Tools for Form and Design

A blown sugar pump is used to pump air into sugar to make delicate, three-dimensional designs, including clear bubbles. Pumps come in different styles but basically consist of a rubber bulb that is squeezed by hand, from which a flexible short tube protrudes; the tube ends in a short, rigid, copper or stainless-steel tube section. The pump slightly resembles a poultry baster.

Gum paste tools, sometimes called molding tools, are used for a variety of designing and sculpting work with gum paste (a mixture of egg whites, confectioner’s sugar, and tylose powder) and marzipan. See tragacanth. Usually purchased in a kit, they resemble handheld dental tools with a tool head on both ends and are normally made out of rigid plastic.