By Pumpkin Candle-light
By Pumpkin Candle-light
My apologies to those who have been waiting (very patiently) for this tutorial since its announcement on my sister’s blog. I know I have been long about it, but I have made sure that you will have the instructions in time for Thanksgiving celebrations!
Probably your local supermarket will have an assortment of small decorative pumpkins. Select those with no blemishes and hard, thick skin. Also look for small tea-lights in some dark color and spiced fragrance. We were glad to find tea-lights in plastic rather than in the traditional metal, since we were not certain how hot metal would affect the pumpkins.
Begin by cutting a circle around the stem of the pumpkin. You may want to draw lightly with a pencil first. It is wise to cut this hole smaller than the candles, since you will probably want to trim it a bit later. If the hole ever gets too big to hold the candles, then your pumpkin will be no good! Perhaps you should buy a few more pumpkins that you will need.
Pull out the stem and use a spoon to hollow out the pumpkin. You may find that you need to widen the hole to fit the spoon, but be careful not to make the hole too wide for the candles.
Do not throw away the seeds! Remove the excess flesh and place in a hot oven with butter and a sprinkling of salt.
Do a thorough job of scraping the inside of the pumpkin. The better you do it, the longer your candle-holder will last.
Periodically check the size of your hole with the candle. When you are finished hollowing the pumpkin, fit the candles. They should fit quite snuggly, but not too tight. You don’t want to have to push so hard that the candles fall into the pumpkin! If you are making these decorations more than a day ahead, I would suggest you keep your candles in the pumpkins, since the latter may shrink a bit in drying.
I must say that the pumpkin candles were a real show-stopper at the recent missionary dinner which our family hosted. Everyone commented on them. We placed three on each circular table, atop a mat of fresh fern with a small bouquet of autumn flowers in the center.
Unfortunately, the pumpkins did not last the week through, and we had to chop them up for the compost several days later. Do not make these too far ahead of the event at which you wish to use them! Also be careful about the effects of the flame on other decorations. After our dinner guests had departed and we were cleaning up, we found that we had scorched our flower bouquets!
Photographs: Various. © A Still Small Voice, October 2008.
Friday, November 14, 2008