50/52 Bird a week - March of the penguins

This week's bird - or actually birds - are edible...but I don't think any have been eaten!  It was our book club Xmas lunch on Friday and I signed up to make dessert. I thought it would be nice to make individual desserts for the 10 of us, so I made gluten free ginger and zucchini igloo cakes and penguins from icing!

You may well see a similarity between these penguins and my penguin necklace "Cold hands, warm heart"!

When they were made, they all started playing together. Their favorite game, as you can see from the photos, is "follow the leader", or as they call it "The March of the Penguins".  Off they went, all around my kitchen!

Each one is sculpted from black, white and orange icing - which is made from powdered sugar with gelatine and glycerin. It's very easy to sculpt with.  You stick the parts together with either water or alcohol.

My sculpting of birds and animals in icing actually predates my sculpting in silver, and jewelry making.  In fact, it probably was a big influence in my 3D sculpting with metal clay as opposed to creating more flat pieces of jewelry.

Anyhow - at the bookclub lunch, the igloos were eaten, but everyone took their little penguin home. Some were to be saved for grandchildren, the others were going to sit as decorations for the Christmas holiday season!  Yes, they last quite a while in the open. I have three sat at the bottom of a candle!

With their igloos!

I am making dessert for a party this weekend too, so maybe some more penguins will join the march.....

To view the other birds that have been made on our 50th week of our bird a week challenge, check the links below! Yes, these little penguins are my 50th bird this year!  Only two more to go!!!