Sugar Sculptures

For the past few years my family has religiously watched the Food Network. My father and mother tend to watch Rachael Ray, the Barefoot Contessa, and other cooking shows while my younger sister and I love to watch Iron Chef and the Food Network Challenges.  One of my favorite Challenges is the sugar sculpture one that usually appears around the holidays.  

I've always considered food preparation and display as an art form, but sugar sculpture is one of the most beautiful food 'mediums' to work with.  

Sugar Sculpture is basically the art of creating centerpieces entirely composed of sugar and/or sugar derivatives.  Showpieces are usually made up of several various sugar elements, but it all basically comes down to cooking sugar to the hard crack stage, about 300 degrees Fahrenheit, so that it can hold molded shapes.  The completed shapes are then welded together using a gas torch.

  

There are several types of sugar used to create sculptures.  The NationMaster-Encyclopedia website details them as follows:

Pulled sugar

Once the sugar has been cooked, the now-liquid sugar is poured onto a silicon mat. Any coloring is now added. The sugar is then folded repeatedly into itself, until the sugar is, while still flexible, cool enough to handle. The sugar is then stretched out and then folded on itself repeatedly. This process incorporates air into the sugar, and gives it a bright lustery sheen. The sugar can then be sculpted by hand into various shapes, made into ribbons, or blown.

Blown sugar

In blown sugar, a portion of pulled sugar is placed on a rubber pump which is tipped with either wood or metal. Pumps are most commonly hand pumps. The sugar is then blown, much like the technique used in glassblowing. While being blown, the sugar can be shaped, often into animals or flowers. Unlike glass, blown sugar cannot be dipped in water to quickly cool it down, and chefs must use fans to cool the sugar, all the while rotating it so that it does not come out of shape.

Cast sugar

In this technique, sugar is poured into molds. This technique produces more sturdy pieces than pulled and blown sugar, and is almost always used for the base and structural elements of showpieces.

Pastillage

A thick sugar paste, similar to frosting, is molded into shapes. When dried, it is hard and brittle.

Pressed sugar

Granulated sugar is mixed with a minimum amount of water, and is put under pressure. It hardens into a solid piece. Though this is used for showpiece bases, it is less often used because of the time required to produce it, and its lesser aesthetic value.

Rock Sugar

The liquid sugar is blended with a small amount of royal icing. The heat from the sugar causes the air incorporated in the icing to rapidly expand, causing the mixture to grow to several times its original volume. The mixture is quickly poured into a lined dish, and placed into a blast chiller to set. This process produces a sugar mass with the texture of volcanic pumice, the color of which is determined by the color of the sugar syrup.

All of this information can be found at it's original source on   

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Sugar-sculpture

I find this medium fascinating because it is so incredibly difficult to work with.  Molten sugar is not only dangerous, it is difficult to contain and shape and it is frightfully fragile once it hardens.  Sugar Sculptures are also exceedingly beautiful, at least to me, and come in an endless variety of colors, shapes, and sizes.  Here are a few sugar sculptures: