Day of the Dead DIY #6: Sugar Skulls Part II

Part two of sugar skull making is the best part: decorating your sugar skull after making colorful frosting!

What you'll need:

-meringue powder

-powdered sugar

-water

-concentrated paste food coloring
-pastry bags

What to do:

1. Mix 2/3 cups water, 1/2 cup meringue powder, and 2 pounds powdered sugar with an electric mixer until icing peaks (takes 9 minutes or so). Keep in a tightly covered container and do not refrigerate.

2. Scoop some icing into a cup and begin mixing with your food coloring.

3. Scoop your colorful icing into a pastry bag (it helps to cut the tip slightly so you can squeeze the icing into the tip while letting air out).

4. Begin "drawing" on your sugar skull with your pastry bag.
5. Use your icing as "glue" for other cool decorations like sequins, feathers, and foil!
5. Let your decorated skulls dry until the icing is hard.  Now your skulls are ready to share!

Here are some images from our sugar skull workshop on Saturday - we'll be hosting sugar skull workshops every Saturday from 12-2pm until Dia de los Muertos!

Don't forget to check out our how to win a Sugar Skull Workhop for up to 30 students! 

Day of the Dead DIY #5: Sugar Skulls Part I

DoD DIY #5 is the most traditional craft yet: sugar skulls! In this tutorial, we'll be creating the "bare bones" (no pun intended) of sugar skulls.

What you'll need:

-merengue powder

-granulated sugar

-a large bowl

-water

-sugar skull molds (buy them here)

-powdered sugar

-concentrated paste food coloring

-disposable pastry bags (for icing)

What to do:

1. For every cup of sugar, mix in 1 teaspoon of merengue powder and sprinkle 1 teaspoon of water on top.

2. Work the mixture together with your fingers until it feels like "cool beach sand".

3. Fill the molds (for the front and the back) with sugar and flatten the backs by scraping off the excess sugar.

4. Let them dry for a few hours until the top is hard enough to the touch.

5. Scoop out 2 spoonfulls of the center of the round parts of each mold, so they dry thoroughly for a few hours. Flip the molds and cardboard upside down so the sugar skulls drop safely onto the piece of cardboard or thick paper.

6. Let them dry for a few hours until the top is hard enough to the touch.

7. For the royal icing, you'll need powdered sugar, merengue powder, and water. Why icing? to "cement" the two halves together and to decorate!

8. Mix 2/3 cups water, 1/2 cup merengue powder, and 2 pounds powdered sugar with an electric mixer until icing peaks (takes 9 minutes or so). Keep in a tightly covered container and do not refrigerate.

9.  Add 2-3 ounces of icing to pastry bags. Squeeze to cement the two halves of your sugar skull together.
10. Next we decorate our skulls!  Stay tuned for next week's Sugar Skulls Part 2.

Tip: Make sure you create your sugar skulls in a dry area. Sugar skulls hate the humidity (like most San Diegans right now)!

Don't forget to sign up for our weekly sugar skull classes! We'll be offering them every Saturday from 12-2pm starting tomorrow--call us at 619-544-1011 to RSVP

Day of the Dead DIY #1: Sugar Skull Jell-O Shots

Here is our first of 60 Day of the Dead themed DIY's that we'll be doing for the next two months until the big celebration: Skull Jell-O Shots!  Family friendly tip: leave out the alcohol and these are perfect for the whole family!

We took simple sugar skull molds and turned them into delicious, tequila filled Jell-O shots that are perfect for a Day of the Dead themed party! Here's what we used:

-Jell-O (any flavor will do)

-sugar skull molds (you can buy these at Casa Artelexia in different sizes)

-alcohol of your choice (we used tequila, of course!)

What to do:

1. Following the directions on the back of the Jell-O boxes, add 2 cups of boiling water to the Jell-O mix and stir for two minutes until completely dissolved. Stir 1 cup of cold water and 1 cup of tequila  into the mix. 

2. Pour your different Jell-O mixes into the sugar skull molds. 

3. Refrigerate for a few hours (the boxes recommend 4 hours until firm).

4. Remove the Jell-O shots from their molds! (tip - run the molds under warm water to help loosen the skulls from the molds).

Buy the sugar skull molds here