the haunted castle

so fun with pastillage is next on the menu. if you haven't used it yet, may i suggest you do so immediately? besides being fun to play with, it lends itself to a variety of very valuable uses. i'm most eager to use it to create a cake stand as well as decor for a cake board or two. it's a sugar-based dough that dries very hard and will be quite sturdy and durable. it can even be sanded to remove sharp edges and uneven surfaces. traditionally, it is left white, and then airbrushed (should you so desire color). though you can work swiftly and add some gel color, knead it in and work with your pastillage that way as well. you can also paint it with color dust and some vodka or extract.

but making and cutting the pieces themselves? given the fact that it begins to dry VERY quickly, you MUST have your plan, your templates, your supplies, etc. completely set up and ready to use otherwise, you will struggle. it begins to form a dry "skin" on the surface within several minutes so i'm not kidding when i say you have to have a plan, you have to work efficiently and quickly in order to successfully work with pastillage.

my teammate and i had our plan and templates all set! we elected to do a haunted castle. it was a great working relationship because neither one of us was interested in make a pretty, princess-y type castle. we used the temperament of the pastillage to our advantage as well, knowing that a haunted castle is a bit run-down and old, so we allowed for cracks, rough surfaces and uneven windows, etc. for as difficult as it may be to make everything perfect and even and smooth, it is EQUALLY as challenging to make things cracked, uneven and ...haunted! but it was all intentional...and A LOT of fun!!

we textured some of the surfaces with a snake skin or houndstooth pattern.

we added vines, dusted gum paste jewels, crowns, and pieces of rock/brick wall.

my favorite thing was sewing the roof closed with some gum paste vine. possibilities are basically only limited by your own imagination.

we also got to play with some sugar in order to make a very cool base and extra decorations for our castle.

we added color, poured it on the silpat, swirled in some additional, contrasting color and allowed it to cool.

they looked like giant, evil lollipops. perfect base for the castle!

when all was said and done, it looked like a pretty cool, sugary-sweet haunted castle.

*Tip: use PVC pipe and large wooden dowels to form your cylinders of pastillage. once they dry for a day or two, you can slide them right off (remember, it's sturdy stuff!) and they stand straight, tall and evenly on your surface!

more to come!

xo

m