This recipe is great !! I also tried using just water and a drop of food coloring. This made some beautiful sugar shapes when I found an old spoon with a shell shaped bowl. Demitasse spoons work well too for smaller shapes. The key is the consistency of the sugar. It should be like wet sand but kind of dryish. You only need a few drops of water to knead into the sugar. If it is too wet it will stick to the mold even if you use cornstarch. If using egg white, I would just add a little at a time until I obtained the desired consistency. Experiment with the consistency so that is holds together after releasing from the mold. Be sure your mold is clean. You may have to clean it between the molding process. Just take the spoon with molded sugar, tap it onto a cookie sheet to release the molded sugar and pop it in the oven. If the shapes are thicker like mine were, you may need to leave it in the oven longer at 200 degrees. This works great. This is really very easy once you get the hang of it.

I give this recipe 0 stars! It is the worst I have tried in a long time. I couldn't wait to wash my hands of sugar to get up here to write. The sugar did not stay together to unmold so I kept adding egg whites to the tune of 5 and IT STILL WOULD NOT HOLD THE SHAPE! I WASTED 5lbs af sugar and 5 eggs to do this. I am an accomplished baker who does not shy away from any decorative task and I could not make this work. Eeesch. Terrible directions!