So, my little gumpaste rocking chair pieces have been sitting nearly a week. I thought soon, I should try and assemble them to make sure I don't need a Plan B.
I think Royal Icing would be the strongest? What do you think?
Isn't that what they use for Gingerbread houses? I assume I make it thicker than I would for cookies.
Is it easy to color? I'd want it brown.
Also, can you "paint" on it with colors once it is dry?
Anything else I need to know about this? LOL!
Thanks!!
Royal works fine as glue, but a little egg white is probably better. That is what Nicholas Lodge uses most of the time.
You can paint gumpaste easily. Dry powder color dust with a bit of vodka or gin or clear vanilla makes the best paint. you can also just brush it with dry dust.
You mean, use egg whites instead of royal icing or IN the royal icing (which doesn't it have anyway?)?
I'll hae to check out his stuff because I'm skeptical about the egg whites holding pieces of the rocking chair together. Flower petals, for sure. But a 3D figure that might have something even sitting on it, I can't imagine.....
Thanks!!
Egg whites or equal parts of meringue powder and water should work. Royal icing will work just As well.
The proteins in egg whites give royal icing its strength.
So in theory, does that mean you could assemble a gingerbread house with just egg whites?
In theory yes but you must consider the other variables such as the thickness of the cookie. If it's thin enough it will work. The icing sugar in the royal also adds some stablility to the structure of the thicker slabs. Anyways, that's comparing apples and oranges.
For your original question, you can simply assemble the little gumpaste rocking chare using equal parts of water and meringue powder. Do not try to assemble it all at once. Assemble it in stages and let the various parts dry.
Wow, okay. I'm nervous about that. LOL!
It has to have a little stability. I guess I'll try and hopefully if it doesn't work, it won't destroy the pieces and I can redo it with royal icing. I'm sure it would look a lot neater with just the egg. Thanks!
I only use royal icing for glue in all my cake decorating, and it is really strong! I know a lot of people use water, egg whites and other glues, but I prefer a thicker one, and it is easy to colour, just add a tiny amount of paste colour like wilton (literally dab your toothpick in it should be enough). Last week I coloured mine red.
I have also made a gingerbread house a couple of months ago and glued it together with royal icing too, and it was superman strong!
Just make it to whatever consistency you need, I do it thick like a toothpaste type of consistency for glueing as then I find pieces don't slide off while it dries. It helps to support the piece for a few seconds with your hand and if it defies gravity, use foam or something to support it until the glue dries thoroughly. I have never had problems with royal, that's why I have never tried the other glues until I do.
Good luck!
Thanks Keira! I think having a superman strong adhesive will make me feel better. I was would be way bummed if something broke and I had to start all over. I need the cake for my dad in 8 days.
So, I wanted to add a little texture to the gumpaste because the swirled colors I was attempting for wood, didn't come out as well as I wanted. Should I paint first and then glue? Thanks!
I don't think it will matter which way you organise the painting. I have always glued first and painted second, but if it is easier to get all the joints done before putting together (like doing a fence in your yard) then I would do it that way. Just ensure you allow it to dry thoroughly before glueing, as you want it hard not softened a little by the moisture of painting. You should have heaps of time in 8 days if you have already made and dried your rocking chair as you have for a week. 24 hours drying after painting and 24 hrs drying of the royal should be heaps. You have planned well!
Your dad will love it I am sure! It sounds wonderful!
Thanks! I just painted all the wood grain. It took a few hours, but it was pretty easy. I used as little gin as I could to get the colors that I wanted. I figured it would be easier before they were assembled...so they will sit to dry before I do my construction. Should be interesting, to say the least. LOL!
I made a sleigh out of fondant a couple of years ago, and used royal to glue it together. After it was glued I then painted it with black color paste mixed with vodka. It worked fine and I didn't have any problems with it. Just paint in light coats so you don't have alot of liquid sitting on the royal icing.
I made Royal Icing, but I'm afraid that all of the color I added to it altered it's ability to stick my pieces together. I think it might work in the long run, but it's taking a LONG time to dry. Much longer than I thought Royal should take. I'm wondering if I just should have tinted it and then just painted it when it was done. I didn't think at the time I'd be able to get the right paint color. Who knows? I guess I'll wait and see. If it doesn't harden, maybe I'll just resort to hot glue. LOL. I'm sure no one will be eating it. OR maybe I'll use some of the white I saved and see if I can paint it.
Such an ordeal!!
Wow, okay. I'm nervous about that. LOL!
It has to have a little stability. I guess I'll try and hopefully if it doesn't work, it won't destroy the pieces and I can redo it with royal icing. I'm sure it would look a lot neater with just the egg. Thanks!
Hold on you are actually making something out of gingerbread? Not just theoretical? If that's the case definately go with the royal icing.
For the gumpaste chair, use equal parts water and meringue powder.
Is it humid in where you are? That could be one of the reasons the royal icing is taking so long.
From my experience, I usually make 2 sets when I am making something out of pastillage, sugarpaste structure, or colorflo. Then I have something to experiment with. Also some breakages can't be fixed. If something is structural, I would use royal. I would tint the royal, but only use gel or pwder color, no liquid. I have a few examples in my photos. My jewelry box is gumpaste the gold parts are attached to the green with gumpaste, but the box is held together with royal-the bead borders on the corner are royal painted gold. The legs are attached with gum glue, but in retrospect, I don't know how or why I did that.
The little cradle is made of pastillage glued together with royal. I was able to match the color pretty well.
The little wheelbarrow on My gingerbread had a handle that fell off. No matter what I did even with the royal, It just couldn't be re-attached. 
The pieces are gumpaste, not gingerbread, but there was no way that I could imagine that meringue was going to work. The instructions said use hot glue (because they used cookie sticks as the spindles). Of course, I'm a glutton for punishment and actually rolled out thin little logs instead. It's totally structural. I was literally building a rocking chair from pieces. The royal has been drying pretty hard, but yeah, I think the strength was compromised by the amount of coloring I added first. Only time will tell. I'm using a LOT of it, to make sure it works!!
Thanks for the input!
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