The Four Seasons Sugar Sculpture

This happy girl just finished her first ever sugar sculpture! This thing has been my baby for the last few weeks. Everything you see on my sculpture is completely 100% edible. It incorporates poured sugar (the grass base and pond), rock sugar (the rock), pulled isomalt (the tree, branches, swing and icicles) and pas-silage (flowers, leaves, snowflakes, etc.). I designed the sculpture and made all the different types of sugars from scratch.

 This beauty was a huge task and when I first thought of the idea I wondered if it could be done. I thought creating a tree that displayed all four seasons might be too ambitious. But, after hours and hours of working on it, problem solving, fixing mistakes, etc. I am so proud and pleased with the end result. It is as darned near close to what I imagined as possible. And, I'm just glad it's over. :)

My finished sculpture-The Four Seasons Tree

Allowing the base to set-this was made out of poured sugar

The rock is made out of rock sugar and airbrushed with grey edible dust

Pouring the pond- also poured sugar

The tree and roots are made out of pulled sugar. This was tricky to work with because as it cools it becomes brittle and breaks really easily. So, I had to work really quickly while it was hot and malleable.

The spring branch. These flowers are made out of pas-sillage

The summer branch- The leaves are made out of pas-sillage, the swing out of pulled sugar and I dusted the rock with green edible dust to look like moss. 

The fall branch. All the leaves are made out of pas-sillage as well and glued on with royal icing.

The winter side- The icicles are pulled sugar, the snowflakes are made out of pas-sillage and the snow was made from sanding down extra pas-sillage and sifting it onto the tree.

I added a little embellishment with the green grass and leaves on the spring branch all of which was done with green royal icing.

The final product

Macarons

Mmmm... macarons! One of the cutest, most fun little pastries and everyone is a sucker for them. Am I right? But, despite how cute and delicious they are people seem to be terrified to make them. To be honest, this was my first time making them. Ever. Yes, they are imperfect and I will definitely try to fix my mistakes next time. But, I kind of like that each one has character. 

The recipe is relatively simple using very few ingredients. However, a lot of technique is involved. For that reason I am not posting the recipe on here just yet. If I get requests for it then I might consider posting a tutorial on here along with the recipe. But, for now... just enjoy these photos and dream about lovely little macarons! Have a beautiful day!

The green ones are mint, the pink ones are vanilla and they are filled with dark chocolate ganache

They should be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside making them very chewy and delicious

And, since they are so small you won't feel guilty eating five... or just round up to ten.

This is the face of a very happy recipient just after devouring a few... what a spoiled kid. :)