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Plus tips to make it last longer
Halloween is almost here, so we only have a couple of days for your to carve pumpkin for the trick or treat this year. Don't panic if you haven't carved your pumpkin yet for our halloween day that falls on a Wednesday this year. This post will help you to prepare a pumpkin using what you have in your kitchen.
Material & Tools Needed:
A medium-big sized pumpkin with a wide surface for you to carve
Evil face picture from Google
Pen or pencil to mark your pumpkin
Small kitchen knife or steak knife
Spoon
Big soup spoon
A big plastic bowl for waste
Paper towel and/or old newspaper
Step-by-step guide
Un-carved pumpkin will stay good for 4-6 weeks. However, once you carved it the clock starts ticking to the time it become rotten. Once you cut a pumpkin, you have 10 good days or less to display it before it rot. A left over pulp string and seed will help to shorten your carved pumpkin lifespan. That's why the pulp string and seed cleaning process before carving is very important. Additional note, the this guide we are going to use the evil face that I carved in my pumpkin, see the pictures.
To clean the pumpkin:
Wipe clean the surface of your pumpkin with a wetted paper towel.
Put newspaper pages or paper towels on the surface where you are going to carve your pumpkin, take a small kitchen knife, a spoon, and a big plastic bowl to contain the waste.
Cut a big circle around the pumpkin stem to make a hole so we can clean it up. Position your knife at 45o degree in an outward direction to the stem and start cutting the circle.
Once you have the hole, start cleaning the pulp string and seed with your knife and big spoon. Dump everything to your big plastic bowl.
Make sure that there is no pulp string and seed remaining inside the pumpkin by digging using your spoon. Dump it to your big plastic bowl.
Now that you have an empty pumpkin with the sturdy meat wall, we need to clean it with bleach solution to clean it furthermore. Make a solution using 1 table spoon of bleach and 1 quartz of water in a bowl. Sprinkle your solution all over your pumpkin and dry it out using paper towel.
Carving the pumpkin:
Your pumpkin now is ready to be carved. Take your pen and start drawing on the pumpkin. Draw 2 eyes with pupil and big oval for the mouth, you don't need to draw the teeth now.
Peel the orange pumpkin skin inside the eyes and mouth area you drew. Remember to leave an orange circle for the pupil inside the eyes to make your pumpkin look alive.
To make a clear eye and mouth line, cut along the circle line and then cut from the inside from about 3mm from the lines, make a small 30o angle with the tip of your knife facing to the line. Once you have a clear line you can peel the skin inside easily.
Now, work on the eye. You now will have a peeled area that make the eye of the pumpkin. Carve the yellow area inside the eye deeper to get a dimension of light when we put light inside it. Be careful not to make a hole! :)
After you are done with the eye, you can start working on the teeth. There are 12 unequal teeth in the mouth area. The upper teeth are made bigger than the bottom ones with a pair of fang at the edges and 4 big teeth in the middle. The bottom teeth has 6 mini teeth.
Draw the teeth lines with your knife and try to carve it in a 3D form by carving the area for the holes deeper than the teeth. They should not be exactly the same, it will look more natural.
Once you have a good carved 3D in the mouth area, you can start cutting the holes.
Carve the teeth to oval shape furthermore to give it more dimension and clean the pumpkin again with tissue or paper towel.
Yay you now have your Halloween pumpkin!
How to make your pumpkin last longer?
You can do a couple of things to prevent your pumpkin from rotten.
Bleach solution bath. Use a basket that is big enough for you to dip your pumpkin, then fill 1/2 of it with water and 2-3 cups of bleach. Dip your pumpkin, roll it, and keep in the solution for 24 hr for. Take it the next day and dry it with paper towel for display.
Apply vaseline or vegetable oil on the carved edges. Do this once, after carving, but to lit a candle inside since it is flammable.
Rehydrate using bleach solution daily.
Store it in a fridge.
Give it an ice bath. Don't forget to dry it properly.
Display it at a stable temperature environment. Around lower 50 to upper 60 Fahrenheit.
I am happy with my pumpkin except that I didn't cut the edge nicely. It looks spooky in the dark. It took me 2.5 hours to clean and carve the pumpkin, but it was supper fun! I might do a second try with different pattern. Have fun carving your pumpkin!
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