Homemade Gum Paste Recipe
Homemade gum paste recipe is remarkably easy to make, dries really fast, and can be rolled really thin for making sugar flowers or sugar bows, or other cake toppers!
Originally posted February 2012. Updated August 2024.
Generally, after my hand surgery, I would purchase premade gum paste because it was convenient and it saved my hands some work. But I live in rural Mississippi, and I can’t run to a store and buy gum paste if I ever get into a pinch and don’t have premade gum paste on hand.
So I had to find a homemade gum paste recipe. Honestly, I don’t mind at all because it’s so easy to put together. And as a cake decorator, it really is a better product than traditional gumpaste (in my humble opinion).
Homemade Gum Paste Recipe
Many (most) of you are probably familiar with Cricut cutting machines. Years ago, and for only a short time, they made a version of their cutting machine specifically for cake and called it Cricut Cake.
Although it has been discontinued, my sweet husband surprised me with one at the time, hoping it would help with my cake-decorating adventures.
Included with the machine (or maybe on their website), I found a recipe for the gum paste that they recommended using with the machine.
The first time I made this homemade gum paste recipe, I was amazed at how easy it was and how quickly it came together…. although you do have to make it a day ahead and let it rest for it to have the best texture!
I can’t find the original recipe online now to link to, but the source was Cricut. Anyway – it was the first recipe I tried for homemade gum paste and the last – it’s that good!
Why You’ll Love Homemade Gum Paste Recipe
- Save Money. It’s far more affordable than store-bought gum paste. If you make your own gum paste, you will save money!
- Workability. It is very workable, and I am really pleased with how well it holds up compared to premade gum paste.
- Great for Heat & Humidity! Because this homemade gum paste recipe doesn’t use egg whites or meringue powder (which many recipes do) and instead uses CMC Powder (or Tylose Powder), it’s holds up much better in hot humid weather. It also doesn’t get sticky as easily in high humidity which is always a plus.
What is Gum Paste?
If you’re not familiar with it, gum paste is a type of sugar paste most commonly used for making sugar flowers. Depending on where you are in the world, it’s also called modeling paste, sugar paste, or flower paste.
It is edible. However, it’s not usually eaten because it dries really hard.
It can also be rolled really thin, which is why it’s a great medium to use to make flower petals and leaves and other cake decorations that have delicate detail.
You can use a ball tool and foam mat to make gorgeous and delicate sugar flowers – which seems to be the most popular use of edible gumpaste.
What is Gum Paste Made Of?
Most gum paste is made with tylose powder, CMC powder, or gum tragacanth. The gum in the recipe makes the paste dry rock hard.
This is terrific when you need to model something and have it hold its shape—such as gum paste flowers. But because it dries so fast and hard, it’s also fragile if dropped.
Tools Needed
For this homemade gumpaste recipe, you don’t need any special tools. You don’t even need a stand mixer.
- Small boiler or saucepan
- Silicone spatula or spoon
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Glass Mixing Bowl
- Smooth, clean work surface
Ingredients for Gum Paste
These are simple ingredients, and everything can be bought at a local grocery store except for the tylose powder. I always get it from Country Kitchen Sweetart or Amazon.
- Unflavored gelatin (2 tablespoons)
- Cold water
- Melted shortening
- White corn syrup
- Powdered sugar (aka icing sugar)
- Tylose powder – this is the most important ingredient
- Gel color (if you want your gum paste to be any color other than white)
How to Make Homemade Gumpaste
- Pour the water into a small boiler and sprinkle the gelatin on top. Allow it to soften for about 5 minutes.
- Slowly heat the mixture, stirring until the gelatin is dissolved and you have a clear liquid. Do not allow it to boil! Turn off the heat.
- Add the melted shortening and corn syrup. Stir until thoroughly combined.
- Pour all but 2 cups of the powdered sugar into a large glass bowl and make a well in the center. Pour the gelatin/syrup mixture into the well and mix until the sugar is all combined.
- Dump the mixture out onto a work surface (or silicone mat) that is lightly greased with shortening. Sprinkle the tylose powder over the paste, and, with greased hands, knead, incorporating all of the reserved powdered sugar and tylose.
- Continue kneading the fresh gumpaste until it forms a soft smooth ball. Add additional sugar as needed if your dough is still too sticky.
- Wrap the finished paste tightly in plastic wrap and place into a zip-top bag. Allow to rest over night before using!
