Ok I am new to the hole cake thing and trying to cake gumpaste flowers for the first time I made my own gumpaste and I am sooooo frustrated at this point. I just can't get the gum paste smooth no matter what I do it has all these little seems that look like little cracks in it. I am keeping the extra under a glass so it doesn't dry out but it seem like the stuff I am working with dry out before I can work with it? What am I doing wrong please help

Hi Sarah,

It might be a little too dry. Try adding a little shortening to your hands and knead it a little. HTH.

Karen

You can also try adding a bit of fondant to the gumpaste. Did you make it with gumtex or tylose?. Tylose gives you a bit more working time and it does not crack as fast.

Can you , please post your recipe. I think that will help us a lot to help you . tia

I used the one I got off of here! I heard it was suppose to be good I didn't change a thing just as it says!! I will try crisco!!! Thank for the help

Gumpaste
Ingredients
4 Large Egg Whites
1 2 lb. bag 10x powdered sugar
12 Level teaspoons Tylose (Available in our online store)
4 Teaspoons shortening (Crisco)
Instructions
1. Place the egg whites in a Kitchen Aid mixer bowl fitted with the flat paddle.
2. Turn the mixer on high speed for 10 seconds to break up the egg whites.
3. Reserve 1 cup of the powdered sugar and set aside.
4. Turn the mixer to the lowest speed and slowly add the remaining sugar. This will make a soft consistency royal icing.
5. Turn up the speed to setting 3 or 4 for about 2 minutes. During this time measure off the tylose into a small container.
6. Make sure the mixture is at the soft peak stage. It should look shiny, like meringue and the peaks fall over. (If coloring the entire batch, add the paste color at this stage, making it a shade darker than the desired color.)
7. Turn the mixer to the slow setting and sprinkle the tylose in over a five second time period. Next, turn the speed up to the high setting for a few seconds. (This will thicken the mixture.
8. Scrape the mixture out of the bowl onto a work surface that has been sprinkled with some of the reserved 1 cup of
powdered sugar. Place the shortening on your hands and knead the paste, adding enough of the reserved powdered sugar to form a soft but not sticky dough. You can check by pinching with your fingers and they should come away clean. Place the finished paste in a zip-top bag, then place the bagged paste in a second bag and seal well.
9. Place in the refrigerator for 24 hours if possible before using to mature the paste.
10. Before use, remove from refrigerator and allow the paste to come to room temperature. Take a small amount of shortening on the end of your finger and knead this into the paste. If you are coloring the paste, add the paste color at this stage.
11. Always store the paste in the zip-top bags and return to the refrigerator when you are not using the paste. Will keep under refrigeration for approximately 6 months. You can keep the paste longer by freezing. Be sure to use zip-top freezer bags. If you will be freezing a batch of paste, allow it to mature for 24 hours in the refrigerator first before placing into the freezer.

With that recipe, the best solution to getting it more moist is to add some more egg white to it. Remove any of the white stuff from the white first, too.

Knead in just a little more egg white at a time--maybe just a tsp. to the whole recipe. Store the rest of the egg white covered in the fridge and you'll have it handy if you need more.

HTH
Rae