This gumpaste/fondant pumpkin tutorial works just as well with modelling chocolate or marzipan for a better tasting pumpkin or even rice krispies treats softened in the microwave and then shaped into a ball and covered in orange fondant.
Gumpaste/Fondant Pumpkin Tutorial: Materials
- Orange fondant with CMC/Tylose powder added (1 teaspoon per 500g) to firm it up
- Dresden tool
- Bone tool or small ball tool
- Sugarcraft tweezer
- Edible glue
- Dust colors: orange, red, beige and brown
- Paintbrush
- Edible glaze spray
Gumpaste/Fondant Pumpkin Tutorial: How-To
To make the center of the pumpkin, take a piece of fondant (it doesn’t have to be orange for the center) and add Tylo/CMC powder (1 teaspoon per 500g) and roll it into a ball.
We’ll be adding two extra layers to the pumpkin so the ball of fondant you start out with should be smaller than the size you want to end up with.
Press down a little on the pumpkin with the palm of your hand to make it a slight squat shape rather than a perfectly round ball.
For a super quick pumpkin, you can simply take a knife or Dresden tool and indent the pumpkin grooves at this stage.
But if you want a more realistic effect you can do the following: start by rolling out a sausage of gumpaste (the width you think you’d like the pumpkin grooves to be). Then cut it into pieces equal to the diameter of your pumpkin, for instance, if you’ve rolled a 4-inch ball, these sausage pieces need to be 4-inches long.
Flatten each of the sausage pieces as shown.
Using edible glue, attach the sausage pieces around the pumpkin. (it’s an ugly looking creature at this stage but don’t worry, it will come together in the end!)
Leave the pumpkin shape overnight to firm up.
Next you need to roll out a layer of fondant, then place it over the pumpkin to cover it. Cut off the excess at the bottom.
Use the handle of a paintbrush to press into the grooves to highlight them further.
Use a bone tool/small ball tool to create a hollow at the top where the stalk will be.
To create the pumpkin stalk, take a small piece of green gumpaste and roll it into an elongated cone shape, about an inch and a half for a this size pumpkin (4-inch center).
Flatten the bottom of the stalk.
Using a tweezers, pinch the gumpaste to create vertical grooves on the stalk (or mark them with a knife if your tweezers creates a serrated pattern like mine…!)
Bend the tip and trim it at an angle. Use a Dresden tool to create a hollow in the top of the stalk.
Brush some edible glue in the indent at the top of the pumpkin and gently press the stalk into position.
Coloring: Start by brushing orange dust color all over the pumpkin.
Using a flat brush, add a little red dust in the grooves to highlight them. Then add some dark beige over the red to about half way down each groove. Dust the stalk also with the beige and then add some chocolate brown in spots on top of the stalk.
Steam to set the dust colors then spray with edible glaze.
To create a white pumpkin, use ivory fondant then highlight the grooves with beige dust color.
