Sugar is an amazing medium, the chemistry of this ubiquitous molecule is far more complicated than anyone could have imagined. Sugar can be used to recreate practically anything! It can be moulded to look like stone, it can be cast to look like crystal, it can be blown like glass, and smoothed to look like skin! However, no form of sugarwork is as versatile or magical as cooked sugar!
A solution of sugar and water, when boiled to the correct degree can be manipulated into so many different forms that it defies belief. The most usual form that I use is pulled sugar. The sugar syup is boiled to about 150 celcius, then poured onto an oiled marble slab, and while still hot it is picked up and repeatedly stretched by hand until a fine form of crystalisation is induced. At this point the crystals are so small that they reflect light and the effect is amazing. After a little kneading (called "Pearling" after the effect it causes) the sugar mass is ready to use, and as long as it is kept warm it can be woven into baskets, manipulated to make flowers, bottles, animals, leaves or quite literally any shape that I want. As soon as the sugar cools it goes hard and the shape is set into 100% edible scupltures.
Cooked sugar sculptures are very sensitive to humidity, as once transformed into the "glassy" state, sucrose is very attractive to moisture in the air (the usual crystalline form is much less so). Often sugar sculptures are kept sealed in glass cases, in which case they keep for several weeks; however on celebration cakes sugar provides a very dramatic and cost effective way of getting noticed, and, since the average birthday party doesn't last for more than one day sugar (usually) is a great way to get effects that quite simply can't be done in any other way. How else could you get a brightly coloured ribbon that you can eat? a model of your favourite engine? your favourite teddy bear? a pair of lovebirds? a basket of flowers and to be honest, anything you could possibly imagine, reproduced quickly on top of your cake.
Cooked sugarwork is a true artform in the confectionery world. I have been cooking sugar since I was 17 and am lucky to have benefited from the training and advice of some of the U.K's most decorated sugar workers. I have created sugarpieces for some of London's most prestigious hotels and been awarded at international level (including a Gold medal at the Salon Culinaire International de Londres 1998). One of my most treasured occasions was being able to produce petit fours centrepieces for HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's 99th Birthday lunch whilst working at Claridge's in 1999, I am proud to continue the long (and now rare) tradition of true sugarwork and can trace the skills handed down to me through three generations of pastrychefs. Many sugar workers now use the modern alternative Isomalt, which, whilst offering advantages in longevity of the sculpture has drawbacks in terms of fragility and also involves less skill in the cooking stages of the process - Sugar is a temperamental beast and this is half the fun of the job, if it was too easy it wouldn't be half as much fun, this is why I use only pure cane sugar.
