Whats the Difference??? Tylose Powder…CMC Powder…Trag Powder….Gum Tex…

I receive many emails everyday regarding the different “Gums” as they are called available on the market! I know it’s all quite confusing especially to those who are just getting started in working with Sugarpaste also know as fondant or gum paste.

Let me point out that when I say sugarpaste I am referring to fondant or gumpaste, because both are made with is sugar and just a few other ingredients and is a dough like paste that is used to cover cakes, create flowers and my favorite of course which is creating hand sculpted figurines.

When I say sugar flowers as I do often times I am really talking about gumpaste flowers.

Now lets talk about all the different “Gums” as they are often called.

First one that we will discuss is Tylose Powder and the one that I always use. Tylose Powder is less expensive than most gums on the market however it can be tough to locate since it is mostly avail. through the internet, you can find it at some of the specialty cake supply stores but not at Michaels Craft Store or Joanns. Tylose powder is used in some gumpaste recipes but you can add it to plain fondant to create a quick version of Gumpaste for  my creating figurines and sugar flowers. Tylose powder is a  fine powder you can work into fondant to make a really quick transition to gumpaste.

To create a quick gumpaste with fondant just Add 1 -3 tsp of Tylose powder to 1lb of fondant. Dry humidity areas use less Tylose – High humidity areas use more Tylose. Knead it in very well to your fondant. If you are using a pre-made Gum paste you don’t need to add any Gums to your paste because it already has some form of Gums in it. I usually don’t use a pound of fondant at a time when creating my figurines so I use small pinches of tylose powder to my fondant until I get the consistency I am looking for.

Gum Trag or the long version of the name….. gum tragicanth is another gum additive used in many different recipes to make gumpaste and pastillage. It add strength and stretch to the final product.

 Gum Tex is more readily available to most and is made by Wilton. Like gum tragicanth, gum tex is an ingredient to make gum paste pliable, elastic & easy to shape.

Gum Arabic – a versatile hydrocolloid that has many applications. A superior emulsifier, widely used in the production of beverage and flavor emulsions and meal replacers. Its low viscosity and adhesive properties, meanwhile, make gum arabic an excellent ingredient for coating cereal, confections, and snack foods. For bakery products, the gum’s binding and emulsification abilities aid in the formulation of icings and frostings as well as baked goods like cakes and muffins. Beyond foods and beverages, gum arabic has been long used in lithographic processes and pharmaceutical products. A natural gum additive that can be used as an edible glue to stick pieces of modeling paste together when mixed with water. This additive can also be added into Royal Icing to give it more strength.
Mix 2 tsp. of Gum Arabic with 2 ounces of water to make a gum glue. Gum glue is used to Gumpaste figurines, bows and other objects together

CMC Powder or sometimes referred to as Super Gum and  CMC Gum, and the technical name  Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose Gum, or just Cellulose Gum is frequently used as a thickener and a texture ingredient in many applications throughout the food service industry. Food grade and industrial grade CMC Gum is also known as cellulose gum. It is derived from purified cellulose such as cotton linters. CMC Gum helps products retain moisture. CMC Gum is a man-made gum. CMC produces the highest cohesiveness (such as sticking together).  CMC is frequently used as a thickener and a texture ingredient in many applications used in the food service industry.  Also CMC gum helps products retain moisture.

Many are getting confused because I use Tylose Powder and they think that they cannot use any of these other gum ingredients…..Yes you can use any of the other gum ingredients INSTEAD of the tylose powder that I use. SOO if you have access to CMC Powder then by all means use that in your fondant…..if you have gum trag available to you then use that. Any of these listed can be used and added to your fondant.

Hopefully I did not confuse you even more with all this information, I know that many are not sure what each of these are for so I thought I would list each one to give you a basic idea, for future reference.