I’m leaving to Taiwan this 11/4 and wanted to see if I should bring cake decorating supplies/ingredients.
Tools
Gum Paste Tools
Ingredients
Glucose
Tylose
Gum Arabic
Glycerin
Xantham Gum
These are only a few things I’m looking for, but I can buy some Wilton supplies in Taiwan. (Just prefer not to though)
Thanks in advance
holy edit 
…that didn’t quite make sense
I’d say you’re best off bringing your own.
There are some basic cake decorating supplies in some of the local baking supply shops in Taibei, such as a wide variety of nozzles for icing; I don’t know about the specific items you list, but I will say this: since local ingredients are often labeled in Chinese (or even Japanese!), even if they are sourceable locally (and I’m not sure they are), it will be much more convenient for you if you bring your own, if you have room, that is.
Hopefully someone else will be able to provide more specific answers on your list of items.
Afaik, they don’t make that kind of cakes here, icing isn’t a big thing here and even less so the other type of cake decorations used in the US.
I know you can get Glucose here and most likely Glycerin, but not sure about the other ingredients. The local baking supply shops have a lot of stuff, but I have no clue what half of it is as it’s all in Chinese. They have tons of artificial stuff that I wouldn’t ever put in anything I’d eat/cook.
Also, get used to learning how to make certain things from scratch, as it’ll be half the price or less of buying it ready made here. Things like Marzipan is very expensive here for example, while almond powder cost next to nothing and works really well to make home made Marzipan out of.
You can write to Pantry Magic -one of the most foreign cooking oriented baking supply store- and ask:
pantry-magic.com/taiwan/ If anyone should have them, it’s them.
The most difficult part will not be those small ingredients, but finding a decent oven…
Well, I haven’t been to Pantry Magic since the Neihu store closed, but at least at that time they were not the kind of store the OP is looking for. Pantry Magic, back then, carried high-end pots and pans, not cake decorating supplies. The OP will want to try the bigger baking supply shops like these:
燈燦公司 (‘the Mínlè store’ near Dihua St.)
台北市民樂街１２５號 Minle St., #125
０２－２５５７－８１０４
The Dihua-area store near the west end of Minsheng W. Rd. is at 125 Minle. Take Zhongshan north, turn left on Minsheng, go 2.1 km, turn right on Minle; it’s on the right, with cans of imported kitchen goods like blueberries in the front window.
義興材料行 (‘the Minquan bridge store’)
台北市富錦街５７８號
０２－２７６５－４１８１
In an alley just south of the Minquan bridge, in Neihu (vaguely near Costco). Take Minquan E. Rd. from the Songshan airport eastward, to Fuyuan St., which is the last street before the onramp to the Minquan Rd. Bridge which leads to the Costco area; instead of getting on the bridge, veer right and take the small low road which parallels the bridge on its south side. You pass a Buddhist supply shop, then at the first alley, turn right, go 100 meters, and it’s on your left, a small shop in the middle of a residential area. 義興西點原料行 is the shop name; the address is 富錦街574巷2號 Fujin St., Lane 574, #2. Phone 2760-8115. Closed Sundays, I think.
A list of other stores is [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/diy-baking-supply-supplies/22088/47
[quote=“mijo”]
Ingredients
Glucose
Tylose
Gum Arabic
Glycerin
Xantham Gum
Thanks in advance[/quote]
All of these chemicals (except maybe Tylose… I don’t know what it is) are available at chemical shops in Tienshui street near Taipei main station. Just make sure they are “food grade”.
There has to be cake making supplies since there are tons of bakeries here making cakes, but cakes in Taiwan is different than cakes back home (I actually like cakes here… less sweet, softer, etc.)
There are Wilton courses opening in November in Taipei according to this blog blog.yam.com/sugarart/article/15216061, so they must be able to get supplies. It might be cheaper or easier to purchase them from whomever is doing the course, if they’re importing directly.
I would bring in any molds you use as well as luster dust and petal dusts, as they are small and light and usually expensive if you can find them.
There’s a wonderful baking supply store right at the northwest corner of Minsheng W. Rd. & Dihua St.
At the last food expo I went to here, there was a guy there who had a stall filled with Wilton supplies for sale. He also ran classes out of his shop. I’ll have to search around for his business card, but I think it was somewhere in Sanchong. However, looking at the link from Iron Lady, I’m wondering if that’s the same guy and he’s moved shop to Taipei.
Anyway, I fill up my bags with stuff whenever I go home, so I suggest you bring whatever you think you’ll need…I had a real hard time getting all of the supplies to make fondant here, so I had to do a little substituting. I believe the glycerin was what I couldn’t find…I’ve also been using meringue powder that I brought from the states. I haven’t noticed it anywhere over here.
I guess I’ll be bringing all my supplies then…sigh…I guess I’ll bring all basic tools, and see what I can find from there…
[quote=“Tiare”]At the last food expo I went to here, there was a guy there who had a stall filled with Wilton supplies for sale. He also ran classes out of his shop. I’ll have to search around for his business card, but I think it was somewhere in Sanchong. However, looking at the link from Iron Lady, I’m wondering if that’s the same guy and he’s moved shop to Taipei.
