These chocolate-dipped candied orange peel and fruit gelée candies are two more of the sweets at Pasticceria Penso. In photos from the real-life bakery in Trieste, their orange peel is covered entirely in chocolate, but I preferred to only dip half, so that the varying shades of orange could show through. I used Premo translucent polymer clay tinted with three separate colors of alcohol ink. I rolled these out very thin and stacked them to create the layers representing the outer and inner parts of the peel. I cut this sheet into tiny strips and baked before continuing.
Finding a craft sand that was fine enough to use as sugar proved to be my biggest challenge and ended up stalling this portion of my project by several months. The white sand I got as part of a cheap multi-colored set was far too coarse. It made the orange peel look like rock candy. I then bought (and returned) another brand that was advertised as “super fine” but ended up being even coarser.
After some brainstorming, I started thinking about hourglass timers, the kind that often comes with board games or that my son occasionally received from his dentist when he was little. As an experiment, I sacrificed one of these timers to see if the sand inside was any finer. It was perfect, almost like a powder to the touch yet the granules were still visible. However, one timer didn’t yield enough sand to work with, so I ended up ordering a set of them online.
To apply the “sugar,” I coated one end of each strip of orange peel in liquid Fimo, dipped it in the sand, and baked again.
For the chocolate coating, I used translucent liquid Sculpey mixed with brown soft pastels. My difficulty here was getting the mixture thick enough so that it wouldn’t just run off the orange peel onto the baking tile. Once I managed to get it thick enough to stick, there was still a bit of runoff that needed to be carefully (and tediously) trimmed with a craft knife.
Unlike the gelées described below, I didn’t bother to seal the sand on the orange peel. Yes, some of it does tend to rub off, but they are so tiny and I had made several hundred of them. The prospect of using either a spray or brush-on varnish on that many pieces was just too daunting. Once they’re packaged in boxes and safely on display in the case, I think they’ll be sufficiently protected.
For the fruit gelées, I used Premo translucent mixed with alcohol ink for the yellow and orange ones, and Premo translucent mixed with a bit of alizarin crimson for the red. I found it easier with these not to pre-bake. Instead I coated the cubes of clay with clear liquid Sculpey and tossed them in the fine sand before baking. Finally, I sealed them with Helmar Crystal Kote Matte spray varnish.
As with my previous projects, I filled some boxes, glued on ribbons, and attached the sticker labels.
Here are a couple of photos of the orange peel and gelées displayed in the shop.
