Who doesn’t love intricately decorated cakes? Nowadays I think only of various techniques of cake decorating. I am a member of Home Bakers Guild on FB and ever since I became a member, I visit the group page daily to see all the beautiful creations by home bakers. The members of the goup are very generous and they share their recipes with other members. And I have been so lucky to have joined the group. My decoating skills have improved a lot after joining the group. I have seen this edible lace 3 years before, but to make it at home you need a paste which has gelatin. Gelatin is made from animal extracts and is not at all tolerated by vegetarians. So I just didn’t think of trying it at home. And one fine day, in the guild, I saw a post by Sam Mistry about the gelatin free edible lace. I happily noted the recipe in my note book and forgot about it for a long time. Suddenly, I remembered the recipe last month and I searched for the silicon lace mould. Again the guild helped me to find the source and on my birthday, I gifted myself with the lace mould. Then started my experimenting. I was surprised that the lace turned super cute on my first try itself. But I didn’t click the step wise photos because I thought I would never get it right on the first try. Today I made it again and decorated the eggless gulkand cake with the lace. I will write about the cake in another post and also about the occassion for which I baked the cake. I am publishing this recipe with permission from the author.
Let us talk about the ingredients first. The most important ingredient in the recipe is Tylose powder. Tylose is a powder which is extensively used in cake decoration. We use it to make edible gum to stick the fondant decorations to the cake. Usually CMC powder is used as the substitute for tylose powder. But I haven’t tried it. If you have CMC, you can try substituting the tylose with it. And another ingredient is the corn syrup. But here in Madurai, I don’t get corn syrup and always substitute it with Liquid glucose. So whichever you have use it in the recipe. All the other ingredients are easily available in our pantry like corn flour and icing sugar. For the flavour, I have mentioned vanilla powder but you can add any flavour you want. For my first try I used vanilla powder but for this lace I used rose essence. But make sure to use clear extracts if you want the lace to be white. You can also add white food colour to make it whiter.
The paste is very thick and you need a dough scraper to apply it on the mat. Baking the lace is the most important step in making a flexible lace. If under baked then the lace will be very stretchy and will loose its shape and if over baked, it would become brittle. So removing the mat from the oven at the correct time is very important and it comes with practice. I hope this post will help you make beautiful laces for your cakes. My lace on the cake is not so perfect but I am satisfied as this is my second attempt. 
Recipe Source: Sam Mistry
Ingredients:
Hot Water-1/4 cup
Tylose Powder-1 1/4 tsp
Corn Flour-2 tbs
Icing Sugar-1 tbs
Vanilla Powder-1/4 tsp
Corn Syrup / Liquid Glucose-1 tsp
Food Colour – gel or liquid colours ( I haven’t used them but you can use as per the design)
Procedure:
- In a bowl mix together tylose and water.
- Keep on beating until the tylose absorbs all the water and becomes thick gelatinous mixture.
- Add in all the other ingredients and mix to form a thick paste.
- Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
- Now take a spoon full of the paste and transfer it to the lace mould.
- With the help of a dough scraper, apply it on the mat so that the paste fills all the design areas.
- Keep on applying until you are satisfied that the paste is filled uniformly.
- Scrape the remaining paste by keeping the scraper at 90°.
- Preheat oven to 80°C-100°C. For my oven the minimum is 100°C, so I kept that.
- Bake the lace for 3-6 minutes until the paste is firm to touch.
- Start testing it at the end of 3 minutes. If the paste is sticky then let it bake a little more. This varies from oven to oven.
- Once the lace is firm, remove it from oven and allow it to cool.
- Remove it carefully from the mould.
- Decorate your cake with the lace and enjoy the visual treat.
Click on the link for the Gulkand Cake Recipe
Gelatin Free Edible Sugar Lace
Ingredients
Ingredients
- Hot Water-1/4 cup
- Tylose Powder-1 1/4 tsp
- Corn Flour-2 tbs
- Icing Sugar-1 tbs
- Vanilla Powder-1/4 tsp
- Corn Syrup / Liquid Glucose-1 tsp
Instructions
Procedure
- In a bowl mix together tylose and water.
- Keep on beating until the tylose absorbs all the water and becomes thick gelatinous mixture.
- Add in all the other ingredients and mix to form a thick paste.
- Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
- Now take a spoon full of the paste and transfer it to the lace mould.
- With the help of a dough scraper, apply it on the mat so that the paste fills all the design areas.
- Keep on applying until you are satisfied that the paste is filled uniformly.
- Scrape the remaining paste by keeping the scraper at 90°.
- Preheat oven to 80°C-100°C. For my oven the minimum is 100°C, so I kept that.
- Bake the lace for 3-6 minutes until the paste is firm to touch.
- Start testing it at the end of 3 minutes. If the paste is sticky then let it bake a little more. This varies from oven to oven.
- Once the lace is firm, remove it from oven and allow it to cool.