Anyway, I fill up my bags with stuff whenever I go home, so I suggest you bring whatever you think you’ll need…I had a real hard time getting all of the supplies to make fondant here, so I had to do a little substituting. I believe the glycerin was what I couldn’t find…I’ve also been using meringue powder that I brought from the states. I haven’t noticed it anywhere over here.[/quote]
Yes, glycerin is the main one I didn’t want to bring since it’s liquid. And I assume that I will need lots of it too…
How does the humidity effect your fondant and gumpaste work?
yixingdiy.com.tw/ seems to be one of the DIY shops website.
I’ve seen meringue powder listed, they’re calling it Italian meringue powder though.
There are tons of stuff in these shops I as I’m not a pro, I don’t recognize half of it.
I’d suggest heading over to HK or Manila if you want to get your hands on stuff like this, it’s always nice to get away from the island sometimes and I’d guess from what I’ve seen when I’ve been there that they have a much greater selection of items.
[quote=“mijo”]I guess I’ll be bringing all my supplies then…sigh…I guess I’ll bring all basic tools, and see what I can find from there…
Yes, glycerin is the main one I didn’t want to bring since it’s liquid. And I assume that I will need lots of it too…
How does the humidity effect your fondant and gumpaste work?[/quote]
It actually wasn’t too bad, but I did make it at night and with the A/C on just in case (it was in the middle of summer). I did end up using much more powdered sugar than normal in order to get the right consistency (although this was probably because of the substitutions I made).
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]http://www.yixingdiy.com.tw/ seems to be one of the DIY shops website.
I’ve seen meringue powder listed, they’re calling it Italian meringue powder though.
There are tons of stuff in these shops I as I’m not a pro, I don’t recognize half of it.
I’d suggest heading over to HK or Manila if you want to get your hands on stuff like this, it’s always nice to get away from the island sometimes and I’d guess from what I’ve seen when I’ve been there that they have a much greater selection of items.[/quote]
Thanks, I’m headed to HK for a visa run near the end of my 60 day so hopefully I can get some supplies later…I went to the site, but saw everything in Chinese… 
[quote=“Tiare”]…
It actually wasn’t too bad, but I did make it at night and with the A/C on just in case (it was in the middle of summer). I did end up using much more powdered sugar than normal in order to get the right consistency (although this was probably because of the substitutions I made).[/quote]
Was a humidifier needed to keep all your pieces intact?..I was hoping to do some sugar work, but have a feeling that it’s not gonna last without a humidifier.
I ended up bringing most of my tools and buying lots of different gums. Hopefully everything will last long, unless my extern bakery needs more work done…
You are aware that ovens aren’t commonplace in Taiwan, right? So actually making the cake will be harder than making the icing/decorations…
Try using google translate, it’ll work ok, but it’s far from 100% accurate, but it’ll give you an idea of what’s available from that shop.
Yes, mijo, you’ll want to run a search here for the thread(s) discussing ovens, too.
OMG…made it to Taiwan, but didn’t get internet until this Wednesday…
Thanks everyone for helping!!!
I didn’t bring much of anything except books and some additives. I went to a local baking store in Chungli city, and was kinda disappointed in the selection of products. They carried lots of cheap products with high markup…
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]You are aware that ovens aren’t commonplace in Taiwan, right? So actually making the cake will be harder than making the icing/decorations…
Try using google translate, it’ll work ok, but it’s far from 100% accurate, but it’ll give you an idea of what’s available from that shop.[/quote]
After I saw my apartment, it’s become a lost dream in baking here…my apartment is about 10 ft wide, and maybe 15 ft long…
btw…I’m externing at Bonjour Bakery in Keelung if anyone’s interested… Just yesterday an expat came in and wanted to joke with the employees (he spoke mandarin too)…unknown to him they have Americans here…hehe…
Welcome to the island and yes, kitchens here aren’t what you’re used to from back home… or pretty much anywhere where you have a kitchen in your home…
Still, it’s not impossible to get an oven here, even the 220V kind and they’re slowly coming down in price. A proper European style oven will set you back less than NT$20k these days, plus installation.
There are some bigger baking supply shops here, but yes, just about everything here is 2-5x as expensive as it ought to be, mostly because there’s no demand for it. I mean, I pay NT$100 for 500g of rye flour here, that’s about 6x the going rate back home, although I expect it to be more expensive here, that’s not just a bit more expensive…
But such is the life of living here, anything imported is going to cost you a premium…
I notice that there is a great number of people asking for a good baking supplies store so please bear with our self-introduction. We are a premier cake decorating specialty store from Singapore that just opened last year in 24 Changan West Road. http://www.b-i-y.com.tw or http://www.facebook.com/BakeItYourself.TW
We carry the world’s top brands for bakeware and cake decorating product - Wilton, PME, Americolor, JEM, CK Products, Silikomart, and many others. The bakeware range is huge - we have novelty shaped cake pans, pans of all shapes and sizes, including very large 12" ones, muffin pans etc, as well as baking tools and gadgets. Since we are decorating specialists, we carry the widest range of decorating products in Taiwan - colors, molds, cutters, rolling pins (large plain and textured), silicon mats, candles, candy making products, sprinkles and jimmies, edible icing images…there’s just too many to list here. We also conduct Wilton and PME courses. Hope to see you soon at the store!