I was told that you can not eat gumpaste flowers. While I imagine it would taste horrible, are they edible?

I thought you COULD NOT eat them.

I just bought a can of gum paste at Michaels. It has a chart of nutritional values on it, so Yes it is edible. The taste is another thing!
Judy

They are edible.

they taste like candy.. they are ok

You can, but they are not really good.

Page 111 of The 2005 Wilton Yearbook, bottom right-hand corner: Gum Paste ...
dries hard and is meant more for decoration than consumption.

I made gum paste flowers and hubby and kids ate them....nothing bad happened to them! LOL

It does dry very hard!

way to go littlebigmomma use the ole trick of trying out something new on guinea pigs!!!

I like my daughter more than my husband so I let him try all kinds of things.....not so much my daughter.....shes my partner so wouldnt want to watse a trip to the hospital on her... he can drive himself on the other hand....lol

Lastingmoments..you're cracking me up!

I heard on Wiltons board somewhere, awhile ago that its mainly used for decoration but you can eat it. the consumption, is a little less to be desired...and in fact said those things you get in stores, the barbie things that are hard are gumpaste.

i started our doing gingerbread and i pride my self on everything being edible that i put out (once you go gingerbread you can't go back) now everything tasting good is another story. you could eat everything but i wouldn't recomend some things

you can eat gumpaste but it doesn't have much taste however if you use wire in the gumpaste for things like flowers then they are classed as inedible

You all are too funny. Thanks for the advice and humor.

wow! I'm a newbie and I've been reading all sorts of forums about all sorts of stuff...

I'm really motivated...I'm thinking of taking a gumpaste class...I didn't even know what exactly gumpaste decorations were until a couple of hours ago when I started looking on this website.

I know this is going to sound stupid.....but here goes.

What is the point, then, of going through ALL the hard work to make everything on a cake edible, if it can't or isn't recommended to be eaten?

I mean, I try to make everything on my cakes edible....but find myself telling the customers..."Well, it's edible, but you probably don't want to eat it." I have just recently began pondering why go through all the trouble when I am just going to not recommend it to be eaten. LOL

missmersh this is a good question. I have often wondered this myself. All that effort to make beautiful flowers or decorations that ARE edible, but you recommend they DO NOT eat them. Why not just use fake flowers etc?

Some fondant characters, etc, are just too cute, though.

So, what's a baker to do?

I make gumpaste flowers because my customers like the look of them. Also once a wedding or birthday is finished the spray of flowers can be lifted off and kept as a keepsake. As long as it is kept dry gumpaste will keep forever. I still have the sprays of flowers I made for my wedding cake 6 years ago and I still have wonderful memories everytime I look at them

Pooker,
I guess we continue to make them!!!!!! Just to prove we can MAKE pretty flowers and cute figures and whatever else tickles our fancy out of icing!!!!

I also agree with Miss Baritone too because even though you can't actually eat the flowers, they are pretty (most times prettier than artificial ones) and you can keep them!!! And you don't have to worry whether they are poisonous or not.

So, all in all the effort we go through IS definitely worth it!!!!

And it keeps us going trying to do bigger and better things with our talents!!

I just wish I wasn't soooo darned afraid of gumpaste!! LOL

Leslie

home made gum paste can be eaten without risking your health. If made with gum arabic you don´t want to eat it - at least the danish health authorities are not sure how it will affect the health. But with tylo powder it is perfectly safe, as tylo powder is made from cotton seeds. Just my opinion.

My own gum paste is made of: confectioners sugar, glucose, egg-white and tylo powder. (The egg-whites are treatet in some way, so they are perfectly safe to use).

I am so happy to FINALLY have an answer to this question. I always wondered, but never thought about asking. Thank you MOMOFJIL for asking this question.

Lisa