[project update] Sparky

[alysten]

16 cups of puffed rice, 1 lb of marshmallow, 3 eggs and 1 lb of powered sugar have been sacrificed to the project gods so far.



Here are the major structural parts: head, body and legs.  The round disks are sample pieces to be used to show the stages of sculpture creation.  This should give people an idea of what is going on behind the final sugar layer. It is roughly the same overall size as Bubba, but is far less dense.

Sugar is a fickle mistress.I know that I have one leg that needs to be "recast". I had a problem with the temperature of the marshmallow getting too hot.  It isn't setting correctly. Better to find out now than have a structural failure when it will be almost too late to actually do anything about it.

Comments

[femkederoas.livejournal.com]

I wonder, would an induction-style burner mitigate some of the issues you get in pastry, due to temp control? I know they're frequently recommended for cheese making as being far easier to maintain fine temperature control on. And individual stand-alone burners are available from Amazon for a fairly reasonable price. John has been agitating for one. It would be nice if it had another use. ;-)

[alysten.livejournal.com]

For other sugar purposes, it would be fantastic. Especially chocolate.

The second batch of crispy treats was my fault. I got 'distracted' while the marshmallow was melting and it took on too much color. This changes how the sugar binds to the cereal.

[femkederoas.livejournal.com]

Much in the way a white roux has more thickening power than a dark roux. ;-) I can certainly see that. (File away for future reference).

You are magic

[meadowsword.livejournal.com]

That is awesome and fabulous, that looks very tasty!

[estela-dufrayse.livejournal.com]

what would cooks have used in period to stuff the sugar creations/subtilties?

[alysten.livejournal.com]

It depends... Would it be edible? How big of a piece would it be? How much was the household trying to show off?

Sugar subtlety bases could literally be anything including, wax, plaster, clay, wire or wood. In some cases the base was carved sugar. Most large show pieces weren't eaten and always had a serious structural base.

Since I am not a wood carver and plaster weighs a small ton if you use a lot, I use rice cereal. It also allows me to have a bio degradable product at the end. I don't keep the pieces I make and the sugar isn't recyclable into other projects.

[estela-dufrayse.livejournal.com]

very cool!