PILSEN — The newest pieces of artwork in the Reciclarte Studio in Pilsen are edible.
Leticia Rodarte, an artist and trained pastry chef, is now selling sugar skulls to the public for the first time at her art studio in Pilsen. Using a formula that borrows from her grandmother's passed-down recipe, the artist's versions are less fragile than traditional sugar skulls, she said Thursday.
So far, Rodarte has sold hundreds this October and plans to keep making them all year long. She predicts Saturday and Sunday will be her busiest days yet.
But coming up with a recipe that would produce solid skulls that wouldn't break took lots of work, and bags of sugar, she said at her studio.
Growing up in Michoacán, Mexico, 38-year-old Rodarte learned many Dia De Los Muertos traditions from her grandmother, including her family's method for making the sugar skulls that adorn altars made in memory of the deceased.
But her grandmother's recipe produces a sugary confection that can be fragile. Another sugar skull recipe Rodarte learned while studying at The French Pastry School in the Loop needed work, too, she said.
Rodarte's sugar skulls take three days to make. First, the ingredients - commonly white sugar, meringue powder and water - are mixed. Then the mixture is poured into two molds, each representing the front and back of the skull.
After taking them out of the mold "right away," Rodarte lets the two sections dry for 24 hours. The next day, the two parts are bonded together with a different sugary mixture and sands them to file away rough lumps of sugar until the skulls are smooth.
They are varnished with another sugar mixture, left to dry, and on the third day, faces, flowers and names of the recipient are piped with colorful frosting.
While the treats are edible, Rodarte said most customers give the skulls as gifts for fun, not to eat.
"You can eat them, but you don't want to," Rodarte said. The sugar-on-sugar-on-sugar effect is "too much sweet" she said.
In addition to crafting actual sugar skulls and artwork influenced by annual holiday that honors the deceased, Rodarte also paints people's faces with calaveras - or skulls - every year.
"I intend to take over Day of the Dead," she said with a laugh.
Rodarte's sugar skulls, which range in price from $4.50 for a 1-1/2 inch miniature skull to $22 for a heavy 6-inch skull, are for sale at Reciclarte Studio, 1441 W. 18th St.
Want to see more of the Pilsen artist's sugar skull creations? Check out our slideshow.
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