Artist Marc Brownlow won first place in the food category of our Halloween contest last year for his gorgeously gourmet Skull Truffles. His how-to is a clear and well-photographed 19 steps, and the end result provides some delicious motivation: dark chocolate center, white chocolate skull, with candied walnut braaaaaains!
But the part that folks found challenging was making the skull molds. Marc is a product designer, graphic designer, and illustrator, which explains why his skull molds look so darn good. I can guarantee my version would look more like snowman heads than skulls. Here’s Marc’s version:
Several folks had asked if Marc would make and sell the molds. I touched base with him to get his thoughts and he wrote:
I’m delighted that people still like that project. I would be willing to sell the molds, but the price of just the food-grade silicone alone is so high ($25/lb) that I don’t know if people would want to pay for it. By the time I added shipping and paid myself anything for labor it would be in the $30-$35 range. My instinct is that if it was around $10 per finished mold, people might go for it, but I don’t know where I could get super cheap food-grade silicone.
I made a big batch of skull truffles for a party on Saturday and they were a big hit. I treated myself to a chocolate tempering machine last year and it makes the process so much quicker. I also made candied walnut brains instead of using candy melts, since the candy melt had too many artificial ingredients for my tastes.
I would be willing to look into what was required to sell the skull truffles themselves. I suspect I’d need to get a food safety license and learn how to safely ship chocolate so it doesn’t arrive in a melted puddle.
Anyone know of a source for super cheap food-grade silicone?
Alternately, anyone got tips on shaping skulls? Post up in the comments below!
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