Dead good

Ingredients

600g white base (recipe below)

Skull mould – available online

Method

Allow the white base to soften well almost to the point of returning to a liquid.

Pour into the mould and swill around to fill all cavities and then top up and place in the blast freezer for 40 minutes to harden fully.

When the skull is solid, remove from the mould and place on a tray then return into the freezer for 10 minutes to harden again.

Method

Using cake carving tools, carve your chosen pattern on the skull.

This will take a little time as you will need to keep putting it back into the blast freezer if it starts so get too soft.

Once the pattern has been carved, use a small piping bag with water and icing sugar mixture coloured with black food gel to fill the grooves and create the outlines of your pattern.

Then allow to set.

When the outline has set you can use coloured icing to flood the petals and add details to your skull.

Once painted the decorative skull can be either placed on top of your Halloween gelato offer or sit in the cabinet as decoration.

Ingredients

1030g milk (1 litre) (3.5% fat)

160g double cream (48% fat)

55g skimmed milk powder

210g Sucranna granulated sugar

22g dextrose monohydrate

50g Glucodry 385 spray dried glucose syrup

4g Rubicone Neutro AU

Method

To calculate how much mix you require, for example multiply all elements/ ingredients by 42 to make 60 litres of finished mix, or multiply all elements/ ingredients by 21 to make 30 litres of finished mix.

Start by mixing all the dry ingredients together. This prevents the skimmed milk powder from forming lumps as you add it to the milk.

Start with the milk in the pasteuriser, select your desired pasteurisation program (we have used the low pasteurisation at 65˚C).

Once your milk reaches 40˚C, gradually add all the dry ingredients.

Once the mixture reaches 50˚C, add the cream. Now the pasteuriser will run its program, taking the mixture up to 65˚C, then holding it at 65˚C for 30 minutes, then rapidly cooling the mixture to 4˚C.

Once the mixture has reached 4˚C, allow the mixture to age for between 4 and 12 hours, the latter being preferred for best results.