A seasonal skill, mastering the art of carving pumpkins can be fun and exciting. An opportunity to express your unique flair, while designing a pumpkin that is wacky and memorable, carve the pumpkin correctly and you can turn your creation into a delicious dish. Read our pumpkin carving guide to get the top tips!
A task enjoyed by many, we recommend helping children with carving their pumpkin to avoid any potential nasty accidents.
Many enthusiastic pumpkin carvers will spend much time designing on paper a truly terrifying design before stencilling onto their pumpkin. Whether you plan to stencil or draw free style, start pumpkin carving by following these simple steps.
Pumkin Carving Guide: 10 Steps On How To Carve A Pumpkin
- Using a large serrated knife, cut the top of the pumpkin (crown) at an angle. By cutting the middle of the pumpkin at an angle, when you replace the top, it will slot nicely back into its spot acting as a lid.
- Using a large spoon, scoop out the seeds and the fibres found inside of the pumpkin. Once you have scooped out the insides, remove some of the flesh.
- When it comes to drawing the face onto your pumpkin, you can either draw free hand or stencil your design onto the pumpkin. We recommend stencilling and practising your design before drawing onto your pumpkin.
- With a small serrated knife, remove the eyes, nose and mouth, making sure that you cut away from yourself for maximum protection.
- When cutting the pumpkin, we recommend cutting from the bottom upwards. This makes it easier and gives the pumpkin more support by eliminating the potential of the pumpkin caving in on itself.
- We recommend that you place the pumpkin onto your lap. By holding the pumpkin on your lap, it is easier to visualise the final piece with its face looking up at you
- Finish your scary pumpkin with a few tea lights. By placing a few tea lights inside of your pumpkin, you can achieve the nightmarish design you were going for.
- When carving your pumpkin, we recommend waiting as close as possible to Halloween as possible. This keeps the pumpkin fresh and looking in its prime condition.
- With ground cinnamon, sprinkle some of the cinnamon inside of the lid, this when the heat of the candle touches the cinnamon will create a delicious scent to make trick or treaters stop on your doorstep.
- The last thing we recommend for those planning on carving one scary pumpkin and that is to create a chimney. By testing with a small tealight, work out where the candle burns the lid before creating a small hole.
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