Posted by: Alysten on: February 1, 2012
Manus Christi, or “the hand of Christ”, was a confection used as a preventative, similar to a vitamin. There are many different recipes some which include crushed pearls, cinnamon, flower essence, gemstones, gold and silver leaf.1 In the 16th century Manus Christi was a delicate crystallized sugar wafer, flavored with rose water. But more importantly, [...]
Posted by: Alysten on: January 31, 2012
The documentation for “Mungo, the water horse” has been updated to fit within the 3 page maximum page requirement. This is the documentation that will accompany the physical water horse subtlety, which is being submitted as a “sculpture”. I am not counting title page, toc, bibliography, recipes or glossary as part of the documentation. There [...]
Posted by: Alysten on: December 9, 2011
It was a spectacularly bad week for poured sugar. The chess board that I poured, allowed to dry and packaged up, went very south. When I noticed some of the lollipops had gone form clear to cloudy I went to check on the chess board. This is what I was greeted with. It started like [...]
Posted by: Alysten on: November 30, 2011
The last few posts have been about the poured sugar projects I have been working on for our Yule event Dec 3, 2011. Many different things can effect sugar work. Humidity, stirring and undissolved sugar crystals getting into the mixture as it cooks. Even the best, most prepared cooks can run into problems when working [...]
Posted by: Alysten on: November 29, 2011
The piece for feast has been mostly completed. Depending on the weather, I will decide whether to pour a top coat or just leave it as is. It is pretty humid and the sugar is absorbing moisture. This is causing weeping and severe crystallization. This second piece is based upon our menu scroll for feast. [...]
Posted by: Alysten on: November 28, 2011
Boiled sugar is an amazingly temperamental and often persnickety thing. It goes through stages. First it comes to a boil and hangs out at about 220° F for several minutes. This first boil is critical. If you do not keep it off the sides, you will end up with crystallization. If you stir the boiling [...]
