Hi,

I'm doing too many new things at once. First it's cupcakes (but they turned out divine!),  cookies,  a carrot cake, WASC cake....

Anyway, I'm doing a few fondant flowers and have not worked with the stuff in several years.  I'm either going to do roses or some daisy-like flowers formed on empty egg crates . I'm not covering the cake with fondant.

1. Is the gum tex (trag) necessary or will I be just fine without it. I don't have any.

2. After I form my flowers should they sit out at room temp or go in the refridgerator, covered or not?  I need the cake for Thanksgiving day - can I form the flowers and trim on the Saturday before or is that too far in advance.

3. I plan on telling everybody not to eat the flowers - they are for decor only, so it doesn't matter what they taste like.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Julie

Yes, you can make your flowers ahead of time, and no, you don't need to add any gum tex to them. Leave them to dry at room temp, do not put them in the fridge. You can put them in a cake box or tupperware container when fully dry to keep the dust, etc. off of them. HTH

For a rose it is advisable to use some GumTex.  It will help you make the petals thinner and they will dry faster w/o drooping.  Fondant alone does dry but will never get rock hard like gumpaste.  The GumTex helps the petals dry fast enough to prevent drooping and goes deep into the center of such a thck/heavy flower.

Thank you for your answers. This helps a lot.

Julie