A question I get over and over again.  I posted this in 2012 when I worked for my dear baker Ron Ben-Israel, and it’s good to post again…

The question from my reader Tori:

How do you keep your gum paste flowers fresh? I recently was cleaning out some flowers I had made last summer and prior to throwing them away, I smelled them, and they smelled like rancid shortening. Do you go through your stock so quickly that they don’t have a chance to get like that? I had used Wilton fondant and gum paste for my flowers. Not sure if that makes a difference. Miss Tori…

Thanks Miss Tori for reading and bringing up an excellent question.  I brought this question to the staff and this is what they had to say:

“All of your sugar flowers should be dried completely before storing them away.  We have never had this kind of a problem before as we always make sure the sugar flowers/objects are dry.”

Keep in mind that we also work in a very dry environment.  If you work in a humid environment this could also have an impact on your sugar flowers.