What Is The Difference With Fondant, Sugarpaste Or Gumpaste
Decorating By TJ_Cakes Updated 27 Aug 2012 , 10:12am by Relznik
This may be a dumb question but I'm new to modeling figures and things. I feel like I've gotten down making things with fondant but I see so much that everyone using gumpaste. Is it best for modeling or I have seen to mix fondant and Gumpaste. Is Gumpaste edible? I have no idea what sugarpaste is. If anyone could clerify these for me and tell me which is best to use I would appreciate it so much. Thanks!
This should be interesting what everyone says, I wonder if there is a correct answer?
Fondant = fondant: Sugar dough that does not dry super hard (or takes a while to dry super hard) and is edible, you put it outside a cake.
Gumpaste = sugarpaste = flourpaste: Dries super hard quickly, strong, preferred to make flowers, tastes disgusting and is not really edible when dry, especially not edible when made into a wire with flowers, colors etc.
Term "gumpaste" is mostly used in US, "sugarpaste" and "flourpaste" is mostly used in Europe and Australia. I prefer saying "sugarpaste" because it sounds a lot better the "GUMpaste". But that's a personal choice.
From an Australians perspective - here are a few links to help show the differences...
RTR Fondant = Ready to Roll Fondant...I am not saying this is the best fondant - just the quickest link
http://bakingpleasures.com.au/p7025/bakels-pettinice-white-rtr-fondant-icing
White Petal Paste
http://bakingpleasures.com.au/p7019/cake-art-white-petal-paste
Flower Paste
http://bakingpleasures.com.au/p7014/cake-art-flower-moulding-paste-ivory
Modelling Pastehttp://bakingpleasures.com.au/p7009/cake-art-modelling-paste
When you click on the links - if you scroll down a little - there are little blurbs about what each product does...
Again - just this Australians perspective.
Hope it helps a tad.
Bluehue
Yes there's a bit of confusing info out there.
This is what I got from Nicholas Lodge's book: The International School of Sugarcraft Book III:
"Sugar Paste (Rolled Fondant) is an easy-to-use icing that is pliable yet not sticky" (Ford, M., Lodge N. pg 185).
"Flower Paste (Gum Paste) This paste is for making sugar flowers [...]" (Ford, M., Lodge N. pg 185).
Here's a bit from my Pastry Arts textbook. On Baking: A textbook of baking and pastry fundamentals.
"Fondant is a thick, opaque sugar paste commonly used for glazing Napoleons, petits fours and other pastries as well as some cakes. [...] Rolled Fondant is a very stiff dough-like type of fondant that is used for covering cakes and for making flowers and other decorations" (Labensky, S. et al. pg 359).
Here's a bit from the Contemporary Cake Decorating Bible:
"Sugar paste (rolled fondant) used to cover cakes and boards [...]" (Smith, L. pg 20).
"[...] Flower paste (also known as petal or gum paste) is used to make delicate sugar flowers" (Smith, L. pg 21).
Of course edible and palatable are two different things. Is gum paste safe to be eaten? Absolutely. Will it taste good? Absolutely not 
A wire doesn't help either case.
I know my citations are a mish-mash of different styles. Please ignore that. LOL.
Thank you so much to you all for your comments. They have been very helpful.
Your welcome - it was a bit difficult as i am not sure where you are - and thus names can vary from country to country.
Thus why i put *from the Australians perspective*
Glad we could all help
Bluehue
Just to throw something else into the mix, in the UK, fondant is what's used to pour over cakes
It starts off looking like a block of sugarpaste (or fondant, as it's called in the US) but you heat it and it melts.
You then pour it over small cakes, like these:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/konditor/4451993840/
http://www.konditorandcook.com/blog/fathers-day-sunday-20th-june-2010
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=chelsea+buns&hl=en&prmd=imvnse&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=1Uc7ULSxMeGM0AXnjYDoCA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1654&bih=916#hl=en&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=belgian++buns&oq=belgian++buns&gs_l=img.3..0j0i24l2j0i5i24l3.1822.4172.0.4395.7.7.0.0.0.0.142.404.6j1.7.0...0.0...1c.VdP3aogP4rs&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=4d6c384c23056144&biw=1654&bih=916
HTH
Suzanne x
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