Gumpaste recipe for making sugar flowers

I have been working on a new recipe for gumpaste that does not have as many problems in humidity.

I love my original recipe but in reality it is too soft for our wet and hot Februarys here in Australia – each year I say I’m not going to do cakes with flowers in February as I have so much trouble getting them to dry.

This year I was in the USA and I did a course with Jacqueline Butler from Petalsweet Cakes and she introduced me to Nicholas Lodge’s tylose gumpaste recipe (NL).

This was so different from anything I had used before for gumpaste flowers but the thing that struck me the most was how hard it dried, how fast it dried and stayed dried. So I put my thinking cap on and realised it was purely because there was nothing in the recipe that is designed to attract moisture – it only contains egg white, icing sugar and tylose. With most other traditional recipes they contain glucose and or glycerin – which will act as a humectant.

So I returned home and starting making the NL recipe but most icing sugar in Australia is not fine enough to get a lovely feel so I set about redeveloping the recipe.

The recipe below is now the one I’m using for making gumpaste flowers. It is lovely and smooth, nice and white, veins beautifully, holds it shape easily and dries quickly and quite hard. The other thing is that is has a little flexibility while it is drying which is great when assembling flowers in a partial dried state.

I will warn you that it takes a fair amount of physical effort to make as there is quite a lot of kneading – but definitely worth it.

To avoid this I actually make three times this recipe in my large 20L bowl with a dough hook and let the mixer do the work!!

Like all gumpaste recipes once it is mixed it needs to rest well wrapped in the fridge for 24 hours before using. Once it has rested it can be used or packaged into small pieces and wrapped and stored in a freezer bag in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Gumpaste Recipe – Inspired By Michelle Cake Designs

3 large egg whites

260g Icing sugar mixture / confectioners sugar

Place egg whites and icing sugar in a mixing bowl with a beater and mix together until smooth and lump free.

Scrape down and mix for 5 minutes on low speed.

160g cornflour (100% maize not wheaten)

17g tylose

Mix the tylose through the cornflour and add slowly to the mix and continue to mix on low speed.

Scrape down.

130g potato flour

Add the potato flour and continue to mix on low speed. This is when the mix may become to stiff for your mixer – do not keep mixing if your mixer starts to struggle as you will burn out the motor (believe me, I have burnt out one motor already!!).

At this point tip the mix onto your bench and knead the rest of the potato flour in – sorry but this is the difficult bit!!

Keep kneading until smooth and elastic.

10g trex or crisco – white vegetable fat/shortening (if you are in a really high humidity climate leave this step out)

Knead the trex through the gumpaste.

Wrap well in food wrap and rest in the fridge for 24 hours before using. Once it has rested it can be used or packaged into small pieces and wrapped and stored in a freezer bag in the freezer for up to 6 months – label the packets with the date you made the paste.

Knead again before making your sugar flowers.

Bye for now, Michelle

Michelle Rea

Inspired by Michelle Cake Designs

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