What is the differance Between Sugar Paste, Gum Paste, and Fondant?

I keep trying to find out to make those really realstic edible flowers people use, but each website has a different kind they use, but sometimes it looks like the same flower (i live in a small town, so no professional cake decorators to ask here)

What is the differance Between Sugar Paste, Gum Paste, and Fondant?
Sugar Paste/Gum Paste:


http://www.sugarpaste.com/





Fondant:


http://www.ochef.com/169.htm
Reply:The simple answer is that you use fondant to cover a cake and you use gum paste to make flowers and bows.





You can use fondant to make flowers and bows, but they do not dry quite as hard as they do out of gum paste. You can make your fondant act more like gum paste by kneeding in about a cup of gum paste mix into a pound of rolled fondant. This will make it dry harder than it would normally.





I prefer to make my flowers out of gum paste for 2 reasons. The first is you can roll the gum paste thinner, so your flowers have a more realistic look to them. The second is that they dry better, especially in humid weather, so you don't have to worry about the petals going limp on you.





You never want to cover your cake in gum paste. This is never its intended use.





So I usually follow this rule of thumb, cover my cake in fondant and use fondant as an edible ribbon around the base of a cake. For my flowers and bows, gum paste is your safest option, especially in humid weather.





Gum paste n sugar paste are the same !

PDA