Sugarwork

Chef Luigi's Deep Sea Sugarwork

This is a particularly hard post for me to do, being the final write up of my LCB experience, which only partially exonerates my procrastination in uploading this more than 3 6 9 10 months after the fact. It was a bittersweet lesson, making sweet sugarwork on our last day of school. But it must be done and proceed we shall.

Blown Sugar Swan & Satiny Rose

Behold the above objectives of the day: impressive and intimidating-looking swans and roses. Fingers crossed I will be producing more than just burnt fingers by the end of class.

Raw Isomalt

All sugar sculptures begin life as Isomalt, a naturally occurring sugar alcohol derived from beets (nasty stuff if you ask me), often used by diabetics for their low calorie count and minimal impact on the blood sugar level. Calorific concerns aside (don't even get me started on the after effects such as flatulence and diarrheah), it is isomalt's unique malleable property which makes it more suitable for sugar work than pure sugar per se.

Boiling Colored Isomalt To 170°C - 180°C

Arresting In Ice Water To Halt Cooking Process

To get isomalt into working condition it is first melted down over very high heat, a process during which one's color of choice may be added for the desired result. The first showpiece being that of aquatic life, seaweed green and oceanic blue are applied.

"Corals" Cast In Alcohol

"Bubbles" Cast On Crumpled Greaseproof Paper

"Casting" isomalt simply means pouring it into a beaker of alcohol or onto greaseproof paper to set. In contact with the former, a chemical reaction results in gas bubbles erupting in the setting isomalt, and a coral effect is thus achieved. On the latter, a flat sheet emerges which can then be used as a base, backdrop or indeed any part of a showpiece as you see fit.

Smooth & Motif-ed

Isomalt Cast In Raw Isomalt

Melting & Fusing Isomalt Pieces Together

The ends of each piece are dipped into a pot of still hot-as-hell molten isomalt to melt before being fused together.

With the deep sea set complete, Chef Luigi proceeds to create a fish out of blown sugar, a common sugar work process also employed in the making of our beautiful swan.

Pulling (Hot!) Isomalt For Aeration, Elasticity & Sheen

Once the isomalt has been brought to temper and cast, the pulling process begins. This must be done while the isomalt is still hellishly hot and pliable, pulled and pulled again over and into itself, trapping precious air bubbles in the process. It is this progressive build up of tiny air bubbles which gives the worked isomalt its opaque, glossy sheen and improved elasticity, a prized quality in the sugar-blowing process.

Heating Sugar Pump For An Airtight Adherence To Isomalt

Pulling The End To Form The Swan's Head & Neck

A special pump is heated and fused airtight to one end of the pulled isomalt, to ensure when pumped, no air escapes and an even expansion occurs within. Next, one end of the isomalt is carefully pulled and stretched to form the neck of the swan.

Then the blowing commences. This is a controlled process, much as size and ego go, as blowing the body up too much will eventually crack the isomalt and the process will have to be repeated again.

Pumping (& Plumping) Up The Body

Cooling Down To Set

"Feathers" Made By Casting Pulled Isomalt In Leaf Molds

Fusing On Wing & Tail "Feathers"

Let's see the entire process in slow motion, shall we?

Chef Karen Pulling Isomalt 

With Her Pair Of Handy Dandy Dish Washing Gloves!

The "La Mien" Technique For Better Aeration & Sheen

Spray Painting Blown Isomalt Fish

Pulled Isomalt Coils

Once the pulled and blown isomalt has been worked into shape and enhanced with features such as feathers and tails, the finishing touches are added; in the case of our aquatic friend, it is spray painted with various colors to finally bring it to life.

Isomalt can also be worked and shaped like normal sugar, molded into leaves or twisted around a knife sharpener into coils. The possibilities are endless.

Pondering About The Wonders Of Isomalt

3 Chefs A Merry Party Makes

One More Groupie Pic

Break times are dearly cherished: the precious minutes between demo and kitchen are usually spent catching up on gossip or some last minute z's, or grabbing a bite and a quick hit of java before entering the kitchen, where theory becomes practical.

