Gum Tragacanth and Tylo Powder can be used for making edible glue as well as using as a hardening agent in sugarpaste to create modelling pastes.

Tragacanth is a natural gum that comes from dried sap of middle Eastern legumes plants.

Tylo Powder is a brand name for CMC Powder (Chemical Name: Carboxymethyl Cellulose) i.e. an artificial version of Gum Trag.

It has two main uses in cake decorating:

1. As a hardening agent to use in your fondant/sugarpaste to allow your models/flowers to retain their shape and harden;
2. To make edible glue

To make edible glue:
Mix one part powder to 30 parts water. It may look a bit lumpy at first but leave this a couple of hours (or preferably overnight) and you’ll have a perfect thick glue to use – this can be thinned by adding more water if necessary.

To make modelling paste from sugarpaste / fondant:
We’d recommend you use around 1 teaspoon to 250g of sugarpaste for a general guide, although you can increase/decrease as you wish.