Alfeñique

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Alfeñique, also called alfenim in Brazil and Portugal, is a Spanish sweet made from cane sugar mixed with other ingredients. It is molded into long or twisted shapes and has been used in Hispanic American celebrations since colonial times. It started in Islamic Spain as Al-Fanid, a warm, wet remedy. In Granada it was made from sugar, water, honey and almond oil and stretched into a paste.

Today, alfeñique is best known for calaveras, or sugar skulls, made for Mexico’s Day of the Dead in November. The main places making them are Toluca, San Miguel de Allende, and Guanajuato. People create hundreds of shapes—animals, skulls, coffins, angels and more. The craft has become more elaborate, with fairs in Toluca and León and many decorative styles for different occasions.

To make the paste, powdered sugar is mixed with chautle, a vegetable glue, and lemon. Egg whites are beaten and folded in. Colorful food dyes are added. The paste is kept soft with a damp cloth. Molds are cleaned and dusted with flour so the sugar doesn’t stick. The paste is pressed into thin circles, placed in the molds, and left to dry for about 24 hours. The two halves are joined with more paste and left to dry again before decorating with cotton, sequins, sugar decorations, plastic jewels and other adornments.

Regional variations exist. In Oaxaca, skulls, crowns, crucifixes and other dead figures are made from crystallized sugar with honey inside. In the State of Mexico, popular shapes include coffins, hearses, deer, sheep, angels, fruit and white skulls. In Puebla, skulls and coffins are common, using almonds, peanuts and pumpkin seeds mixed with sugar and egg like almond paste. Many families keep making these figures for generations, and some homes display them as decorations.