Trick or Treat! Cute Witch Tutorial

Episode 4 weekly hints and tips

Who couldn’t resist giving this little cutie lots of Halloween treats! Perched on top of her very own pumpkin with a happy grin.

You will need

Edibles:

80g sugarpaste: brown

Saracino pasta model: (24g skintone; 60g light green; 30g brown; 210g orange; 20g; 150g black)

Edible glue

Cornflour puff

Saracino dust colours: yellow; orange; brown; rose

4mm dragees x 2: Drageekiss black

Equipment:

Small rolling pin

Small sharp knife

Palette knife

No.8 filbert paintbrush

Scissors

No. 0 round silicone shaper (cerart) (available in my shop on the website)

Hard point silicone shaper (cerart) (available in my shop on the website)

Large celpin

Dresden (PME)

Cake Dutchess modelling tool set (or look at the shape and use a similar tool)

15cm cake drum

Scalpel

Kebab wooden skewer

5.5cm diameter polystyrene ball

celpad

The pumpkins

1. Pin the brown sugarpaste straight onto the damp round cake drum. Trim the excess from the edge and texture firmly with a nailbrush. Reserve the trimmed paste.

2. Use a sharp knife to cut a hollow slightly narrower than the top of the polystyrene ball.

3. Roll out 170g of orange Saracino and cover the polystyrene ball with the hollow at the top. Blend the seams underneath and create the hollow with a celpin.

Tip

The paste will adhere to the polystyrene either by brushing with water or with piping gel.

4. Roll the celpin around the ball, leaning into the paste to create the hollows. Blend the joins at the base and smooth.

5. Add as many segments as you wish using the celpin. Use the narrow end of the Dresden to enhance them.

6. Smooth over the grooves with a small bone tool. Create the stalk from a mushroom shape of 2.5g of the brown sugarpaste and press the wide end into place in the hollow. Mark the grooves with the Dresden tool.

7. Create a small pumpkin from 40g of Saracino by first rolling into a ball, then creating the indents with a narrow paintbrush handle. Use 1g of brown sugarpaste to make the stalk as before.

Witches body

8. Roll two legs from black Saracino. Each leg is to be 10cm long and weigh 2g. Repeat to make two arms, this time 6cm long each and weighing 1.5g each. Roll out light green Saracino and cut narrow strips as in the image. Wrap around the arms and legs and roll to fix.

Tip - Saracino that is still soft does not need edible glue to stick to itself.

9. Create the body using 28g of light green Saracino rolling to a sausage measuring 5cm tall and 2.5cm wide. Roll out black Saracino and cut narrow stripes. Wrap around the body and trim the excess. Roll the body to blend.

Creating the Skirt

10. Thinly roll out more light green Saracino and cut a strip 24cm long by 1cm wide. Place on a celpad and use the orange Cake Dutchess tool wide end to press onto the paste and pull. This will leave a frill-like texture. Leave to rest while you complete the next stage.

11. Roll out 50g of black Saracino to 25cm long and minimum of 7cm wide (we will trim this to size shortly). Place on top of the green frill and press to attach. Find three similar width handles and create the pleats by sliding one handle underneath the paste and placing a handle on top either side, the gently press the outer handles and slide towards the middle. (See image). Repeat along the length of the paste.

Tip

Work quickly when creating the pleats, but if the paste begins to dry out, gently warm with a hair dryer

12. Gently tighten the pleats by pushing the paste together and trim with a smooth bladed knife. Reserve the trimmed sections without damage in order to create the back of the skirt.

13. Bend the two legs one third of the way down and place onto the pumpkin. Place the body on top and push a wooden skewer down through the polystyrene ball.

Safety Tip

Cut the skewer to slightly longer than needed and push a brightly coloured spare piece of paste on top.

14. Lightly brush edible glue around the waist band and gently wrap the skirt around, pressing gently into place. Cut to fit with the scissors and add the reserved pleated black paste at the back if there is a gap. Roll a narrow sausage of black Saracino as a waistband and use the narrow end of the orange Cake Dutchess tool to press into the waistband above each pleat.

