Homemade flowerpaste
Michelle Pattinson of VS Cakes has shared her home-made recipe for flower paste/gumpaste with Cake Life readers!
“I love making sugarflowers and am often asked which flower paste/ gumpaste do I use. My go-to brand for fine sugar flowers is Antique White Platinum Paste available from Sugar City. This costs £7.50 for 350g so can work out a little expensive when practising and making flowers for display cakes.
I have seen recipes in books and on-line for making your own flower paste/gumpaste but have always been too scared to make them. I then attended a course with Maggie Austin – the first thing Maggie taught us was how to make our own flower paste/gumpaste.
I have had to tweak that recipe slightly for use in the UK as we can’t get Confectionary Arts International Tylose power over here. (Pic 2 CCAI Tylose powder)
Daft as it sounds, the different tylose powder does make a difference…. Here is the recipe I use:
382g Icing Sugar (I prefer Silver Spoon)
75g Egg White
17g Tylo Powder (Rainbow Dust)
12g Crisco
Method:
Mix together the icing sugar and egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Use a medium speed and mix for a couple of minutes until combined and the mixture is shiny and smooth.
Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
Add the tylo power and mix on a low speed until combined. This doesn’t take long. Increase the mixed speed to medium as whizz the mixture for 15 – 20 seconds.
Remove the gumpaste from the mixing bowl onto a work board that has been lightly greased with a little of the crisco.
Knead in the rest of the Crisco.
It’s as simple as that!
Store in a ziplock bag or an airtight plastic tub.
This home made flower paste/gumpaste is really stretchy which also makes it great for ruffles etc. If you find it too stretch my top tip is to mix a batch of the homemade gumpaste with a 750g tub of Platinum paste. For me, this is the perfect consistency. The flowers in the main picture have been created using this mix of home-made flower paste/ gumpaste and platinum paste. I now find this mix works best for me.
All I can say is experiment to find out what works best for you and have a go at making your own flower paste/gumpaste.
