Sugars Class

Alright, for this I figured in order to play catch up, I will do a post dedicated to each class and give any tips or advice that I can.

Sugar Artistry

For this class, we spent the entire 9 days working on making a showpiece completely out of sugar. Sounds complicated right? Well, it is. It really is and it involves a LOT of patience and willing to scrap and start over. Needless to say, during this class, I got pretty frustrated a few times. Luckily though, I have pretty decent patience when it comes to doing things like this, making something from nothing.

Now some tips....

First off though, you need to live in an area that isn't really all that humid (sorry east cost, guess you gotta wait till winter), pretty much just dry air, and have distilled water because tap water will not make your sugar look nice.

Next, make sure you don't get anything in the sugar solution, and make sure ALL of the sugar is dissolved or it will crystallize and no one wants that. Your sugar will look like it has a disease.

I chose this image off of google images because it's also a "what not to do" kinda picture. There are two MAJOR things wrong with this image and one minor thing. The minor thing is the pot is way big, its a slow and low kind of process because you do NOT want to burn the solution. Which brings me to the 1st major thing. They are obviously on a gas stove, and their heat is WAY too high, you can tell because it's dark and caramel color on the side. That means the fire is way up and touching the sides to the point of cooking it there and thus burning it, which will ruin the WHOLE batch. And finally, you can't tell too much, but there is also sugar on the walls of the pot, having that will most likely lead to sugar crystals. You want to have a brush and some water so you can wipe down the edges if sugar is on it. (Don't worry about adding too much water, as long as you arent adding a whole cup worth, you are fine)

For blowing sugar, you need a bunch of equipment. Some form of clean flame (Bunsen burner, torch...NOT A LIGHTER), if it isn't a clean flame it will turn the sugar black. You also need a small hand pump with a long metal wand on the end to heat and attach the sugar to. And lastly, a heat lamp station. For other tools that come in handy, modeling tools (depending on what you are making), scissors, exacto knife...and lastly, a LOT of patience. Blowing sugar is difficult. You have to first make sure you attach the sugar right, because if not, it won't work. Then, when blowing sugar, you don't want to touch it a lot, but you also have to work fast so it doesn't harden too fast. Touching it will cool it off faster and harden, then you have to start over because you can't just tweak blown sugar once it's warm. It doesn't work quite like that. Plus, you want it to be even thickness, not thick in one area and thin in another. And finally, don't pump so much you crack it. Once it has a crack, you might as well start over. Things will go downhill after that, it will all just start cracking and coming apart each time you touch it.

(Blown sugar pumpkins)

And when you go to attach pieces, they NEED to be warm. You cannot attach two cold pieces with hot sugar as the glue. The hot sugar will crack/explode the cold sugar. This is a very serious thing, don't attempt that without warming all your pieces. It can be dangerous. sugar can be pretty sharp too.

Make sure you have proper dye colors. You do NOT want to use a color meant for airbrushing, or a color meant for chocolate. Make sure it specifies that you can use it on sugar. (it should say sugar color or something on the back). Also, make sure you add it at the right temp. Sugar is very much a temperature game, you need all the right temps or it will NOT work.

And finally, wear thick gloves. The sugar is VERY HOT, and you want to wear some thick gloves (no, not winter gloves, gloves that are kinda like the ones you find in the doctors office, but for chef people). Sometimes even double up on them, it helps. A lot. Believe me. The sugar gets really hot and you have to move fast so you want some form of protection.

And after that, you can have as much fun as you want, be as creative as you can possibly be!

This was my showpiece, it's Hagrid's Hut from Harry Potter with Buckbeak and some pumpkins :) It's not totally great but I am still really, really proud of this :)

Next weeks post is going to be a fun one! Cakes!!! I can't wait to share some really cool tips for you guys! (some I will demonstrate in more detailed photo tutorials sometime over the summer) Plus, If I have time, I might do two a week instead of one, until I get through all my classes and can do more tutorial type things.

Thank you guys for reading!
Also! I am now on twitter! follow me here @Mega_Cakes :)
Stay Awesome!