What's The Difference???
Decorating By princessdepastel Updated 22 Sep 2007 , 10:42pm by princessdepastel
ok, im totally confused. what the heck is the difference between fondant, gumpaste, sugarpaste, and marzipan?? are they all used for different things or are they all basically used to make the same kind of stuff? should i make all these things from scratch or do u recommend i buy them? i made my first fondant 3D figure today but it's so heavy and its struggling to hold up. are one of the other options lighter? someone help me!?! 
Princess - fondant and marzipan are both used to decorate cakes and you can use them both to make things. Fondant you can make flowers and fruit and 3D figures and such. Marizpan I have used to make fruit decorations. Both are edible.
Gumpaste by itself is not edible and you can make flowers with it. You can also put gumpaste in fondant to make flowers it dries a little faster with the gumpaste. Once you've included gumpaste in anything it is not edible.
In all honesty, I don't know what sugarpaste is? Or maybe you're calling something else.
Hmm, with the 3D figure can you make it smaller? Also, if you can't maybe you can put a toothpick to keep it staple when inserting it in the cake? HTH.
They are basically the same kinds of thing but the difference is what's in them, how long each medium takes to dry, and how sturdy the final creation will hold up. I'm sure there is a summary on here somewhere but in brief, if you are making figures that sag under their own weight you need to a) use 50/50 (half fondant, half gumpaste) or b) wait till individual pcs of the figure dry first before assembling it (see the panda bear in my avatar? I put his head on before his tummy dried so he had a big saggy tummy). MMF takes longer to dry so more subject to sagging IMO. I add gumtex to get it to try faster, or use 50/50. Gumpaste alone may dry too fast for some figures - depends on how fast you work. Gumpaste is esp. popular with flowers because it is stretchy and can be rolled super thin and also dries fast and hard as a rock.
Sorry I can't type more but that's what I know in a nutshell. I've never used marzipan (almonds+sugar).
thank u! yeah i used a toothpick to hold it's head onto its body. it still seems to slump, though. maybe its the humidity here in houston. this is not the best place for cake decorating....
Fondant and Sugarpaste are the same thing, rolled frosting (sometimes gumpaste is called sugarpaste). Anyway, gumpaste is sort of a candy clay that is used to make flowers, figures, leaves, and other detailed decorations. It dries quickly, can be rolled very thinly and dries hard, but fragile. Marzipan is almond paste. It's used in England to cover fruit cake before fondant is put on the cake, but is also used to make figurines or fruit for decorations.
Fondant and gumpaste can be made at home or purchased pre-made or in the form of a mix for gumpaste. Marpipan can be located in the bakery isle of your grocery store.
Using 1/2 fondant and 1/2 gumpaste for large figures will help with some of the drooping problems and gives you more time to work with them. Toothpicks or spaghetti can be used as inner supports. This will depend on who is getting the figures (kids and toothpicks don't mix). For competitions, some require that no articficial supports be used, so there's another reason to use spaghetti.
HTH
Michele
Cocoacakes, gumpaste IS edible. The only difference is that it contains gums to make it dry faster and harder than fondant.
Sugarpaste is what people in Europe call fondant. Its the same exact thing they just call it differently just like they would call a french fry pom fietes (probably didnt spell that one correctl). They call gumpaste flowerpaste.
Marizpan is made up of crushed almonds and other ingredients. People in the UK use it under fondant, besides buttercream. You can use it alone like fondant and you can also make decorations with it.
Princess, dont know what you used to hold with the toothpick but sometimes its easier to have something airyer underneath like rice krispies for something that might way it down.
thanks guys. yall are so helpful! i really dont know what i would do without this website. (actually i know what i would do.... probably just give up. lol) 
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