Sugarplat-Adv-art – 11/15/05

“Adventures with Sugar Plate” by Count Gunthar. Includes commentary from others on solving some of the problems Gunthar ran into.

NOTE: See also the files: sugar-msg, sugar-paste-msg, Sugar-Icing-art, Sgr-a-Cnftns-art, sotelties-msg, Roses-a-Sugar-art, marzipan-msg, flavord-sugars-msg, sugar-sources-msg.

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This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 13:02:52 -0600
From: "Michael Gunter" <countgunthar at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Gunthar's Adventures with Sugar plate (very long,
	grab some tea and a scone...)
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Okay, you mugs made it look way too easy. Since there was
discussion a bit back on making sugarplate mock cinnamon sticks
I decided to give it a try. I mean, how hard can it be to take
play-dough, roll it out, dust it with spices and roll it up? Ta-da!
and I’d have a groovy little centerpiece for my Tournament of
the Roses display.

You guys suck.

I went to a local hobby shop where it has fancy cake making stuff
and bought a big can of gum Traficant because I wanted the real
thing, being all authentic and suchlike. I got powdered ginger and
cinnamon, lots of powdered sugar (I'm not so authentic like to
grind my own Sugar in the Raw to a powder, I leave that to the
drudges), rose water and prepare to make stuff to wow the masses.
I have these cruel evil books showing neat sugarplate recreations
from the period. Knights on horseback, castles, goblets and plates.
This stuff must be easy!

Of course I conveniently forgot the last time I encountered this
evil substance. It was at a Cookscon a few years back when Alys
Katherine hosted a class in sugarplate. But she provided all of us
with these nice little playdough cakes where everyone made wonderful
little sculptures and I made an ashtray. Eventually I was invited to go
in the kitchen and help stir the soup.....

ANY-way.....I opened the can of an innocent looking white powder
(like cocaine, the snowy substance hides Satan lurking) and added the
water. The instructions say to stir this until it's mixed. The instructions
don't indicate that your spoon eventually weighs 5 lbs as you try to
mix this gunk. Once properly mixed you dust a working surface with
powdered sugar and pour this nearly alive amoeba onto the surface
in order to knead it into submission. Now I have to feel that there is
something wrong with using powdered sugar in order to make things
less sticky.....

So, trusting how easy you guys say this is I don't exactly pour the mass
onto the board as convince it with spoons, tongs and a cattle prod. Once
on the powdered sugar it glared at me and oozed towards any crack in
the counter in order to escape. Now the instructions say to knead
until well mixed. Have you ever tried to knead something that resembled
the end results of an elephant with an allergy? It didn't knead. It rolled
around and stuck to everything. The counter, my hands, the rose
water bottle, the sink, the cat (I don't even OWN a cat!), the ceiling,
and the sugar. I have hands that make me look like I'm the makeup
artist for the Alien movies.

Then the phone rang.....

Okay, ignore the phone. Keep beating this goo into submission, I mean
kneading it until it is "well mixed". How can you tell when an amoeba is
well mixed? When your hands get tired, that's how. Now I got to take
the semi-firm substance and coax it into a plastic bag. Envision giving a
cat a bath in a teacup. I swear it yowled at me. After several attempts
and the use of a spatula, a cutting board and begging I got it in the
bag and sealed it tightly. It grumbled and hissed at me but it was trapped.
The instructions happily assured me that it would firm up in the bag if
I waited long enough. I wonder if 5 years would be good? But cleaned
the kitchen, the counter, the sink, the floor, the non-existent cat, my
houseplants and my truck parked outside of the remaining goo. It
had a disturbing habit of giggling as I scraped it up.

I called the girlfriend back and explained why I didn't answer the phone
since I was reluctant to have a cell-phone permanently grafted to my ear.
She thought it was amusing, the sadist.

After 30 or so minutes and several shots of Jack Daniel's courage in a bottle
I approached the bag with a large stick, a welder's mask and the kind of
electroshock stick they use on Hannibal Lector. Also, the girlfriend wanted
to experience the situation so I have the cell-phone balanced on my shoulder
giving a Geraldo Rivera on-scene commentary and walking like Quasimodo.
With trembling fingers I unzipped the bag. Nothing, no rush of angry sticky
goo with a taste for human blood, just a white lump of a dough-like substance.
Now this was more like it! Again referring to the happy instructions on the
can I sprayed the counter with Pam and scattered more of that wondrous
non-sticky-making powdered sugar. The sugarplate dropped out with a
satisfying splap. But it wasn't play-dough yet. More like a very soft and
sticky dough. Again with the kneading and dumping of powdered sugar.
Again it fights, within the lump were pockets of sticky resistance. The
girlfriend was much amused at my squeaking and cries of outrage as
the goo stuck to everything. But, I'm a knight and a count, I will not
be defeated by sugar! I gamely kept kneading and adding sugar until it
resembled a slightly less sticky mass.

