Making Sugar Showpieces | Part of the Pastry Final at NWCAV

As you can see from the sketch, I planned to create:

• a brick wall with a chimney, fire, logs, and smoke
  
• a mantel with stockings
• a 3-dimensional Christmas tree with star
  
• presents wrapped with ribbons
  
• a wreath with berries and ribbon
  
• a snow globe with a snowman
• and train tracks around the living room set with square cars on them to hold the chocolates that we each had made over the previous 2 days (also part of our exam).

To make solid foundations and structures, you first create what is called Casting Sugar (aka Pulling Sugar) which is a combination of sugar, water, glucose, and citric acid that is boiled to the exact temperature of 154ºC (309ºF)–color can be added to the mixture but only when it reaches 138ºC (280ºF). Once you take the boiling sugar off of the heat, you immediately pour it into prepared molds. I had previously rolled out plastercine and traced and cut out the shapes I needed. To begin, I poured the floor, walls, chimney, and mantel, presents and star. You need to be really organized to know what color to prepare first, what shapes you need to assemble, and how much casting sugar you need of each color...otherwise, you can waste a lot of time making more of one color or re-doing a cutout that you shouldn't have poured a certain color into!

I was off to a shaky start because one batch of casting sugar crystallized. When this happens, it doesn't stay glossy and starts to turn white and brittle. Working with sugar is tricky. The exact temperatures and amounts need to be followed in the recipe. Sometimes crystallization can occur from having impurities or too much/too little citric acid in the mixture. I also discovered that it is really difficult to pour the boiling sugar into small shapes. It is hard to control the rate in which the mixture pours out of the pot and it can make a big mess out of the molds. I found out that it would be near to impossible to pour the train tracks and decided I would try an alternate method and "pull" them when I got to that stage.

A thermometer must be used when you are making casting or pulling sugar. After dropping 2 thermometers into the boiling sugar mixtures and destroying each, Chef Christophe looked at me, chuckled, and said, "Don't you know the slotted spoon trick yet"? You would think after 8 months of school, I had figured that one out on my own! :) Just insert the digital thermometer through a slotted spoon and hold THAT over the pot...this way, you don't melt your fingers and your thermometer at the same time!

The Christmas tree may look like it is hard to make but it's not. You simply take Casting Sugar and drizzle it with a spoon into zig-zag shapes onto parchment that have traced-out rounds that progressively get smaller. Once all the rounds have hardened, you start stacking them until the smallest one is on top - it turns into a tree very quickly!

I wound up pulling the other items on the showpiece and overall it looked okay...but I wish I wouldn't have been so rushed and would have been able to make each item look a little more delicate. It was great fun even though I had to compromise and make changes along the way.