Roses Wedding Cake

A Quick Guide to Commercial Gumpaste

commercial gumpasteThere are times in a cake decorator’s life when things get too busy, like when there’s a looming deadline for a huge volume of cake orders. When this happens, there is no time at all to make gumpaste from scratch, and buying commercial gumpaste will simply have to do. Nothing wrong with that, of course. There are plenty of commercial gumpaste in the market, but it seems that the two most popular ones being used are made by Wilton and Satin Ice.

Wilton Ready-To-Use Gum Paste

Pros:

  • This commercial gumpaste is very accessible and can be bought in most craft and baking supplies stores.
  • Quality of the gumpaste is good. It is soft, pliable, and easy to work with. You can easily mold it into any shape that you want.
  • The commercial gumpaste comes in a resealable bag, so if you don’t get to use all of it, you can easily store the rest for your next cake decorating job.
  • The price is affordable.

Cons:

  • It dries out very quickly. Any unused batch may have to be thrown away, because it has a tendency to dry out no matter how airtight it is being kept.
  • The consistency of finding a great Wilton’s gumpaste is not that good. There are many instances of finding a bad batch in the store, so make sure you get a good one when buying.

Satin Ice Gum Paste

Pros:

  • Texture is very smooth and pliable, making it very easy to work with. You won’t have any problems when it comes to rolling it out thinly.
  • It does not have any strong unpleasant smell, unlike other brands.
  • It holds the color and shape of the flowers so much better than other brands.
  • It does not dry so quickly that you are no longer able to make adjustments to the flowers or figures you’ve created out of this gumpaste.
  • Easy to store away. Just cover the tub and it will be ready to use for the next decorating job.

Neutral:

  • Taste is okay, but nothing extraordinary. But then again, although gumpaste is edible, it is not meant to be eaten anyway.

Cons:

  • This commercial gumpaste is so much harder to find than the more accessible Wilton.
  • More expensive than Wilton.

The key to making beautifully handcrafted sugar flowers and figures is by having the right foundation, which means a good quality of gumpaste is needed when making your cake decorations. Don’t just throw any commercial gumpaste you find in the store in your shopping basket—make sure to check its quality! Or alternatively, you can make your own gumpaste in your own kitchen. Click here for a great recipe!

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