The Artistic Misadventures—I’m a Sugar Sculptress

Easter is just around the corner, and recalling the hollowed out eggs dotted with frosting roses and quaint scenes inside, Panoramic Sugar Easter Eggs seemed like a fun and creative challenge.  It would involve trying two things for the first time ever.

1. Crafting with food.  

2. Following a recipe.

My expectations for the end results weren’t very high to begin with.  I found a simple recipe online and immediately saw I would need to make some replacements.  For one thing, I wouldn’t be making my own royal frosting, which required a full pound of powered sugar.  Since there would be no way in heck I’d be eating the finished product anyway, I decided to buy some pre-made cake frosting, which I like to think of as “sugar glue.”

Because the recipe called for one egg, I decided to try out a bag of “Neat Egg,” a vegan alternative made from chia seeds and garbanzo bean powder.  Following the instructions, I beat two tablespoons of water and one tablespoon of “Neat Egg” together to create a brownish lump of goo that was supposed to suffice as egg replacement, and plopped it into a mixing bowl with four cups of sugar.  At this point I deviated further from the recipe (“I don’t need food coloring, white is fine!”) and began mixing the fake egg blob into the sugar.

While mixing I began to notice a foul smell.  It was my “Neat Egg.”  I would have thought it had gone rancid except it was a new, sealed pouch with a 2017 expiration date.  It was one of those smells you can’t really ignore, and if you try to, it just gets worse.  Raiding my collection of essential oils I added a few drops of lemon, which masked the foul smell enough to continue.

Something still didn’t seem right …  my mixture was supposed to feel like moist sand, but would hold shape if squeezed into a ball.  It was then I realized I forgot to add ¾  cup of powered sugar.  Luckily, I found some organic powered sugar in the pantry. 

Organic sugar hasn’t been refined until it looks as pristine and sparkly as fresh snow, so the combination of the “Neat Egg” and organic powered sugar had turned my mixture a light grayish-tan.  Food coloring was needed after all …  but the only food coloring I had was organic food dye made from plants which made my Christmas cookies a few months back turn an abysmal grayish pink and blue.

Deciding to try my luck anyway, I let a few globular drops slither out of what I thought was the blue bottle, but as I mixed, my sugar turned a pinkish color.

The mixture was feeling more like damp sand, though I was skeptical because the egg shape collapsed at the slightest touch, I wasn’t so sure how baking the eggs would help them hold their shape. But once removed from the oven they were solid on the outside and scoopy on the inside!

Using a X-acto knife I began to hollow out the inside of the eggs, piercing the ¼ inch or so that is hardened on the outside, and scooped out the remaining wet sand … I mean sugar, leaving a ½ inch thick wall, and made a window for viewing the inside of the egg.  Using frosting as glue I adhered both sides of the egg together.

Now it was time for the fun part.   I had made a few batches of eggs, and during the time the shells were baking (20 minutes at 200°), I had plenty of time to ponder the stories I would tell inside each egg.

Laying a background of frosting in each egg I created a scene of a miniature unicorn and a pegasus flying in a purple, pink and yellow frosting sky, a deer standing in a frosting meadow full of miniature trees, and because I can’t resist the macabre — a graveyard scene with miniature headstones and a skeletal hand rising out of the purple frosting ground. 

At the end of the afternoon I had three Panoramic Sugar Eggs to add a touch of color for Easter this year … all in the name of adventure.

Clair Anna Rose will try anything twice — if it’s a craft. 

This article first appeared in the March 2016 issue of The Noise.