At the cake supply store, I was advised to use gum paste because it hardens faster/better than fondant. Online, I found sites that said to use fondant and others that said to use half fondant and half gum paste. However beyond that bit of info and some pretty pictures (of the final product), these sites offered nothing. With that said, I decided to test out a few different methods in hopes of answering the below questions for anyone who finds themselves in this position one day:
1) Why it was best to use one over the other? Although all three hold the shapes well, I liked the half and half blend b/c it's more pliable dries quickly. The fondant is a bit tougher, but it also dries quickly. The gum paste is also pliable, but dries slowly and never gets as hard.
2) How do you connect the shapes to the wire? I used 26 gauge floral wires and stuck them in the stars so they could dry together. However, they were easy to pull out & took 9 days to stay in securely. Also, they didn't support the weight of the stars and I doubt the thicker 20 gauge would have worked. On top of that, I read that for food safety reasons, you shouldn't insert the wire into the cake and therefore need to take extra steps to cover it and prevent contact when inserted. With all that said, I switched to bamboo skewers. It was safe and supported the stars. The only challenge was since the stars were not thick, I couldn't insert them. Therefore, I stuck the skewer on the back of the star using a 3:1 sugar water mixture (corn syrup might also work) and applying a thin piece of the gum paste/fondant blend on top. This held everything together while it dried. Also as you see in the last picture, on the largest star I wrapped wire around 2/3 of the bamboo to cover the wood, but left the bottom 1/3 without wire since that would go into the cake.
3) How thick should the stars be? No less than 1/8" and no more than 1/4".
4) How far in advance should they be made?About 4-6 days. This allows time for drying.
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