My Swan! Can't Believe I Pulled It Off

This being the last class, I decided I could either go big or go home. So rather than attempt the "easier" satin rose, I opted for the more challenging swan, and set about blowing and pulling the sugar, half convinced I wouldn't be able to pull it off - "pull" it off, get it? Bada-boom.

Hey presto, not only did I not fail miserably, I actually managed to produce a rather respectable looking bird. Not bad for a sugar novice, eh? :)

Complete With A Butt Hole :p

Chef Luigi's Kitchen Extra: Sweet, Shiny Ribbon

Pulling & Fusing Together Colored Isomalt

More Pulling For A Beautiful Sheen

Snipping Off Loops, Piling Them On

Building The Ribbon, Loop By Shiny Loop

Have You Ever Seen A Prettier Off Cut?

Sweet Centerpiece

One Last Pizza Party

Story Of My Life

Special Occasion Fruit Cake, Sugar Decoration, Royal Icing

Chef Gert & Chef Keith's Wedding Masterpieces

Chef Andre & Chef Gert's Teddies

Today's decorated fruitcake is a juxtaposition of the old, the new and the timeless. Fruitcakes have been around since ancient Rome, when pomegranate, pine nuts and raisins were mixed into barley mash and baked (not very appetizing, is it?). In the Middle Ages, honey, spices and preserved fruits were thrown in and the name "fruitcake" was born.

Coupled with this the modern take on cake decorating, where colorful and easy-to-use sugar pastes allow a chef's creativity to reach new heights, and patrons find endless inspirations from a favourite comic character for a child's birthday to edible models of a couple on their wedding day, possibilities are endless for both inspired chefs and delighted customers alike.

Baked Fruitcake, Patched With 66% Marzipan, Glazed With Apricot Jam

Despite the long baking time, our fruitcakes did not burn, thanks to Chef Keith's advice to insulate them with up to 8 layers of silicon paper all around, and a crowning piece the end of baking. The cake came out moist, amber gold and smelled an absolute high (from the brandy, that is). A thin coat of jam binds the marzipan to the cake, which at 66% almond content tastes vastly superior to cheaper versions and is therefore the perfect paste to coat and smooth the cake with, not to mention good enough to eat on its own!

Rolling Out Marzipan, Wrapping Fruitcake For Smooth Surface

Covering Cake With RTR, "Sandpapering" For Smooth Surface

RTR or Ready To Roll is a commercial sugar paste that is a dream to use: unlike fondant or marzipan which absorbs too much moisture from the air and gets all sticky on you, RTR reminds dry, pliable and a sheer joy to work with. Brings to mind our croquembouche and I wonder why we weren't given RTR to make the decorative flowers with then.

Cake covered and smoothed, it is now a ready canvas on which you may add any decoration your imagination dictates. Chef Gert finished up Chef Keith's design of the cake started yesterday and shared with us some tricks of his own along the way.

Gluing On Columns & Flowers With Icing Sugar

Edging Cake Frills, Leaving Onto Side Of The Pot To Dry & Harden

 Weddings Are Always Better With Cake

As with all fruitcakes I've been given in the past (and unable to dispose of without offending the gifter) I took a teensy weensy bite of chef's cake and by golly was it good! I did not taste any overly sweet dried fruit, all I picked up was a Bang! In-Ya-Face hit of brandy and I immediately fell in love with fruitcake for the first time! Sure the fruits and nuts provided moisture, texture and crunch, but it was the heat of that brandy going up my nose that had me going back for more. Happy Hour at 10 in the morning? Bring it on, I say!

My Porcelain Flower & Butterfly Fruitcakes

I kept my cakes simple that's how I like them: not only are they easy to slice, there is also far less of the sugary stuff around to distract from the cake. That said, I wouldn't mind making a decorative cake again, this time with a more complicated design to try my hand at. 

Have a look at what the other (more creative) guys and gals in my class did!

Lily & Sunny's Pretty-In-Pink Creations

Jing's Octopus, Smital's Sleeping Baby

Erica's Baby Converse, Matin's Sunflower

Jo Ann's 2 Tier Wedding Cake!