- Can be stored at room temperature for up to a month and in the fridge for up to 6 months. When ready to use, grease your hands, then warm small balls in the microwave no more than 10 seconds at a time to soften and bring to room temperature. Knead until smooth.
- Roll out and use this edible gumpaste for beautiful flowers, modeled figures, ruffles, and other 3-D cake creations (see all of the cakes in this post and their captions).
Storage Directions
Always keep finished gum paste wrapped in several layers of plastic wrap or in an airtight container. If properly wrapped, it can be kept at room temperature for up to a month.
It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to six months.
If you have different colors of gum paste, you can wrap a small amount in individual portions before placing them in larger zip-top freezer bags in the fridge.
Be sure to bring it to room temperature before using it. Then put a little shortening on your hands and knead it into the gum paste until it’s smooth and satiny. Then you can begin making gum paste flowers or whatever else you had in mind!
FAQ
No, it’s not the same. Fondant takes much longer to dry and never dries really hard. But fondant has better taste, especially homemade marshmallow fondant!
Gum paste does not taste as good, dries fast and rockhard, and doesn’t taste great.
Homemade gum paste has a really long shelf life. You won’t need any kind of special storage – simple plastic wrap and an airtight container will do. I either wrap it once and then place it in a bowl with a lid or wrap it with several layers of plastic wrap.
It can be kept at room temperature for up to a month. However, I prefer to keep it in the fridge where it will keep for up to 6 months.
If you have different colors of gum paste, you can wrap a small amount in individual portions before placing them in larger zip-top freezer bags in the fridge.
Be sure to bring it to room temperature before you try to use it. To soften quickly, warm small balls in the microwave no more than 10 seconds at a time to soften and bring to room temperature.
Knead until smooth. Place a little vegetable shortening on your hands and knead it until smooth before using stored gum paste.
Most often it’s used for sugar flowers. For me, not so much. But that’s only because my hands still hurt pretty often, even after my surgery, and making sugar flowers is very tedious and time-consuming work.
For that reason, I usually buy sugar flowers pre-made and in bulk for my wedding cakes (see below). But I still make other 3-D decorations.
But I still use it all the time for other small decorations and any time I need a decoration to dry hard or fast or both.
Here are a few ways I use it:
Sugar bows – like on this wedding cake.
Cake toppers (like the pineapple top on the cake below here and the rainbow at the very top).
Numbers on cakes
Teacups (as on the Alice in Wonderland Cake, this Shabby Chic Baby Shower cake and this doll cake)
Crowns and Tiaras (see this princess cake and this one and this one)
Unicorn horns and ears and I even used it for this “sheet of paper” on the typewriter cake I made recently down below.
Well, it depends on what you want to do with it. But the bare essentials are a clean surface, a rolling pin (usually a small one), and cornstarch to keep it from sticking.
If you’re going to make character figures (sugar models), you’ll want to work quickly. Keep any pieces you’re not currently shaping covered. That will prevent them from hardening before you can put it all together.
The same goes for making multiple petals that you want to put together into one flower. Keep them covered as much as possible. A gum paste storage board is a great investment if you plan to work with gum paste often.
Gum paste doesn’t really have a flavor, and since it’s not usually eaten, I don’t stress over adding any flavors. However, you can use gel pastes to make it any shade you need.
Gum paste and fondant can be interchanged in some situations, but there are also situations where one or the other is clearly the better choice.
I use gum paste for any decorations that need to dry hard, stand, or be really thin. For instance, using gum paste to make beautiful sugar flowers yields much more lifelike flowers than using fondant. Or for sculpting anything that needs to stand up.
Fondant is the better choice for covering large surfaces or making flat decorations because it doesn’t dry hard and tastes better.
See examples below.
Yes – this recipe is gluten-free. And yes, this recipe is dairy-free.
For the first example, I used fondant to cover the cake above and gum paste for the bow and butterflies (they needed to stand out from the cake). I once tried using fondant for a bow. Sadly, I found that the loops would not dry hard enough to hold up. Instead, I now always use gum paste for making sugar bows, like the one below.
See How to Make Poofy Bow Cake Topper Tutorial Here.
Another example – this Alice in Wonderland Cake. Some decorations can be modeled out of either medium – especially simple cake toppers or small sculpted figures for cakes. On this Alice in Wonderland cake above, I used fondant for the diamond pattern, the cards, the sugar pearls, the stopwatch, and even Alice’s legs, because they were on skewers for support.
