• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Cake Journal

  • Cake Lounge
    • Easy Embossed Cookies Recipe
    • How to Make Heart-Shaped Cake with Buttercream Roses
  • Desserts
    • Best 3 Cookie Scoop Sizes and How to Use Them?
    • Babycakes Cake Pop Maker Review and Tutorial
  • Recipes
    • Traditional Castella Cake Recipe
    • Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting (Easy Recipe)
    • Best Frozen-Themed Cake Ideas with Images
  • Tips & tools
    • What to Do With Cake Scraps? (8 Easy Recipes)
    • Luster Dust: If You Don’t Know About It, You Need To!
    • How To Use Edible Glue and How to Make It
    • How to Use Russian Piping Tips and Tutorial
    • What Is Wafer Paper and How to Use It? (Video Tutorials)
  • Tutorials
    • How To Make Royal Icing (Easy Recipe)
    • How to Flood Cookies with Royal Icing?
    • How To Use Candy Molds Properly
    • How to Make Cake Pops: Easy Step-by-Step Tutorial
    • Fondant On Cookies: Easy Way To Decorate
  • About Us
  • Contact

How to make a gum paste brooch

by Louise 20 Comments

gum paste brooch
A lot of you asked how I made the gum paste brooch for the purse cake project that I am working on. So I thought that I would show you, how you can make it yourself. This gum paste brooch can be made in the colours you like and it will look just as beautiful as a side decoration on a cake. Try and use a lustre dust that is close to the colour you will use for the ruffles.

If you like, you can make it with regular rolled fondant icing, but using gum paste will help it to firm up quicker. You can add a little Tylo powder (CMC) to the rolled fondant and it will be just as good as gum paste.

Cake decorating tools
This is what I use:
White gum paste or rolled fondant icing
Rolling pin
Small knife
Ribbon cutter (FMM)
Bulbous Cone tool (PME no.9) or another similar pointy tool
Ball tool (FMM)
Frilling tool (Orchard)
Soft brush
2 brushes for painting and for the Tylo glue
Quick rose cutter 40mm (FMM)
Round cookie cutter 65mm
Tylo glue
Gel paste food colour (I used Avocado from AmeriColor)
lustre dust (matching the gel paste food colour) (I used Iced Pine from Edable Art, a UK brand)
White pearl lustre dust
Gold lustre dust (I used Golden Sands from Edable Art, a UK brand)
Clear alcohol or lemon extract (for painting the gold “button”)
Tylo powder (if you use regular rolled fondant icing)
Cornstarch powder
Kleenex
Plastic bag (not showing)

Step 1:
Roll out the white gum paste to a 3mm thickness and cut out 1 circle and 1 quick rose with the cutters. Set aside the circle and let it dry.
fondant cut out
Step 2:
Dust a little cornstarch on your work area and with the frilling tool frill the petals slightly on the quick rose. Place the quick rose on a Kleenex and dust it with the white pearl lustre dust.
Frilling gum paste petals
gum paste petal
Step 3:
Lift the petals in the middle and set aside to dry.
quick rose petal
Step 4:
Colour some of the gum paste in your chosen colour for the ruffles. Next roll it out thinly. Use a ribbon cutter or a knife to cut strips of fondant about 30mm wide. Place the strips in a plastic bag to prevent them from drying out.
Fondant ribbon cutter tool
Step 5:
Take one of the fondant strips and place it on a Kleenex. Take the matching lustre dust and work it into the fondant with the soft brush.
Lustre dust on rolled fondant
Step 6:
Make small ruffles from the fondant strips and glue them on the fondant circle with a little Tylo glue. Continue until it is all covered with ruffles. You may need to adjust and cut the ruffles to fit inside the circle. Set aside to dry.
Fondant ruffles
Fondant ruffles
Step 7:
Take a piece of gum paste and roll it into a ball. Flatten it slightly and use the ball tool to make an indentation in the middle (remember that it should fit inside the quick rose petal). Next take the bulbous tool and make small indentations all the way around. Set aside to dry a little before painting it with gold.

Before you pack away the white gum paste, remember to make a small ball/pearl that will fit into the “gold button”. Let the small ball/pearl dry before you brush it with the white pearl lustre dust.
Fondant ball tool
Making a gum paste brooch
Step 8:
Place the “button” on a Kleenex and mix some gold lustre dust with few drops of clear alcohol. Paint the button and set aside. When the painted button is dry, brush it well with dry gold lustre dust.
Painting gold on fondant
Dusting gold on fondant
Step 9:
Time for assembling the gum paste brooch. Brush a little Tylo glue on the back of the quick rose and place it in the middle of the ruffles. Next glue the gold “button” in the middle of the the quick rose and finally glue the small ball/pearl on top. (Sorry I left out the little pearl on the photo) Now let the Tylo glue dry well before you use the gum paste brooch on your cake creations!
Assembling the gum paste brooch

Happy Caking!

