Hey there fellow cake friends and welcome to this Gumpaste Recipe for Sugar Flowers!
I’m not being hyperbolic when I say this is the most valuable recipe I have.
I used to use a store-bought gumpaste and always struggled with it being too hard, then too floppy, and always cracking. Then the flowers dried and they never held the shape I wanted and the petals were too thick. UGH.
Have you been there?
I’m hoping to save you from the aforementioned headaches with this gumpaste recipe.
It comes together quickly, easily, and is ready to use after a short overnight nap in the fridge.
I’m going to cover all the ingredients, steps, substitutions, and colouring right here.
Let’s get right to it!
Download my Gumpaste Recipe Now
Tired of torn petals?
Dull colours?
Flowers breaking?
Then what’re you waiting for? Download my Best Gumpaste Recipe now!
Includes substitutions for vegan, egg free, and CMC only recipes!
The Ingredient Breakdown
Icing Sugar
Icing sugar is the base of your Gumpaste. It helps with drying, keeping your gumpaste white, and makes up the majority of this recipe.
Meringue Powder
Meringue Powder provides stability and stretchiness to this Gumpaste Recipe. I prefer it over fresh egg whites because it’s easier to keep and using water with meringue powder allows me to colour my gumpaste deep shades of red, purple, or green without losing stability.
Gelatin
Gelatin helps with stability and texture. Think of how bouncy in texture jello is, this is a small amount but lends a similar property to this gumpaste recipe.
Gum Tragacanth
Gum Tragacanth is a softer stabilizer but I love the texture it imparts in this recipe. I find the texture improved and it’s more intuitive to work with when I’m using gum tragacanth over just CMC.
CMC/Tylose
CMC/Tylose Powder is the most common stabilizer you’ll see in Gumpaste Recipes. It’s very strong and rubbery if you add too much, but in the right amount it adds structure and helps your gumpaste dry strong and hard. It’s often added to Fondant if you need it drier or firmer than usual.
Tools & Ingredients
Ingredients
- 400g Icing Sugar
- 1tsp Meringue Powder
- 60g Cold Water
- 0.75tsp Gelatin
- 2.5tsp Gum Tragacanth
- 2tsp CMC/Tylose Powder
- Shortening for coating tools, table and your hands
Special tools needed
Steps
- Sprinkle gelatin in water and leave for 3 minutes to bloom. After, heat the gelatin mixture in 20 second increments using a microwave, stirring between each, until the gelatin is dissolved, and the mixture is clear.
- Place Icing Sugar and Meringue Powder in a stand mixer, mix on lowest speed to combine for 30 seconds.
- Add Gelatin/Water mixture to the stand mixer, whip with a paddle at medium-low speed for 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle in Gum Trag and Tylose/CMC, mix on low speed until everything comes together. Scrape down the bowl once to combine ingredients well. It will congeal quickly because of the gums, try to work quickly and if it doesn’t all come together that’s okay, you can knead it together in step 6.
- Working quickly spread a layer of shortening on the table, your hands and a scraper.
- Scrape out the sugarpaste from your mixing bowl onto the table and knead until smooth, adding shortening to your hands and table if it begins to stick.
- Divide in 2 and rub the exterior of each piece with shortening to coat. Wrap in Press and Seal or 2 layers of plastic wrap. Place portions of sugarpaste in a zip-top bag.
- Refrigerate overnight to mature and keep refrigerated between uses.
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Download my Gumpaste Recipe Now
Tired of torn petals?
Dull colours?
Flowers breaking?
Then what’re you waiting for? Download my Best Gumpaste Recipe now!
Includes substitutions for vegan, egg free, and CMC only recipes!
Gumpaste Recipe Substitutions
I Need a Vegan Recipe
The non-vegan ingredients we have to replace are:
- Meringue powder
- Gelatin
To replace the meringue powder we’ll use a common egg white substitute- aquafaba. It has proteins that help stabilize the gumpaste just as meringue powder or egg whites would.
To replace gelatin we use a plant based gelling product called agar-agar. It is very similar to gelatin but has a higher gelling temperature so we must keep our ingredients warmer than we would in my classic gumpaste recipe.
The vegan recipe is in my Gumpaste Recipe above!
I Can’t Find Meringue Powder
If you don’t have meringue powder where you live you can always use a fresh egg white. I replace half of the water, 30g, with one fresh eggwhite which is also 30g.
I Can’t Find Gum Tragacanth
You can use only CMC instead of using both CMC and Gum Tragacanth. You’ll add 2.75tsp total CMC to the original recipe in place of both the CMC and Gum Tragacanth. Once your gumpaste has matured you can check the texture and if it’s too sticky knead in an additional 0.25tsp CMC then let it rest for 30 min. Repeat if still sticky.
Using Gumpaste
After the gumpaste has matured, it will be very firm in the fridge. To soften it you can knead it by hand until softened or microwave it in 5 second increments until it’s at a cool room temperature, then knead it.
You have two options for colouring gumpaste.
- Simply add gel paste colours to your white gumpaste. I like Sugarflair and Progel best.
- For deep and saturated colours you can reduce the water in the recipe to 50g and add up to 13g gel colour in place of it. This will yield a very dark colour which you can use as-is or add small amounts of white gumpaste to lighten it up.
Storage and Shelf-Life
Keep gumpaste refrigerated when not in use, I put mine in bags according to colour then pop them all in a big food-safe container in the fridge at my studio.
Your gumpaste will last indefinitely if stored properly in the fridge as it’s mostly sugar.
Flower Storage
If you’re in a dry climate store flowers in any box with padding so your flowers don’t move around.
If you’re in a humid climate store flowers in an air-tight plastic box and throw in a few silica gel packets to absorb extra moisture.
Before you go...
Have a question? Leave me a comment below and I’ll get right back to you!
And if you use this Gumpaste Recipe I’d love to see your work! Tag me on all social @finespuncakess .
Happy Sugar-Flowering!
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Pin this to your favourite cake board on Pinterest!
