The Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is a holiday celebrated in Mexico to welcome the spirits of loved ones into homes. Sugar skulls, calaveras de azucar, are skulls made from sugar poured into skull molds or molded by hand. They are placed at the cemetery or on a home altar to honor the deceased. Candles, incense, marigolds and an assortment of foods are placed on the altars with the sugar skulls. Make your own folk art sugar skulls to celebrate the Day of the Dead. Paint them with traditional Mexican designs and colors and add personal characteristics and names if desired.
Instructions
1. Make the icing. Separate three egg yolks from the whites in a glass bowl. Store the yolks in the refrigerator for future use. Mix 1/2 tsp. of cream of tartar with the egg whites with an electric mixer until peaks form. Fold in 1 lb. of powdered sugar a little at a time, blending by hand with a spoon.
2. Separate the icing into individual plastic storage containers with a spoon and add food coloring to attain desired colors of icing. Mix the icing well to distribute the colors. Use vivid colors along with black for traditional Mexican style. Cover the containers until ready for use.
3. Add each color of icing to a plastic storage bag. Snip one corner of each bag to allow icing to flow smoothly. Make a small cut diagonally across the corner to start, and increase the size of the hole if needed for a smooth flow.
4. Squeeze the icing onto the skull, creating eyes, mouths and noses by drawing with the corner of the bag. Create dots of color for the eyes. Draw straight smiles for the mouth, or draw the teeth using vertical rectangles with rounded edges. Make dots or triangles for the noses.
5. Paint on swirls, circles and flowers as decorative designs on the cheeks, foreheads and back of the heads. Surround the eyes with a rounded flower petal designs and paint hearts on the cheeks. Be creative with your designs. Floral and vining designs are popular motifs for Day of the Dead skulls
6. Add personal characteristics such as glasses and hair, if desired.
Tags: personal characteristics, plastic storage, sugar skulls, traditional Mexican, with rounded, with spoon