Frequently Asked Questions – Cake Topper Class

Gum paste dries very well and stays preserved on its own without anything. You can store your figure out of direct sunlight and moisture forever! For long term storage you can also put in an air tight container.

This is a popular question and sort of a hard one to answer. There are a few things to consider when pricing: your market, your overhead, your cost/piece and fundamentally how much you want to charge for your time. Obviously, you want to cover your raw costs - product, electricity, rent, etc...then the 'profit' is really your time.

Good question! I like to use a needle nose plier to lift the figure off the foam. This will help prevent the skewer from pushing up and popping the head off 🙂 If you do have breakage you can usually fix it with some fresh gumpaste and tylose glue.

For some reason the belly doesn't sag quite as much when standing. But if you do have a problem you can either lay the figure on her back to dry or insert the skewer into the foam on an angle (leaning back). Gravity will be on your side then 🙂 Hope this helps !

I like Americolor the best!!

There are a few recipes online - but I personally purchase mine pre-made. I like Satin Ice preferably.

I like to use a pasta machine with an electric motor. Imperia makes a good machine and so does Atlas. You can also use a small silicon rolling pin or a small 1" piece of PVC pipe.

You probably can for sitting figures- but I don't think it will be stable enough for standing figures 🙂

I use an airbrush with pearl airbrush color to add sheen! It works very well!

If the gumpaste feels hard or dry, add a touch of water. If it feels sticky, use shortening.

Hi- good question ! Yes we do. I like to use a needle nose plier to lift the figure off the foam. This will help prevent the skewer from pushing up and popping the head off 🙂 If you do have breakage you can usually fix it with some fresh gumpaste and tylose glue.

Most floral wire is stainless steel which is good safe. If you want to be extra safe you can wrap them in floral tape. There are people who prefer not to put anything in cake that is not edible. I don't feel this way;) People have been putting gumpaste flowers on wires in cakes for decades 🙂

The basic ingredients for fondant are confectioners sugar with the addition of gelatin, corn syrup and glycerine to provide a malleable sweet dough. Gum paste also has gum tragacanth in it which allows you to roll it very thin. It also dries much harder than fondant making it ideal for modeling figures. I purchase my gum paste from Satin Ice. There are many recipes too, I know Nicholas Lodge has one in his class (Here's a 25% off link to the class). Hope this helps! Anne

Hi there- so you want to knead a bit of water into the paste until it's smooth. Use shortening (just a little ) to prevent cracking. It can also crack if you use too much water and or shortening so try not to add too much at a time.

Hi - A lot of people ask if you can mix 50:50 gumpaste with fondant, fondant with Tylose, or modeling chocolate instead of gumpaste. The pros are that often these options are easier to work with than gumpaste. The downsides are that you cannot roll it as thin, it doesn't dry as hard and it takes longer to set up. So depending on the figure it may be fine. For an intricately dressed standing figure, it may collapse or break. But I'm all for experimenting to see which works best for you!

You can add the pants after you've attached the legs. You can also wrap the legs before you attach them if you find it easier. The shirt is made the same way we do the pregnant lady top - one piece in back. Then you'll add a panel for the front.hope this helps!