- Remove it carefully from the mould.
- Decorate your cake with the lace and enjoy the visual treat.
beautiful gayathri! ! Masterpiece it is!!
Hi Gayathri mam. I just love yr blog of cookspot recipes. Each recipe is unique n awesome. Just a query. Can we keep the lace to dry without putting in the oven. Thanks once again n God bless u for sharing.
Thank you Wendy. This version of the lace needs to be baked in oven.
This is amazing.. but I don’t know what is tylose powder.. will try to google and see what they call it here in Brazil.
The lace is so beautiful.
awesome work!
OMG OMG Gayatri Iam speech less……… that is simply superb.
This looks great Gayathri. Thanks for sharing
This looks so beautiful.. Great work..
Awesome! I was waiting for your post Gayathri.Beautiful lace and thanks a lot for sharing 🙂
Awesome post Gayathri….and thanks a ton for mentioning the substitutes as well. You make the whole thing look so effortless….beautiful cake!
Thanks a lot for your detailed post with lots of pictures. The lace looks amazing.
Awesome.Such an elaborate step by step presentation ,Thanks for sharing it .
very well done Gayathri!!! I am so impressed….
One question – can you store these lace?
Yes Sowmya. Just wrap it up in parchment paper and place it in ziplock bag or an airtight box.
What exactly is vanilla powder? Is it readily available in the market?
Would like to try making lace. Is there a substitute for tylose powder. Please let me know
You can use CMC powder instead. It is easily available..
Once the lace is baked, does it have to be cooled? Can the remaining paste be stored and for how long
Linda, it needs to cool completely before removing from the mould. The paste can be refrigerated up to a week. I haven’t tried freezing it..
You r such a talented lady…love all yr work and love u…
Dear Gayathri,
Should the water be increased if using liquid glucose. Please let me know. I find the paste thick to spread.
Linda
No Linda, use the same amount. The paste is thick and it takes a while to get the hang of spreading..
Dear, this is indeed a masterpiece .Can you please inform me from where did you get the silicon lace mat.
I tried finding it online but nowhere could i find the big piece that you have. Can you send me the link ,please.
Abha
Thank you Abha. I bought it from New Arife online. You need to contact them on FB.
Where’d you get the mat?
I’m looking for one, myself!
I bought it online…
How long does the lace keep and stay flexible?
When stored properly, it remains flexible even for a year. Wrap it around parchment paper and store in an airtight box. It will stay good.
The lace looks beautiful … Can we use vanilla essence instead of the powder?
Vanilla essence will change the colour of the mixture. That is why we use powder to retain the white colour..
that is so great !!! simply loved it
Gayathri, you are amazing!
Hi Gayathri! I tried your recipe but my lace came out all torn 🙁 also I found my paste to be sticky while spreading… Where did I go wrong?? Hope you will be able to guide me 🙂
The paste is sticky Suchithra. I think it needs another coating of the paste as I feel that it was so flimsy. Very thin lace my tear while removing.
Can this lace be used on whipped cream cakes?
Yes, it can be used..
Thank you for the recipe! I was also looking for a gelatin and egg white free lace recipe. Beautiful cake, you made!
I could see that some here asked for alternatives for Tylose powder and CMC. Gum tragacanth (or tragant in some countries) is the traditional sugar craft ‘gum’, which Tylose and CMC are the modern, synthetic copies of. It is made from sap from the roots of certain legume plants, and is viscous, water soluble, taste and odourless. It has been used for many other purposes than cake decorating (and still is for some), and it might be found in pharmacies if it is difficult to find elsewhere.
Thank you so much for the info. I am sure it will help a lot of people.
Thanks for the recipe, when decorating cake with the lace do you use Water to stick it on fondant cakes?
Yes, you can use water or edible gum made of CMC or tylose.
I have done this formula, but unfortunately when I put lace on cake which covered by whipping cream before (I use brand “Dawn” for this), the lace was crumble and lost shape.
Pls advise me what is the next step? I can add any ingredient to improve this problem
I think the lace is being over heated. Bake them for lesser time or reduce the temperature. Only over baked lace would crumble.
Thanks for your reply quickly.
Really everything is ok for me after remove lace from mould, quite soft, but just crumble when put it on wipping cream after 2 hours in ambient and Refrigerated Condition. It seems the lace absorbed from whipping cream. I could not take it from whipping cream due to the lace is lost original shape
Iam Super excited I found this post and thank you for sharing. . . Ive been failing to make edible lace for like ever. Very easy to follow recipe and I tried it for the 1st time ever today. Came out great. With practice Im sure I Will be perfect at it. How long Can I store it for and how?!
That is great. I am so glad you got it right. If wrapped and stored in an airtight box, it will last even for a month.
Thank you for this recipe… I’ve been searching for a recipe without meringue powder.. because I don’t get it here…
I have a question though… Can we add color and flavor to this..??
Yes, you can add food colour and your preferred flavour.