How To Make Sugar Animals

We're now going to make some sugar paste animals, and right now, we're going to show you a pair of snakes, and snakes can be nice to decorate a jungle-themed cake. The beauty of snakes, too, is that they're very simple. You're going to take a section of your color choice of sugar paste.

In this case, we're going to do yellow. Break off a piece and you're just going to roll just like you used to do in reception class. Just roll the body of the snake, just as if it were a tail.

But make sure to make the head section a bit bigger than the tail section. Put it on the board to make it nice and even. If you find that you're getting fingerprints in it, just use a little bit less pressure.

Make sure you get a smooth finish. Now, you're going to pinch to put in the eye sockets and the head shape. Make a nice squiggly shape on the snake.

In this case, we're going to decorate with some black to give the snake markings. Take a little pinch of the black and make it into little balls for spots. Then just repeat this, a bunch of times.

You find that when you get the hang of it, it goes very quickly. As you go down the body of the snake, you can choose if you want to make the spots a little bit smaller, right down to the very tip of the tail. It gets a little bit difficult to make a very tiny ball, but give it a go.

Now, we're going to make some eyeballs. You'll find that if you space the eyes close together, it will look more realistic. Then you're going to want to make a tongue, so take a bit of red and roll it out.

Take some precision to make a tiny little fork at the tip of the tongue. You may have to use the back of the blade of the knife to pick up the tongue so you don't squash it with your finger. Then place it right under the snake and give it a little pinch so it adheres, and make sure the forks are separated.

Make little holes for the nose, and then you have a realistic snake. Now, we're going to show you another sugar paste animal. This time we're going to show you an elephant.

So you need to start with a fairly large chunk of gray sugar paste, and of course, you can choose the shade of gray that you'd like. First, we're going to cut off a bit for the head. The head and the trunk are all going to be one piece.

We're going to get the right amount there, and work it a bit with your hands. Again, if it's not too cold, it'll work out better for you. Now, you take your chunk for the head and kind of check that it's in proportion and remember you're going to have the trunk there as well.

Roll it around until you get a nice smooth surface. You don't want any creases except where they're wanted. Then you can start pinching out the trunk.

Again, it's really best to make it out of the main head so you don't have problems with it. It's going to be quite heavy and if you try to attach it separately, it can fall off. Now, we're going to create the holes in the end of the trunk.

If you don't have a special tool, you can take a toothpick or a cocktail stick and you're going to want to make the creases in the trunk as well, gently with the knife. Again, you can use the edge of a cocktail stick if you prefer. Now, we're going to do the eyes.

Get a little bit of white sugar paste and a little bit of black sugar paste. Roll tiny little balls out of white. Remember to use the trunk as your center point.

If you put the eyes closer together, you're going to have a more friendly-looking elephant. Take a tiny bit of black, that's going to be the pupil. Attach that, if it will.

There we go. Now, the elephant has some personality, but he's still missing his ears. So take some more gray, and how much is going to depend on whether you're making an African or Asian elephant.

I see we're going to go with the smaller-eared variety today, but that's going to make it a lot easier when you attach the ears. Add a little pink for the inside; it makes the elephant very friendly-looking. Just pinch th