Sugar skull cake toppers - finished

Scrap made pretty

 

This is the DIY'ed corsage I'm going to wear. All of it except of the felt in the swallow and the sugar skull are made from left over bits and pieces I had in my boxes.

It turned out better than I imagined and I'm quite pleased.

I've really started

I have decided to make sugar skulls as cake toppers, but I'm not making it easy for myself. There are no moulds to be found on this side of the Atlantic and we don't have meringue powder either. While trying to figure out just what meringue powder is I stumbled over some sites (selling products naturally) stating using caps lock, YOU CANNOT MAKE SUGAR SKULLS WITHOUT MERINGUE POWDER. Fine, I get it, you need something to bind the sugar.

However, there are other things you can use to bind sugar so meringue powder isn't necessary. It's one thing to want to do it the way they're made in Mexico, and another thing to make a sugar paste so you can make a sugar skull. The key is the sugar and the skull shape, the rest is just... superficial. I'm going to make a sugar paste the way we make it here in this nook of the world and use it to make the skulls. No one's going to eat them or notice the difference anyway. It's going to be interesting.

I've started the cooking as well. The gumbo can be pre-made and kept in the freezer for up to three months, so it's time to start. I'm going to cook another 5 batches the coming weeks and then I'm done with the gumbo. Next thing is the tortilla bread. In July I'm going to make the meringue for the Pavlova cakes we're having and freeze them. The rest is going to be cooked the day before the wedding. It's not that much cooking to be honest, but a lot of dicing, cutting and mashing. In the morning on the wedding day cream will be whipped up for the Pavlova and we're also be making the drinks for the day.

I'm contemplating getting large plastic containers to keep the drinks in until it's supposed to be poured in to the dispensers. They are easier to store that way until it's time to drink them.

Well, it's slowly coming together with two months to go.

Skulls?

I really like Dia de Muertos. I live in a country where Halloween really isn't celebrated, though the stores try to promote it, and it's damn cold and rainy in October/November. To me the bright, sunny and colourful celebration of your ancestors as you see in Mexico is fascinating and also something to be envied. What's not to like? Colour, celebration, warm weather and skulls?

There are of course cake toppers in the Dia de Muertos theme. I'm seriously tempted.

Sugar skulls like the one above can be found on www.artfire.com.

I like the elaborate ones above but I also like the second one, which isn't a cake topper obviously. I've used her as post card motif for Dia de Muertos the past 6 years. If you pimp her a bit more she'd work really well.

Since you really can't get hold of moulds here I guess I'll need to either make a skull and make a mould or find a suitable one and make a mould. Making the sugar skulls is in itself not difficult, it's getting hold of a mould that's difficult. Well, it can be done by ordering from the US but I have a hunch that the shipping will exceed the price for the moulds far too much.

If you're in the US you can use this internet shop: www.mexicansugarskull.com.