Wood Grain Gum Paste Fence Recipes

Steps:

• In a large bowl, mix the gum-tex with 3 cups powdered sugar.
• Make a shallow well in the center and set aside.
• Mix the water and glucose in a glass measuring cup until well blended; heat in a microwave on High for 30 seconds (mixture should be clear).
• Pour into the well of powdered sugar and mix until well blended (mixture will be soft).
• Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and then seal in a plastic zipper bag; let sit at room temperature for at least 8 hours.
• Knead the remaining powdered sugar into the paste when you are ready to use it.
• The gum paste will soften as you work it.

Steps:

• Dip a toothpick into gel paste and swipe through gum paste, starting with 2 swipes of brown and 1 swipe of black. (Use a fresh toothpick to add more color.) Knead until color is even, adding more gel paste as desired.
• Lightly dust a work surface with confectioners' sugar. Roll gum paste into a rectangle, 1/8 inch thick. Cover with a wood-grain impression mat and firmly press with a rolling pin to create pattern.
• Using a pizza cutter or chef's knife, cut gum paste rectangle into vertical strips, each 1/3 inch wide. Separate strips and cut crosswise into slats and posts: 12 posts, each 2 3/4 inches long; 12 short slats (for garden entrances), each 3 1/2 inches long, leaving one end squared and cutting the other on the bias; and 18 longer slats (for sides of cake), each 5 inches long, both ends trimmed on the bias.
• Transfer cut pieces to parchment-lined baking sheets and let stand until firm and dry, about 8 hours or overnight. Dried fence pieces can be stored on baking sheets, covered with parchment, at room temperature up to 3 days.

Steps:

• Take a small piece of gum paste and wipe your hands and work surface with it to pick up any dust that may stick to your popcorn as you shape them.
• Knead the yellow gel food coloring into the gum paste to color it pale yellow. Place the gum paste into a resealable plastic bag. Tear a small piece of the yellow gum paste, roughly the size of a kernel of popcorn, and roll it into a sphere. With a pointed flat-edged fondant tool, use the edge to indent around the bottom of the sphere about 1/3 from the bottom of the sphere (it will look like a snowman with 2 balls). Use your fingers to flatten the bottom ball and make it into a cup it by thinning out the edges over your finger tip. With a medium ball fondant tool, indent the center of the "cup" to create a crater, working along the edge to thin it out, creating a wavy skirt-like bottom. After the center has been hollowed out and an edge has formed that looks like the bottom of a ruffled skirt, dust the inside of the crater with cocoa powder. Coat a thin skewer with shortening and push through the piece of popcorn through the center to create a hole for the string to pass through.
• While the popcorn kernel is still on the skewer, take the pointed fondant tool and ball tool again and re-form anything that was smooshed when making the hole. Remove the skewer.
• Knot the end of a string (however long you desire in as many pieces). Coat the end of the string in shortening and string the pieces of popcorn. Repeat until all the popcorn are on the string. Knot the other end of the string as you finish.