The Mouse Market

Yesterday, I told you how thrilling it was to discover liquid clay back in the day. Today, I want to show you some of the many ways sauces can take your tiny foods from ho-hum to wish-they-were-edible.

Before we start, a final reminder that my 20% Off Tutorials Flash Sale ends at midnight. This is the last sale I’ll be running until November, so don’t miss out!

shop the sale before midnight

There are some foods, of course, that simply aren’t complete without the sauce, like this tres leches cake, which uses white liquid clay, both for the frosting and the milky puddle. From Dollhouse Miniature Mexican Food

And pulling another example from the same book, Dollhouse Miniature Mexican Food, the tacos and burrito wouldn’t look quite as yummy without the addition of liquid clay.

You can also tint translucent liquid clay to add a realistic hint of juiciness, like with the tomatoes in this niçoise salad. (From How to Sculpt Miniature Summer Foods)

Here’s another example of making tomatoes more tomato-y with liquid clay. (From Dollhouse Miniature Valentine’s Day Foods)

A combination of sauces are necessary for making pizza, one for the sauce, one for the cheese (and optionally, another for the grease). (From Building a Pizza Parlor Diorama)

There are so many desserts that couldn’t achieve peak yumminess without sauces or frostings made with liquid clay. For instance, here’s a preparatory photo I took for my How to Sculpt Miniature Bakery Treats book.

All of the cakes incorporate liquid clay frosting, the cookie dough is all liquid clay (aside from solid clay chocolate chips), the macarons need liquid clay filling, that broiled crème brûlée look is achieved with liquid clay, and the pies, cobbler, and pineapple upside-down cake wouldn’t be the same without it. Even the brownies rely on liquid clay to adhere that realistic crackly top.

You can also tint polymer clay varnish for a more delicate sauce, one that must be added after the piece is fully baked. I used that technique quite a bit in the Italian Foods book. In this lasagna, for instance, there are multiple liquid clay sauces used before baking, but I then added realistic greasiness post-baking with tinted varnish.

You can see the tinted varnish quite easily in this spumoni sundae example. Check out the little trickle of maraschino cherry juice. That’s tinted varnish! (From How to Sculpt Miniature Italian Foods)