Who would ever want to eat them? – Camille Allen
Weeks ago, a friend of ours showed us pictures of perfectly sculpted babies supposed to be made of marzipan. (Marzipan is a confection made out of sugar and almond meal.) They looked so cute and made so perfectly like real babies that my husband and I could not believe our eyes. The more that we could not believe is the “fact” that the babies were made of marzipan. Marzipan is a popular sweet in the Netherlands, like chocolate. So my first reaction was, “who would make marzipan babies?” “Are you supposed to bite the head off first?” I thought there was something weird about the whole thing.
My officemates found this weird too. Which whet my appetite or accuracy even more. So to know the truth about the “marzipan babies”, I looked them up in Google. Voila! These babies are not made of marzipan but polymer clay!
The name of the artist who makes these wonderful creations is Camille Allen. She lives in Canada and learned to craft babies out of polymer clay eight years ago. When I contacted her, she was already aware of the email about marzipan/sugar/chocolate babies going around.
I find it unfair for her because apparently it takes hours to finish a “baby”. Just like any other genius and famous inventions, these babies were formed unplanned. Allen learned and used to make only life-size babies, until there were some left-over clay which she tried to make into small babies. These became her first tiny babies, more famously known as the egg babies, because they fit in a chicken egg shell!
Obviously, the sugar story behind these magnificently made babies is another case of email fraud. If you want to read more about the Allen babies, you may check the artist’s website.
I’m glad I checked the facts. It always feels good to straighten a lie. Now I do not have to wonder which weird person would ever want to make babies out of sweets. Above all, I do not have to wonder which weirder person would ever want to eat them!
So if you ever get any email claiming that these babies are made out of sugar or marzipan, you know what the truth is — they definitely look sweet but they are not made of sweets! #
