SC - Re: Violet Sugar Plate

[alysk at ix.netcom.com]

Lorix wrote in reference to Laura Mason's book:
>Nb: the author alos adds that in respect to the making of sugar pate or paste no
>boiling of syrup is involved:  it is a simple mixture of powdered sugar kneaded
>with soaked gum arabic or gum tragacanth (often mispelt as dragant or corrupted
>to dragon)

and: 
>Mason's Redaction of Sugar Plate:
>- - 500g icing sugar
>- - 15g powdered gum arabic or tragacanth  (snip)

I wonder if Mason ever tried sugar paste with gum arabic?  Now, I will admit
that _I_ haven't, but I did "meet" a piece of funky sugarpaste in a feast
and inquired what the person had used to make it so odd.  They said they
had used gum arabic because they couldn't find any gum tracacanth, and 
thought the two should work out the same.  Have any of you tried making
sugarpaste with gum arabic instead of gum tragacanth?  Because of my earlier
encounter, I have been assuming that the two are not interchangeable.

Alys Katharine