And now, the creation!

Once it sort of resembled a dough it was time to whip out the dowel.
I dusted the area with confectioner's sugar and grabbed a walnut sized
piece of evil. Then mashed it down and rolled it out to a flat shape. Well,
that was the idea. I rolled it around the rolling pin several times. Peeled
it off and rolled it again. The hand is mightier than the rolling pin so  
I just mashed it down and powdered the hell out of it until it behaved. Then
I sprinkled cinnamon and ginger over it. I think the ancients used a better
distribution system because my cinnamon sticks wound up with yellow
and brown spots. Trying to spread it around was....unfortunate.
I also figured it would be best to roll them around a thin dowel. The  
only thin dowel I had was around 4 feet long so this was an adventure in
itself. But I got better, my tears and curses were a major source of
amusement to Deana. She seemed to especially like my description of
my "cinnamon sticks" as skinned spotted sea slugs. I guess the best
description that can be said for them is they are "Unfortunate Looking".

But there they are, hardening up and looking like rather diseased
cinnamon sticks or maybe bits of dough sprinkled with cinnamon and
ginger. I'm sure they resemble the things in period. I mean, the
tables were lit with candles and such and they didn't have eyeglasses,
the Lord couldn't see too well....could he?

Gunthar

Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 15:08:33 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Gunthar's Adventures with Sugar plate (very
	long,	grab some tea and a scone...)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Michael Gunter wrote:

> Okay, you mugs made it look way too easy. Since there was
> discussion a bit back on making sugarplate mock cinnamon sticks
> I decided to give it a try. I mean, how hard can it be to take
> play-dough, roll it out, dust it with spices and roll it up?

Small batches and what they don't tell you is that
if you want it thin you roll it through a pasta machine's rollers.
Start thick and keep running it through so it gets thinner and thinner.
Then cut and roll for artificial cinnamon sticks.
If you do a huge batch, then only work with a part and keep rest in  
fridge.

Johnnae

Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2005 16:46:40 -0500
From: "Elise Fleming" <alysk at ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Gunthar's Adventures with Sugar plate (very
To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Aww, Gunthar.  What you bought couldn't have been gum tragacanth.  It isn't
white, it's a pinky-beige and costs more than $35/lb.  I'll bet you got a
gum paste mixture where all you need to do is add sugar and liquid.
'Tain't period, but it works just fine.

You probably should have mixed the cinnamon and ginger with a small amount
of the paste as you were working it up.  Otherwise, as you saw, it would be
blotchy.  Sprinkling it on the kneaded paste won't help it work in to a
uniform color.  If you still have some of that recalcitrant blob left, try
kneading in some of the spices.  You may need to carefully moisten your
hands or dab bits of water into the paste to make it workable - without
becoming too sticky.

Huh... Sticking to everything?  Oozed??!?? Maybe it was too moist and
needed more sugar?  It should be similar to the consistency of a newborn
baby's tush, firm, smooth, but malleable.  Need a thin dowel?  Try a
pencil!  Or an arrow, if you have one.  Sure wish I could have been a mouse
in the corner for this grand adventure!

Now, I will say that you fighter fellows make armored combat seem easy. A
number of years ago I donned helm and armor for a lesson from Mistress Sir
Hilary of Serendip.  Couldn't get my right arm to do what she wanted, not
even after an hour of trying various techniques, but she did compliment my
footwork!

So, O grand and glorious knight and Count, what are you going to make with
the leftovers?   

Alys Katharine

Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 23:46:44 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Gunthar's Adventures with Sugar plate (very
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

  From A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen which first appears in
1608. This wording from the 1636 edition.

To make Paste-Royall in Spices

TAke of Cinamon and Ginger, of each a like quantity being finely
searced: mingle it with your searced Sugar, and Gum-dragagant
steeped in Rose-water, and worke it into paste as you did your paste-royall
white, and then you may turne it upon sticks made of peeces
of Arrowes, and make them hollow like Cinamon sticks: in
like sort you may make it taste of what spices you please.

This version seems to incorporate the spices with the sugar from
the start. On the bright side---Maybe not using ginger was what went  
wrong?

Johnnae

Date: Sun, 06 Nov 2005 22:28:31 +0000
From: "Olwen the Odd" <olwentheodd at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Gunthar's Adventures with Sugar plate (very
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

> Well, mainly I wrote with comedic value, but it was pretty annoying. You
> are right, it must be some gum paste.
>
> I would think mixing the ingredients into the mix would be the correct
> thing but I was following the period example and it said to sprinkle the  
> cinnamon and ginger powder on after they had been rolled out.
>
> Gunthar

When we make them, we liberally dust the marble slab with a thick layer of
the cinnamon and ginger and roll the sugarplate right on it, turning over
several times to cover both sides.  Then we cut out rectangular shapes and
roll, either on a pencil or free-hand.  

Olwen

<the end>