Sculpting with Sugar

This week I have a new sugar showpiece to share here that I made in my Confectionery Arts class. Similar to a chocolate sculpture, a sugar sculpture doesn't have much purpose in life except to sit there and look gorgeous. Rough life. Although it is 100% edible, it would taste like a lollipop without flavor and not in a very good way. So just feast your eyes with this one, but sugar sculptures are a beautiful way to top off a wedding cake or adorn a table centerpiece. They can also be preserved for as long as you can keep them away from their evil enemy, humidity.

This piece is made from a combination of sugar decoration methods. The leaves, bow and roses are made from pulling cooked sugar, the hearts are made from blowing sugar, and the whole thing sits on a poured sugar base. Pulling sugar gives it an iridescent, shiny finish and glass-like consistency. The hearts are actually completely hollow and were shaped by hand.

The rose petals and bow loops are each made individually and then attached by melting the ends over an open flame and sticking together. 

In the same way as chocolate, you can make just about anything out of sugar using different methods of cooking and decorating.

It's hard to believe this piece was once just a mountain of granulated sugar!

Valentine's Day Chocolate Sculpture

Happy Valentine's Day from MPhillips cakes! Here's a Valentine's Day themed chocolate piece that's the first I've worked on since being back in New York at pastry school. All decorations are hand made out of white and dark chocolate to show a variety of different chocolate modeling skills

The color on the white chocolate pieces is from a hand made transfer sheet using liquid cocoa butter colors. I used tin foil to cast the base piece and make the crinkly texture, and the shimmer on the sphere is from luster dust. The butterflies perching on the sphere and column are hand piped and attached with another bit of liquid chocolate. 

Showpieces make great table centerpieces for special events and it will last for a while depending on temperature and humidity. You could also top a wedding cake with a small chocolate sculpture or use the individual components as decorations down the side. 

Chocolate is one of those mediums with endless possibilities for creativity. In some way or another, you can make anything out of chocolate and this sculpture just barely scratches the surface of what it can do. It's sweet, decorative and makes the whole room smell like chocolate-y goodness.