Modelling Paste Disaster Please Help Me!!!
Decorating By Elemaphant Updated 2 Sep 2019 , 3:55pm by SandraSmiley
It's my son's first birthday in 2 weeks. I had this ridiculous idea of making him the train from Dumbo for his birthday cake with Dumbo 'flying' behind with the candle in his trunk. I was going to hide the wire with 'ribbons' of fondant.
So far I have made 3 giraffes and 2 hippos no bother at all. I wanted Mrs Jumbo sticking out the back of the final carriage - made her no issue.
But I've just had Dumbo's ear snap for the 3rd time. I tried making each separately and sticking on, no joy. This time I've made them as one piece, glued it to the head then cocktail sticked it to the body. I've dried it supported and it's been there for 3 days. Just gently got him out and one ear just peeled off.
I am using modelling paste with gel colour.
Any tips? I've just cried at icing 
I wish I knew of something but I can't think of anything but what exactly is modeling paste -- these terms can mean different things in different countries --
this makes it clear as mud:
https://www.cakeflix.com/questions/is-there-a-difference-between-flower-paste-and-modelling-paste
- flower paste
- modelling paste
- sugar paste
???
I can never keep it straight across the ocean
also:
there is some kind of new member delay on being able to "reply" to posts so please start a new thread to continue any discussion -- at some point all of a sudden you will be enabled to "reply" but not for a while -- maybe like 30 days — I think it might have to do with time and activity levels -- please respond in a new thread if you need/want to —
best to you
you could add something to your mixture like:
- tylose
- corn starch
- gum tragacanth
- you could pipe some ears out of royal icing strengthened with gum arabic and/or cream of tartar
if the issue is them not staying on you can adhere them with melted chocolate, or a glue made with tylose and water — or take a little bit of your mixture combined with enough water to make a glue — or slightly beaten egg whites — but only moisten with egg white dab off what you put on so it’s just damp —
to hasten the drying time you can put your piece in a no more than 150 degree farhenheit (don’t know the celsius — sorry) oven — don’t touch it till it completely cools off
could you put a hat or bow on it to hold the ears on? mold it all together maybe
I've used a few different kinds of "modeling paste", a term not used in the UsA, but the products are not readily available here either. I would use gum paste for the ears or what is sometimes called flower paste. It drys much faster and harder. If you are using sugar paste similar to the ones I've used, it is probably not drying thoroughly enough to hold the weight of the large ear.
When I make something like the ears, I use wires or tooth picks, just like making a wired flower petal, and let it dry thoroughly before attaching with the wire/toothpick and edible glue. You could try using melted chocolate, which is the strongest adhesive that I've tried.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%