How far in advance can I make icing figures?

[BelfastSmile]

DD's 1st birthday is coming up, and DS has decided she'd like a Twirlywoos cake. I plan to make it myself.

I'm thinking I could make the Twirlywoos out of the Tesco ready-to-roll icing, and then put them on top. I won't have a lot of spare time between now and then, so it would be handy to be able to make them a couple of weeks in advance.

Would the Tesco icing work for this? How far in advance can I make them? How would I store them?

For the best results if mix a small amount of tylo powder with the fondant - it makes the fondant set rock hard. Then leave the figures uncovered for 24 hours by which point they will be solid. Then put them in an airtight box and they will be fine for a fortnight.

Thanks! What's Tylo powder? Can I get that in Tesco? Does it have instructions?

you’d need to get it online. Tesco won’t have it. Amazon, eBay, etc will. Hobbycraft also sell it I think.

It probably won’t come with instructions as it tends to be quite a specialist cake making thing, and can be used for more than one purpose. But you’ll be okay with it.

I’d mix a tiny amount - like 1/4 of a teaspoon of tylo - with a golf ball sized quantity of fondant and mix/knead it in well. Supermarket coloured fondant tends to be quite wet, the tylo will help with that too. Then don’t hang about - within about an hour it’ll start to set but I think twirlywoos are relatively simple so you should be okay!

This article might help you: it’s austrialian and refers to it as tylose but same thing! Tylo/tylose.

www.somethingforcake.com.au/blog/index.php/how-to-use-tylose-powder-in-fondant

With link 🙄

Thank you! I've discovered I can get it in Lakeland, so I'll try that first.