Sugar Feather

First off take a small piece of Sugar Paste (or ready to roll icing) work it a little to get it soft.

To stop it sticking to your fingers or work surface, use a light dusting of corn flour.

Roll the Sugar Paste into a line about 4 inches long, or about 1 inch shorter than you want your finished feather to be.

The tip (to the right in the picture) should be brought to a slight point.

Don`t worry about the other end for now as this will be cut off later.

With your finger, press the line a little flat for just over half the length.

Using a palette knife, place it over almost all of the bottom half of the flat Sugar Paste (see picture).

Press the edge of the knife into the Sugar Paste, but be careful not to cut all the way through.

Then lie the knife flat on to your work surface and press the palette knife firmly down. If you press near what will be the centre of the Feather and rub down and out towards the edges you will get the best effect.

Once you lift the knife your feather should look like this.

You then repeat the above process on the other side of the feather.

Remember to press the edge in at the start to get a nice high and thin spine for you feather.

Now it is starting to look a little like a feather!

Next, press on the edges of the feather to get it as thin as possible all the way around.

At this point you can cut off the excess to make the finished feather.

With a sharp straight edge knife, score one side of your feather with many repeated lines all down one side.

Then repeat on the other side.

Don’t worry too much if the odd score cuts all the way through, as this can add to the authenticity of you feather.

Note as you get to the tip of your feather, change the angle of the lines you score to give a fan effect at the tip.

Now you are, done all you have to do is leave your feather somewhere to dry for 24 hours. After which it should be hard enough to turn over and allow another 24 hours to dry. These times are a minimum and they should be left in a dry, not too cold environment.

Once they were all dry, I painted the tips with black food colour, but that was what I wanted, you may want something different. If you do need to paint your feathers, make sure you keep the colour thin as too much will make the Sugar Paste soft and can cause the feather to bend or break.

This is the cake I used all my feathers on, but you may have other ideas. Do let me know how you get on or if you have any questions.