However, the teacup and roses were made from gum paste. I needed the teacup to stand on its own and the rose petals are much more realistic when rolled thin.
I would never use gum paste is to cover a cake in gum paste. When it dried hard, it would be terribly unappealing, very difficult to cut, and well… the taste is not all that appealing. Just don’t do it!
Gum paste ruffles would’ve held their shape better on the cake above but it would’ve been nearly impossible to cut so I used fondant. I did however, make the tiara from gum paste so that it would easily stand on the cake.
See the Gum Paste Tiara Tutorial here.
More Homemade Recipes for Cake Decorators
- Crusting Buttercream Frosting
- Royal Icing Recipe
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- Homemade Marshmallow Fondant
- How to Make Modeling Chocolate
- Cake Decorating Tutorials and Online Classes with Craftsy
Homemade Gum Paste Recipe
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 pounds 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Easy, homemade gum paste to use for cake decorating and figure making.
Ingredients
- 2 packages unflavored gelatin (2 tablespoons)
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 2 tablespoons melted shortening
- 1/3 cup white corn syrup
- 2 pounds powdered sugar
- 3 tablepoons Tylose powder
Instructions
- Pour the water into a small boiler and sprinkle the gelatin on top. Allow it to soften for about 5 minutes.
- Slowly heat the mixture, stirring until the gelatin is dissolved and you have a clear liquid. Do not allow it to boil! Turn off heat.
- Add the melted shortening and corn syrup. Stir until thoroughly combined.
- Pour all but 2 cups of the powdered sugar into a large glass or plastic bowl and make a well in the center. Pour the gelatin/syrup mixture into the well and mix until the sugar is all combined.
- Dump the mixture out onto a surface (or silicone mat) that is lightly greased with shortening. Sprinkle the tylose powder over the paste and with greased hands, knead, incorporating all of the remaining powdered sugar and tylose.
- Continue kneading the dough until it forms a soft smooth ball. Add additional sugar as needed if your dough is still too sticky. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and place into a Ziploc bag. Allow to rest over night before using!
- Can be stored at room temperature for up to a month and in the fridge for up to 6 months. When ready to use, grease your hands, then warm small balls in the microwave no more than 10 seconds at a time to soften and bring to room temperature. Knead until smooth. Roll out and use!
Notes
Please read the entire post for all the details, tips, etc.
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 10
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Stove-top
- Cuisine: American
hi
just tried the gum paste recipe. I am letting it rest. I am concerned thought that i was unable to incorporate the last 2 cups, i maybe got another 3/4 cup into it, and it would not ‘stay together in a cohesive ball when i was kneading it 🙁
any suggestions?
thank you
nyssa
I just tried it today and I have the same problem. It is springy like a pizza dough. It did not incorporate like a soft ball either. What shall I do? I am letting it rest overnight and will see what will happen.
Do you put the gum paste in the freezer
What if a packet of gelatin has slightly less than a TBSP in it?
Good day. Do you have / recommend this in a vegan recipe? Thank you
No, sorry. Neither gelatin nor shortening are vegan.
Agar agar is a vegan gelatin substitute, and vegan butter/margarine, coconut oil, as well as vegetable oil can be used as a substitute for shortening.
Do you have a book how to make gumpaste and fondant and what subtitute corn syrup….and can buy it amazon
How long would you keep gumpaste flowers? Would you ever consider repurposing them for another project done for family?
I made some beautiful greenery and roses over 3 years ago and only saved those that were clean and not damaged or disturbed by icing. They had been placed on a semi-naked cake for a friend’s daughter’s wedding. I personally took them off the cake and stored them before serving the cake. They are still beautiful! I have my son’s wedding coming up and am wondering if it would be safe to repurpose them to add to new greenery and florals I will be doing in gumpaste. I could even spray edible cake shellac on them to revitalize them and make the further safe to put on the cake. It seems as if they would be just as safe, if not more so, than as if I were to use fresh flowers that are usually laden with pesticides and bacteria from standing in water, tgat I would also carefully have to prepare. I again will be taking them off the cake before serving. Gumpaste isn’t tasty to eat anyway and I would never serve that on someone’s plate.
I absolutely think they’d be safe to use if they’ve been kept clean and are in good condition!
Sorry for all the typos! Thank you so much for your input! Of course, I would never repurpose for a cake for a paying client. = ) Blessings!