Any icing experts (or just some one who know more than me) in the house?

[lizzylemon]

Halllllooo. I've made a Christmas cake and now at the icing stage. What I'd like to do is use cutout snowflake shapes (shape cutter not hand piped) and then build a 3D structured heap of them (so they sort of slot together/lean on each other). Probably incredibly difficult but I want to at least try.

I've got fondant icing already but it went fragile when my test SN dried out. What I want is to make the icing rock hard, I've got gum arabic(?) powder which you add to make icing stiff - if I mix the gum with the fondant and cut them out, leave to dry, will the icing go rock hard?

If not, can you suggest which icing is the best to achieve a rock hard, even non-edible, finish from fondant type consistancy.


Hope this makes sense.

Thanks

[Nicos]

I know absolutely nothing about icing tbh...but I do know that it's Royal icing which sets solid.

Sounds a lovely idea- piccie please gal- when it's finished!!!!!!!

[bearded bloke]

Could you maybe cut the snow flakes out of thinly rolled marzipan,then dip them into royal icing mix

[lizzylemon]

These are the two I made earlier - just not 3D

[SarzWix]

Your gum arabic should work, if there's enough moisture in the fondant icing to 'dissolve' it. Otherwise, you could try mixing the GA with a little bit of water and painting it over the fondant? I know you can do that when crystallizing flowers - you paint it on and then coat the flowers with sugar and it sets hard.

[salome2001]

I made snowflakes last year with the PME embossing cutters, just used normal ready-to-roll white icing and cut them out on a flat surface on baking parchment, let dry to go hard then carefully lifted them and painted them with edible lustre solution. Worked v well to go flat on a cake, don't see why you couldn't make them curved

[lizzylemon]

This idea I like a lot, I could even dip some of them into sugar so they look like ice. Excellent. Thank you.

[Thelma Sanders]

It's gum tragacanth that makes them dry hard.....make a special paste called mexican paste, it dries a bit harder than the normal flower paste.
Recipe here Patchwork Cutters: Project: MEXICAN PASTE RECIPE

[northepaul]

Sounds too posh for me...straight over my head!!

I just ice mine and put a bow round!!

[chris]

Sounds great, but how on earth are you going to transport them?

Those ones you've made look great, where they cutters for the shapes that you have of the snowflakes?

[julesapple]

The person you need is Creemteez! The only think I can think of is that your fondant icing had too much glycerine in it, so didn't dry out properly - but I am not expert whatsoever!

Jules

[lizzylemon]

Sounds great, but how on earth are you going to transport them?

Those ones you've made look great, where they cutters for the shapes that you have of the snowflakes?

LOL very carefully Chris! IF I manage to make the sculpture, I will build it on top of the cake so the cake will be be the base and as some of the flakes will be embedded in the icing cover, it should hold the structure quite firmly. Providing of course I can make the snowflakes like concrete Yep they're the cutters I will be using. Normally quite expensive but I got a set of 3 for £3.50, free postage from that little known auction site.

[janeyo]

No idea how to help you, but just wanted to day good luck and they look fab! I am rubbish at decorating things ut like to think if you make the effort and they taste good that is really all that matters x

[BarleySugar]

If you have a specialist cake decorating shop near you then flower paste sets hard. It is what I use to make sugar paste flowers, they last for years (literally, when my brother was clearing out some of Mum's stuff he found the 'flower arrangement' I'd put on top of her 80th birthday cake, 6 years ago!). It can be rolled really thin, so they would look very delicate, and you could frost them with sugar crystals, use a little bit of egg white for the sugar to stick to. There are online shops that sell it too, but time is short for ordering and getting the job done maybe.

[Thelma Sanders]

There are online shops that sell it too, but time is short for ordering and getting the job done maybe.

that's why I posted the recipe to make your own Mexican paste dries harder and you can roll it thinner than flower paste.
I always use it for anything that uses cutters. (my daughter's still got the wedding cake flowers after 12 years.
They are discolouring now though )