I've made a few practice snowflakes for a cake I'm making in April. It will have large and small snowflakes standing up around the cake.
So it's been raining for two days here, and the humidity has been 90% all day and my snowflakes, made from gumpaste, are wet and floppy. I made them 4 days ago.
It's pretty unlikely that there will be rain like this in April, but if there is, how do I get these things to dry and how can I get them to stay hard enough to stand up if the day is as humid as this?
I don't have air-con, and I can't turn only the light on in my oven. And even if I had them dry and hard enough here, an hour out of the house and they'd be flopped over and soggy again.
Any suggestions apart from hope and pray?
AYes, buy a food dehydrator, like the ones you use to dry fruit slices in. I got one super cheap from Aldi years ago and pull it out when the weather is like it is ATM and I need gp dry!
I also add more try lose to my gp, dry flowers sitting in corn flour, and use my oven - no light (broken and a pita to replace!), so I put the fan on by switching on to lowest setting with no heat. Leave door ajar with a wooden spoon. Dry this way overnight.
I hope this helps!
I have also heard using dry rice to bury your gp bits in can help absorb moisture, but haven't tried it personally.
HTH!
AI know...second day straight of continuous rain here...after worrying about the pool water evaporating last week, we're now having to drain it!
I buy some of the closet camels or hippos , you know the moisture granule thingys. Then I pop them and my flowers into a styrofoam box with the lid on.
You can also dry petals at 50 degrees celcius , in the oven for five minutes. I use this is I am in a hurry .
As for this Bloody weather , I can't believe I actually bought a new sprinkler the day before this all erupted, needless to say that it is still in it's packet.
I buy some of the closet camels or hippos , you know the moisture granule thingys. Then I pop them and my flowers into a styrofoam box with the lid on.
You can also dry petals at 50 degrees celcius , in the oven for five minutes. I use this is I am in a hurry .
As for this Bloody weather , I can't believe I actually bought a new sprinkler the day before this all erupted, needless to say that it is still in it's packet.
Ha! The way things usually go, you'll need to use your new sprinkler within a fortnight anyway!
Even if I managed to get them dry, how long would they last on the cake in this weather?
Think you've sent your WET weather down to us in Sydney - all my flowers are still standing - do find the commercial gumpaste doesn't perform well in wet weather - Satin Ice in particular - have seen flowers just 'melt' - check posts on Whimsical Cakehouse FB page today.
Home-made paste works so much better
I also have used kitty litter in chinese food containers with holes punched in the lid - heaps cheaper than Hippos or Camels - for saving flowers from this intense humidity you can put an alfoil tray of kitty litter in a box with a wire rack over - lay flowers on rack and close up box
Mind you - we are experiencing EXTREME weather issues at present - a year's worth of rain in Gladstone in 1 night!!
How are you coping on the Gold Coast?
I do make my own paste and they usually stand up fine , but as you said it is a bit extreme at the moment . It is wet here on the Goldie, I have had no power for most of the day . I had family and friends freaking out all over the country cause they mentioned our suburb as having to be evacuated on the national news. I have been watching the gutters carefully , have as much stuff up as possible, have the leads ready to go for the dogs and my elderly Mum's wheelchair in the car ready just in case. They just issued another severe weather warning for here. I really hope it peters out before it gets down to you guys in Sydney.
Do any of you have a preferred gumpaste to use in this sort of humidity? I had a figurine sitting for over 5 days to dry, only to have it fall apart on the delivery day (Saturday in this humidty) - luckily the recipient was a friend and she had planned to laquer it anyway as a memento. I had used Satin Ice and Tylose. The outside was really hard, but the centre was still soft, and as soon as I touched it the fondant started to sweat.
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