Sculpting Humpty Dumpty in Chocolate

I’m going to finish up this series on my Puss in Boots cake with a tutorial on sculpting Humpty Dumpty out of chocolate. Check out my post on Sculpting Puss in Boots in Chocolate for instructions on Puss.

Humpty was my favorite character to sculpt because of his unique shape and fun colors. I started by taking a large ball of modeling chocolate and adding some ivory paste color to it. I then rolled it in my hands and against the table to form it into an egg shape. I used the heat from my hands and fingers to rub it until it was smooth. I knew I was going to have him in a seated position so I pressed the egg against the counter to flatten it a bit on the bottom so that it would set sturdy in an angled position. He was pretty soft at this point from all the rubbing so I set him aside to firm up while I worked on his hat.

For his hat I thinly rolled out some black modeling chocolate and used a round cutter to cut out the brim.

Next I rolled out another piece of black chocolate, this time leaving it thick, and cut out a smaller circle using a smaller round cutter. I attached it to the brim with some piping gel.

For the band around the hat, I put some yellow modeling chocolate through my clay gun with the small circle plate. I applied a small amount of water around the base of the hat and then attached the band to it.

At this point Humpty had firmed up so I went back to him and used my ball tool to press eye sockets in his head.

I then took a small piece of ivory chocolate and rolled it into a log then used my fingers to pinch it into a triangular shape. I took a knife and cut the bottom part of it off so that the triangle shape was very clear. I attached it to the face and rubbed the seams to blend them in.
Next I used my finger to press in on the egg and form a mouth area.

I added another little piece of modeling chocolate at the bottom of the mouth area then shaped it and blended it in to form a chin.

Using a veining tool, I poked some nostrils in the nose and made some marking around the mouth area to emphasize the cheeks and laugh lines.

To make the lips, I attached a small log of chocolate to the mouth area then used my veining tool to separate them.

I continued to separate and form the lips by using the veining tool to pull the chocolate in place. I used the tip of my pinky and the veining tool to smooth out the inside of the lips. I also added a small piece of chocolate over each of the eye sockets and used my fingers and veining tool to blend it into the face and create a brow area.

Next I added some wrinkle lines above the brows with the veining tool and then added two white chocolate balls for the eyeballs.

I didn’t want the eyeballs to look like they were bulging out of his head so I added another little piece of ivory chocolate over each eyeball to create an eyelid. I then took some more white chocolate, rolled it out into a thin log, laid it in the mouth and trimmed it down to make a row of teeth. I took the veining tool and pressed into the log to make indentions for individual teeth.

To add facial features, I mixed some brown petal dust with some vegetable oil then used a fine paintbrush to paint on eyebrows, the centers of the eyeballs and the inside of the mouth. I also mixed up some pink petal dust with vegetable oil and painted around the lips to brighten them up. I attached the hat on the top of the egg with a little melted chocolate.

Now it was time to dress Humpty. I used my pasta roller on my KitchenAid mixer for rolling out the clothes so that I could keep them an even thickness. I started with some red chocolate and rolled out a strip long enough to wrap around Humpty. I painted a little water around his body then wrapped the red around him, with the seam at the back, trimming the excess with an exacto knife. I then took 6 small dots of yellow chocolate and attached them like buttons on the front. Using some white chocolate, I rolled out a long ruffle, cut it out and used a celpin tool to thin the upper edge of it by rolling it along the edge. I attached this to the top of the red shirt with a little bit of piping gel.

For the legs, I rolled out a long piece of white chocolate then cut out two pieces of the same length. To create the foot, I held the leg upright then pressed it onto the surface of the counter and used my fingers to pull the chocolate out and into a foot shape.

To make them look like they were coming out of the pants, I added a piece of red chocolate to the top of each leg and wrapped it at the meeting point with another strip of white chocolate. I then took two balls of brown chocolate (not pictured) and formed them into shoes. I attached them to the legs with piping gel.

I made the coat in a similar manner as the shirt. First I rolled out some blue chocolate with my pasta roller then I trimmed it, added a little water to the red shirt, and wrapped it around the shirt. When it was in place, I used an exacto knife to cut away the excess and cut the front sides of the coat into the right shape.

For the arms, I rolled out some blue chocolate into a log then cut it twice the length of what I wanted one arm to be. I then cut that log in half at an angle. The angled ends would be where the arms attached to the body.

On the opposite end of the angle, I used a cone tool to press an indention into the log and create a sleeve. I then set them aside for a little bit.

Next, I attached the legs to Humpty, using some red melted chocolate. I like to keep bags of various colors of candy melts on hand so that I can place one candy melt in a plastic paint palette and heat it in the microwave, making just a little bit of melted chocolate at a time for purposes such as these.

Next I made some hands for Humpty by taking small balls of brown chocolate, flattening them down and shaping them into hands. I used an exacto knife to cut between the fingers then pinched and rubbed them to give them rounded finger shapes. I attached the bottoms of the hands into the arms with some melted chocolate. I then stuck a piece of dry spaghetti in the other end of the arm so that I could stick the arms into the sides of the coat. I added a little bit of piping gel to help them adhere. Before adding the arms, though, I used some gold luster dust, mixed with a little vegetable oil, and a fine paint brush to paint a design on the coat.

I also added some gold details to the legs and on the sleeves, after they were attached. He was done!

Here is Humpty all finished and placed on the cake.

Hopefully these instructions have inspired you to make your own chocolate creations. Modeling chocolate is a great way to add yummy details to any cake.

Until next time, God Bless and Sweet Dreams.