Louise

Previous Post: « How to cover a cake board with rolled fondant
Next Post: The purse cake »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. marvy

    December 11, 2013 at 5:53 PM

    This site is so inspiring. Am trying to be self-taught and this is what I need to achieve a lot. My question is, is tracaganth same as tylo powder? Thanks so much for what you are doing to change the world of cake making and decoration.

    Reply
  2. Edlene Joy Isah

    October 27, 2012 at 11:11 AM

    This is the loveliest site I ever had the privilege of visiting. Thank You so much, I know now that i can do much more than I do already. Will love to keep in touch.

    Reply
  3. amina

    October 22, 2012 at 7:07 AM

    What is the diffetence between gumpaste and fondant/sugatpaste many thanx

    Reply
    • Louise

      October 23, 2012 at 9:36 AM

      Gum paste have been added a gum agent which makes the paste more strong and flexible. It also dries the paste faster.
      Fondant & sugar paste is the same thing only named different depending in which country you are. In the UK it is often known as sugar paste.

      Reply
  4. mariena

    October 2, 2012 at 3:38 PM

    youre the bessssssssstttttttttttttt , thanks 4 sharing , even it take me a while to find a blog but it worthy….thanks thanks a bigggg thanks from malaysia

    Reply
  5. KUMI

    January 10, 2012 at 9:12 PM

    This is so beautiful. Can you use this as a topper on a cake with butter cream frosting or does it have to be a fondant covered cake?

    Reply
    • Louise

      January 17, 2012 at 10:45 AM

      You can use it on butter cream cakes. However it may get a little soft but because of the tylo powder in the gum paste it usually takes a while before it gets very soft.

      Reply
  6. Happy childcare worker

    December 18, 2011 at 12:29 AM

    I’ve been all over the internet looking for photos to show kids how to make pretty strawberries from playdough. Even though this is gum paste, the photos are exactly what I’m looking for, cause they are more straightforward than verbal instructions! Thank you so much!! =]

    Reply
    • Louise

      December 18, 2011 at 8:53 PM

      You are so welcome.

      Reply
  7. traditional sweets

    July 31, 2011 at 7:08 AM

    Very impressive. Thank you for sharing this. I’ll be looking forward for your next post.

    Reply
  8. Cakesbysonia

    July 23, 2011 at 6:27 PM

    I love this! The pictures are very easy to follow. Thank you.

    Reply
  9. Asma Moosagie 21

    July 19, 2011 at 7:33 PM

    thanks so much! this is wonderful!

    Reply
  10. Parveenmohamedali

    July 19, 2011 at 3:36 PM

    thank you so much for yet another wonderfull tutorial!I live in asia tropics and on rainy days my gum paste and fondant decore melts!It’s a desaster! I think it is due to the humidity,any ideas on how to avoid this?

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      July 19, 2011 at 5:02 PM

      I don’t think that you can avoid it 100% but if you can get some Tylo powder/CMC or GumTex (Wilton brand) it may help.

      Reply
  11. Linda V @ Bubble and Sweet

    July 18, 2011 at 8:25 PM

    I like your frilling tool mine does not have the little ridges. Lovely tutorial.

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      July 29, 2011 at 10:22 PM

      Thanks! It’s from Orchard Products a UK brand.

      Reply
  12. Meg

    July 18, 2011 at 4:11 PM

    You make this seem too easy. What do the rest of us do… 🙂

    Reply
  13. Emma Morton-Turner

    July 18, 2011 at 1:46 PM

    Absolutely genius! (as always) I was wondering how you would get the ruffle effect. I’ve never seena ribbon cutter but I HAVE TO HAVE IT!!!

    Great project. I’m going to give it a try (mini version) on cupcakes this weekend!

    Reply
    • Anonymous

      July 18, 2011 at 4:02 PM

      Emma, love the thought of a mini version for cupcakes 🙂 The ribbon cutter is great!

      Reply
  14. Anonymous

    July 18, 2011 at 10:38 AM

    The purse cake will be up with next post. It takes a little longer because I am making a tutorial for it along the way.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Search Recipes on Cake Journal:

About Us

Kristen is the author of Cake Journal and a graduate of the Professional Baking program at Renton Technical College. She has worked as a pastry chef at a top Seattle restaurant and loves sharing her passion for baking amazing cakes on this site.

Contact Me

Privacy Policy

As Seen On:

Follow Us on Pinterest

Follow Us on Facebook

Copyright © 2025 · Cake Journal