15. Use the cone end of the green Cake Dutchess tool and create a hollow to fix the arm into. Roll 1.5g of skin Saracino into a sausage and fix into place for the neck.

16. Pinch the arms over at the top as in the image and cut each to 6cm long. Create the hands from 1g of skin Saracino each. Roll to a double ended cone and slightly flatten one end. Use a scalpel to cut away a wedge to separate the thumb and pinch the top to a point. Hollow the end of the arms and press the hand into place. Lift as in the image.

17. Glue inside the arm sockets and fix the arms into place with the palms down on the pumpkin.

Making the Cape

18. Roll out 50g of black Saracino and cut out the cloak as in the template. Turn over and curl back the straight sides. Use a handle to lift pleats from the curved side.

19. Glue slightly around the shoulders and wrap the cloak around. Use the handles to lift the cloak up and give movement.

20. Thinly pin out more black Saracino and cut very narrow strips. Attach two as strings at the opening of the cloak. Bend two more into loops and attach with edible glue. Press the paintbrush handle onto the knot area to fix. Cut out the collar as in the template.

21. Glue around the base of the neck and add the collar with the straight side at the bottom. Curl back the fronts.

The Boots

22. Cut any excess off the legs and pinch to a point. Cut 1g of black Saracino and half and roll each into a ball. Open up the ball with the pointed end of the green Cake Dutchess tool and place the tool back inside, pressing against the work board repeatedly to create the frilly sock shape in the image. Roll 1.2g of black Saracino into a pointed cone, press the knife end in for the heel. Repeat for the other boot.

23. Fix the sock onto the base of the legs. Push the cone tool into the top of the shoe, glue and push the sock into the shoe. Fix in place against the pumpkin with a little edible glue.

Head

24. Roll 20g of skin Saracino into a slight egg shape. Press the handle of the no.0 round Cerart tool. Smooth over the tool lines with fingertips.

25. Stroke to lift up a little paste to form the nose. Round off with the no.0 round tool. Smooth over with fingers.

(Available in my online shop)

26. Gently push the hard point tool in for the nostrils.

(Available in my online shop)

27. Push the two black dragees in for the eyes, first with a finger, then firmly into place with the no.0 round tool.

28. Open the mouth by pushing the wide end of the Dresden gently into the face first of all straight, then tilt from side to side to create the straight line of the upper lip.

29. Fill the mouth with a small banana shape of black Saracino. Use the Dresden tool to smooth it into place.

30. Roll a tiny sausage of white Saracino and press against the underside of the top lip. Indent the corners of the mouth with the broad end of the Dresden.

Hair

31. Roll a ball of 21g of brown Saracino and hollow so that the head can sit in the hollow. Roll the bunches from 4.5g each of brown Saracino in the shapes as in the picture. Cut 1g of light green Saracino in half and roll two balls of paste.

32. Gently push the head into the hollowed brown paste and press into place to fix. Narrow the chin by pressing either side at the base. Mark the two lines either side of the mouth by stroking with the no.0 round tool, then stroke around the lower part of the mouth to create the lip. Add eye lashes using tiny teardrops of black Saracino.

Tip

To attach tiny pieces of paste, glue the area they are to fix to, and lift the paste into place with a damp paintbrush

33. Push the head onto the skewer allowing the skewer to go all the way through for support. Use the Cake Dutchess cone tool to create hollows where the hair bunches will go. Roll the green balls into teardrops, insert into the hole and hollow those before pushing the bunches into place.

34. Add tendrils to frame the face and a fringe from narrow sausages of brown saracino.

35. Trim off the excess kebab skewer. Dust the lips and cheeks with saracino rose dust and a no.8 filbert brush. Dust the smooth segments of the pumpkin with yellow. Dust the indentations first with an orange and red mix, then with brown at the base.

Hat

36. Roll 43g of black Saracino into a broad cone shape.

37. Press down the lower third of the cone to broaden and continue to flatten against the work board to create the brim of the hat. Trim the brim to a circular shape with a scalpel. Bend over the tip of the hat and add indentations for character.

38. Hollow out the inside of the hat so that it fits over our little witches head and fix into place with a little edible glue.

Tutorial first seen on the Saracino website 2018