Hi, I've only just begun broadening my decorating interests from chocolate to sugarbased. I'm really confused as to what to use.
For forming flowers and other sugar decorations, what am I meant to use? Gumpaste would be out of the question for me as its not suitable for vegetarians. But would it make a big difference from one thing to another?
Isn't fondant good enough to use for stuff like that?
I've been teaching myself new techniques and decorating terms through internet and library books, but everytime I feel like I've got a hang of the basics, a stumble upon a new decorating term and that throws me straight back!
Hope I'm making sense!
I searched the forums before posting this, so I hope there isn't already another thread about this.

Hi Sabz, welcome to CC. Gumpaste is similar to flowerpsate which you get in UK. Flower paste is great to make flowers and you can mix it with fondant/sugarpaste to get your accents a bit harder when its dry. And its very easy to handle too!

Mexican paste is quite a soft paste, which Patchwork Cutters recommend when using their cutters.

Pastillage is good to make things like chairs, table and once I use it to make turrets in my castle cake. I know some decorators mix it with fondant/ sugarpaste to make their accents.

You also can mix 1/2 a teaspoon of CMC/Tylose powder to 250g of fondant/sugarpaste, and use this to make figures and flowers.

HTH.

it very well might be me, but for flowers, i really like gumpaste. i imagine theres a vegitarian recipe somewhere! fondant (and it might be me again, even a 50/50 mix gumpaste and fondant) doesnt go as thin and is not as easy to work with for flowers.
xx

OK, I just have to ask, why is gumpaste not suitable for vegetarians? Can you tell I'm not really sure what gumpaste is?

I think that gumpaste is suitable for vegetarians, but not for vegans, since they are the ones that don't eat any animal products whatsoever, while as most vegetarians (including me ) do eat eggs and milk products. Yes, the gelatin is an animal product, but that's in fondant too, and a lot of vegetarians I know don't seem to mind that. But gumpaste gets so hard I really don't think you would eat it anyway, lol!

I was sure I set my settings on 'notify when replies are posted'. I assumed no-one replied my question!
Thanks for the welcome, bashini. I feel out of my depth around the rest of you professionals, but definitely find alot to learn!
All your replies were very useful and informative thanks. When I bought my gumpaste, the ingredients showed content of pork. But I've bought myself Tylose powder so I'm gonna brave making some home-made paste!