Okay so today I bought wilton gum paste and i attempted to make a rose. However for some reason it was EXTREMELY dry right out of the package. Whenever I see you tube videos of anyone using gum paste it seems so smooth with out the "Elephant skin" thing going on. Is it the brand Im using or should I have used a little bit of water? Any suggestions are appreciated!

Hi

don't use water. when you take the gumpaste out of the pack you need to work it - like you would with fondant. So I use only a little at a time and then I knead it in my hand, stretching it. This will let the gums start to work and will soften it. If it is really hard with dry bits in it the best thing is to take these off and throw them away, although you can with effort bring them back to life.

If you still find the gumpaste too dry then you add a bit of white fat - I'm in the UK and use trex but the US will have their own brands. this will help soften the paste.

I hope that this helps

Zerrin

Zerrin is right just work in a little crisco, and you should be fine. Remember gumpaste does need to be covered when you aren't working it or it starts to dry out, Thats what it is suppose to do

Definitely try the Crisco, but also know that Wilton premade gumpaste sometimes has rock-hard spots that will need to be thrown out. I've read other complaints about that and had a problem with one of the bags I bought. It wasn't a huge chunk that needed to be tossed, just a bit of one of the top corners. I was able to save the rest of the bag by kneading in the Crisco.