tears tomorrow night when I assemble!

Glad it worked out for you.

In terms of adding tylose to fondant, I sort of just sprinkle some in and then knead it a bit. I'm not real scientific about it!

Well, I got one of them put together, and it's gorgeous even without the luster dusts applied yet, but it took me forever because I've never used stem tape before. Also the larger leaves still felt just a little un-dry. Not wet or anything, just not quite bone-dry. So I'm finishing them tomorrow. But I am very happy with what I have done so far! Especially since my cat is HORRIBLY HORRIBLY CONFUSED that the leaves don't smell like leaves should.

Your cat is nosing around something that is going on something to be eaten?

My cat stared wide-eyed from the floor until I let him smell a petal that I decided not to use, thank you. He knows better than to get on the tables--and that he will be given a chance to sniff if he asks politely, which he did with a paw on my leg.

Once you play with gumpaste you start loving it. It's so easy to work with!
Glad everything worked out.

As for the tylose, I add to it by feel. But be careful, if you add too much it will harden faster. It can be fix by adding more fondant. Is not a major thing.
Gumpaste has a different feel than fondant with tylose but both are very workable.
It's a matter of preference.
Edna

Well, it took me longer than I anticipated to put them together, seeing as how I threw my back out and could only work for small amounts of time at once before I had to go dit and cry a while, but my first gumpaste flower is here: http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1545252.html I'll take pix of the finished cake tomorrow after it's all set up at the party location.

That looks great!!