How to Carve A Perfect Pumpkin

Well here it is, Wild Daddy’s guide on how to carve a pumpkin, simple but perfect, basics first. For a straightforward scary-faced pumpkin here’s a simple tutorial on what to do:

How To Carve a Basic Pumpkin

You will need:

Pumpkin – why not pick your own? Find out how and where here
Pen
Sharp knife
Spoon for scooping

Method:

Cut a slice off the top of the pumpkin, saving the top to make a lid. You can cut it smoothly across or in a zig-zag pattern for variety
Scoop out the guts with a strong spoon
Save the innards to make Caroline’s pumpkin guts lucky dip, roast the seeds or make a pumpkin pie
Using the knife and spoon as required, carefully remove the remaining pumpkin flesh to leaving a roughly 2-3cm layer of flesh all the way round
Using a pen or pencil, mark out your design.
Gradually cut along your design lines, a section at a time
Place a tea light candle inside the pumpkin
Light the candle and place the lid on top

Image of toddler-in-witches-hat-carrying-pumpkin

Image of man-and-girl-carving-pumpkins-at-a-table-with-skeleton-in-background

Wild Daddy’s Tips for Perfect Pumpkin Shading

Now for the more technical stuff. For a more detailed design with light and shading Wild Daddy says: –

Pumpkin Carving Tools

“Whilst you can buy extra equipment – scalpels, scrapers and various sculpting implements, as an amateur I stick to a very sharp knife (my leatherman, naturally) and a couple of spoons: one large and strong for big scoops, an ice-cream scoop is excellent here; one small but equally as stong, melon baller anyone?

Pumpkin Design

Decide on the design before cutting the lid. This will help you decide on the size and shape to cut out – it certainly does not have to be symmetrical – it will also be influenced by the shape of the pumpkin and where your chosen design best fits.

Draw the design on the pumpkin with a biro or felt pen including any shading it requires.

Pumpkin Shading Technique

To acheive different levels of shading when the candle is lit use these four techniques: –

White – candlelight shows – cut right through
Light – less light shows – skin removed, not cut right through
Dark – little light shows – skin intact, flesh carved away behind
Black – no light shows – skin intact, flesh solid behind

These pictures show my 2010 Gruffalo pumpkin with and without a tealight (Wild Mummy wasn’t thinking ‘blog’ when these were taken so the camera flash doesn’t do the unlit photo justice)

Image of carved gruffalo-design-on-unlit pumpkin

Image of pumpkin-carved with gruffalo face design

Once the design is finished the tealight enhances the shading

So, let’s get started on the advanced techniques……

How to Carve Dark & Light Areas on a Pumpkin

Hollow out the entire pumpkin to within 3-4 centimetres of the skin, or a depth that ensures no light will shine through
For dark areas, leave the skin intact, carefully scooping out some flesh from behind – if in doubt don’t scrape too close to the skin, you can always adjust this later
For light areas make sure to leave thin black strips (untouched skin) to act as lines between the areas of light shading. Score the skin around the areas to be removed and then scoop out flesh from within, leaving some flesh at the front to adjust later if necessary. This time however, use the sharp knife to peel off the skin within the scored lines, leaving exposed flesh
In order to give defintion to any outlines in your design (e.g the outline of the Gruffalo’s ears which are created by leaving the skin intact) carefuly scrape away some skin around the outside edges of the black lines
Finally, with the sharp knife score the skin along any lines that will be completely cut through and removed in the traditional manner. This makes it easier to stop the blade from slipping when you cut the flesh, which could damage your design

Tips

For a brighter look, make cuts that open wider as the hole goes in to the pumpkin

For a darker, more contained look, make the inside edge of the hole smaller than the outer

For precise scooping out cut as deep into the flesh as you need before scraping it out from inside, using the knife to cut chunks instead of scraping with a spoon. Just be careful not to pierce the skin

Check the shading by placing a light inside to ensure that the thickness of the flesh is correct, scraping away more where not enough light is getting through

Don’t scrape through too much flesh – a thin film of flesh will quickly dry out, shrink and tear after a day or so

Tealight placement is important too – make sure you have taken enough flesh out of the bottom of the inside so that the flame can shine up and out through all your carving.

Enjoy Halloween.”