Making Your Own
While the ready-made sugarpaste is excellent, you can, of course, make your own at home. The bonus of this is that you can then tint your paste to any colour you like using edible paste food colour (see colouring sugarpaste). This can then be dusted with edible dust food colour to intensify or soften the shade.
Sugarpaste is such a versatile modelling medium, it can be used to create an almost endless variety of cute characters.
Sugarpaste Recipe
1 Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and allow to ‘sponge’. Place over a bowl of hot water and stir with a wooden spoon until all the gelatin crystals have dissolved. Do not allow the gelatin mixture to boil.
2 Add the glycerine and glucose to the gelatin and stir until melted.
3 Add the liquid mixture to the sifted icing (confectioners’) sugar and mix thoroughly until combined.
4 Dust the work surface lightly with icing (confectioners’) sugar, then turn out the paste and knead to a soft consistency until smooth and free of cracks.
5 Wrap the sugarpaste completely in cling film or store in an airtight freezer bag. If the paste is too soft and sticky to handle, work in a little more icing (confectioners’) sugar.
Quick Sugarpaste Recipe
1 Place the egg white and liquid glucose in a clean bowl. Add the icing (confectioners’) sugar and mix together with a wooden spoon, then use your hands to bring the mixture into a ball.
2 Follow steps 4 and 5 of the above recipe for kneading and storage.
Sugarpaste for Modelling
To convert sugarpaste into modelling paste, all you need to do is add CMC (Tylose) powder (see essential purchases) to the basic recipe. The quantity needed will vary according to the temperature and humidity of the room, so you may need to experiment to get the right mix depending on the conditions you are working in. As a guide, add roughly 5ml (1tsp) of CMC (Tylose) to 225g (8oz) of sugarpaste and knead well. Place inside a freezer bag and allow the CMC (Tylose) to do its work for at least two hours. Knead the paste before use to warm it up with your hands; this will make it more pliable and easier to use.
If you need to make any modelled parts slightly firmer, for example if they need to support other parts, knead a little extra CMC (Tylose) into the sugarpaste.
Throughout this book I have used the combination of sugarpaste and CMC (Tylose) powder, and find it works very well. If you add too much CMC (Tylose) to the paste it will begin to crack, which is not desirable. Should this happen, knead in a little white vegetable fat (shortening) to soften the paste and make it pliable again.
Colouring Sugarpaste
Whether you choose to make your own, or to buy ready-made sugarpaste, the white variety of both forms can be coloured with paste food colours to provide a wonderful spectrum of shades.
Solid Colours
1 Roll the sugarpaste to be coloured into a smooth ball and run your palm over the top. Take a cocktail stick or toothpick and dip it into the paste food colour. Apply the colour over the surface of the sugarpaste. Do not add too much at first, as you can always add more if required.
2 Dip your finger into some cooled boiled water, shaking off any excess and run it over the top of the colour. This will allow the colour to disperse much more quickly into the sugarpaste.
3 Dust the work surface with icing (confectioners’) sugar and knead the colour evenly into the sugarpaste.
4 The colour will deepen slightly as it stands. If you want to darken it even more, just add more paste food colour and knead again.
Marbled Effect
1 Apply the paste food colour to the sugarpaste as directed above, but instead of working it until the colour is evenly dispersed, knead it for a shorter time to give a marbled effect.
2 You can also marble two or more colours into a sausage shape, twist them together and then roll into a ball. Again, do not blend them together too much. Cakes and boards look particularly nice when covered with marbled paste.
Tip
When colouring white sugarpaste, do not use liquid food colour as it will make the paste too sticky.
Edible food colours come in a wide variety of forms – liquid, paste, dust and even pens – all of which can be used to add colour and life to your sugarpaste models.
Painting on Sugarpaste
There are various different ways of painting on sugarpaste. The most common way is to use paste food colour diluted with some cooled boiled water, or you can use liquid food colours and gels. There are also some food colour pens available, but these tend to work better on harder surfaces. Another way is to dilute dust food colour with clear alcohol; this is particularly useful if you want it to dry quickly. Just wash your paintbrush in clean water when you have finished.
Brushes
To paint facial features I use no.00 or no.000 sable paintbrushes. The finer and better quality the brush, the better job you will make of it. To dust the cheeks of my figures I use a cosmetics brush, which has a sponge at one end and a brush at the other. For less detailed work, you can use a variety of sable brushes in different widths.
Food colour pens can be used to add quick and simple embellishments. These paintings were created with pens, as they are cleaner and easier to apply than liquid food colours.
The eyelids of this girl were dusted with Rainbow Dust sky blue edible glitter to highlight them and add interest.