Making Miniature Food: 6 Sculpting Tips

Many of you already have your copy of my new dollhouse miniature tutorial, How to Sculpt Miniature Breakfast Foods, and I want to give you a handful of ways to expand on the techniques presented in the book. If you’re not on my mailing list, you’ll be able to get a copy here on March 20.

All of the page numbers given in the tips below are from How to Sculpt Miniature Breakfast Foods.

Miniature Food Tip #1

The instructions for making a sausage patty (page 40) are also perfect for creating a miniature hamburger, and they result in far more realistic burgers than you would get if you simply rolled out a disc of brown-colored clay. Use the instructions for making cheese found in the breakfast sandwich project on page 66 or make cheese-colored polymer clay frosting for melted cheese (page 8).

If you want to top your hamburger bun with sesame seeds, use the sliced almond instructions (part of the granola project on page 31), but roll it out of the clay color mix outlined in the hash brown project on page 47, which is a nice translucent mix that will result in realistic sesame seeds.

Miniature Food Tip #2

Follow the biscuits and gravy instructions on page 63 to create strawberry shortcake. You can make your biscuits thicker if you choose, and either fill them or top them with white polymer clay frosting (instructions on page 8). Finish with sliced strawberries.

Miniature Food Tip #3

Using the clay colors outlined in the sausage patty project on page 40, tease clay into chunks as outlined in the coffee cake crumble topping instructions on page 61. Use these little sausage-colored crumbles as ground beef for tacos. You can even follow the hash brown instructions on page 47, substituting cheddar-colored clay, to make shredded cheese for your tacos. Sour cream can be recreated with a batch of white polymer clay frosting (page 8).

Miniature Food Tip #4

Using that same crumble topping method on page 61, mix up cauliflower-colored clay out of white with the tiniest touch of yellow. Combine with translucent in a ratio of one part colored clay to two parts translucent, and after you tease off clay chunks as outlined in the crumble topping instructions, gather them up into balls, gently pressing them together to form heads of cauliflower.

Miniature Food Tip #5

Make these adorable white bear doughnuts by slightly modifying the doughnut instructions on page 26. After you form you doughnut shape, add two clay ears to the top and tint your doughnuts as instructed. Bake the doughnuts before you ice them so the ears don’t get damaged and top them with a runny, white polymer clay glaze (page 8). Make tiny balls and skinny snakes of brown clay for the eyes, nose and mouth. Alternatively, you can bake the doughnuts with white icing and go back with chocolate icing, using a needle tool to precisely apply the icing to create the face.

Miniature Food Tip #6

Use the instructions in the free chocolate croissant bonus tutorial to create the flaky-edged tart crust and tint the clay as instructed so it looks crispy and browned. You can top the tart with polymer clay frosting (page 8 in the breakfast book) and the fruit of your choice.

If you haven’t downloaded the FREE chocolate croissant tutorial, you can do so here. How to Sculpt Miniature Breakfast Foods will be available in my shop here on March 20.

Get image credits and links to sources for the photos above (along with tons of eye candy) on my Pinterest boards. All of these images can be found on my Foods I Want to Miniaturize board.