Calaveras De Dulces ( Mexican Sugar Skulls)

Total Time: 48 hrs Preparation Time: 48 hrs

Ingredients

• 1 egg (essential for hardening of the sugar)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 7 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 cups cornstarch
• vanilla extract or anise extract or cinnamon extract (if you plan on eating these) (optional)
• food coloring (i like the new neon colors)

Recipe

• 1 you will also need sequins, for decorating the eyes.
• 2 combine the egg and water until foamy.
• 3 add extract (if using) and corn syrup.
• 4 add confectioners sugar; you'll end up having to use your hands to incorporate all of it.
• 5 sprinkle 1 cup of the cornstarch on a work surface and knead the sugar paste in the cornstarch until it's smooth.
• 6 form a ball and wrap it up tightly in plastic wrap; chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
• 7 pinch off some of the sugar paste to use with food coloring for decorations.
• 8 with the rest of the paste you should have enough for about 8 skulls; they don't have to be very big, less than the size of a small fist.
• 9 sculpt the piece of sugar paste into a skull shape, smoothing the surface as you go and forming eye sockets, etc.
• 10 (you can find some really good examples on various sites on the internet--).
• 11 you'll find that the paste gets softer and softer the warmer it gets-- if it sticks too much, add more cornstarch.
• 12 add food colors (and extracts, if using) to the sugar paste that you set aside; generally the brighter the colors the better.
• 13 if you wish, you can add enough water to form more of an icing and it can be squeezed onto the skulls, if not, forming decorations by hand is okay, too.
• 14 the skulls are generally"cheery" looking and colorful, not particularly scary.
• 15 finish by using sequins in the eye sockets.
• 16 now your skull is ready to dry.
• 17 simply let it sit out in a dry, warm place for a few hours or up to a couple of days based on weather conditions.
• 18 when dry, it's ready to display.