Technique: Sugar Bottle Final

A couple of posts ago you saw my ship in the bottle. Here's how I did it. First, here is my last unsuccessful attempt. I really thought this technique would work, but I couldn't get the glass to release from the bottle no matter what I did - spray, foil lining, grease. The nice thing about this technique is it provided tremendous control because I used a heat gun to soften, reshape, shift, and work over the glass until it was just how I wanted it.

But...it would not come off without shattering.

So then an online forum led me to this product:

And it was incredibly easy and fast! Simply take the two putties.

Knead them into a cohesive mass -meaning the color was evenly spread. You only have 4 minutes to do this step or it will start to harden, but that was easily accomplished by this bread baker. Then wrap the yellow putty around the final shape. I used a bottle but anything would work. This material is oven safe so you can bake in it up to 375ºF.

Let it sit for 2o minutes and it will firm up, but remain flexible, meaning you can peel it off of your object...and later the sugar.

Look how flexible. And now its reusable.

For this project I filled it 2/3 full, but most people do two halves and combine them into one bottle. I didn't want to crack the bottle over anyone's head, I just wanted my dessert to rest inside. After pouring my isomalt inside and swirling around until it was evenly coated and starting to firm, I let it rest until hard and unmolded.