Whoever thought that carving pumpkins was only for children and their fathers is very much mistaken: Carving a real Halloween shocker out of a pumpkin requires a lot of skill and imagination.
Particularly creative minds come the pumpkin even with jigsaw and drill on the pellet, or. Peel, instead of working on him with the knife. You can also! We tell you which pumpkin is best suited for carving, how the pumpkin decoration lasts particularly long and what cool alternatives there are to the obligatory scary face.
This pumpkin variety is perfect for carving
In early September, we find the first pumpkins in the supermarket – from Hokkaido, to butternut to spaghetti squash. The only question is: what kind of pumpkin is best for carving? Quite simple: the Halloween pumpkin. The pumpkin variety with the appropriate name, makes the pumpkin purchase easy. This large pumpkin (also known as Jack O’ Lantern in English) has a particularly thin and at the same time hard wall and a large interior, so you can easily work on it.
Theoretically you can carve a face into any kind of pumpkin, but the bigger the fruit, the easier it is. Also the Hokkaido makes a good template for a scary face and you can use the spooned out pulp directly for a soup. Here’s a tasty pumpkin soup recipe for you to try. In contrast to the Hokkaido, the large Halloween pumpkin is not particularly tasty, i.e. the leftovers end up in the trash.
These are the tools you need to carve a pumpkin
To give your Halloween pumpkin a particularly nasty face, there are various practical aids and tools:
- Cutter knife
- alternative: a small knife with a constant thick blade
- a large spoon or small garden shovel
- optional: chisel and hammer
- optional for professionals: carving knife
- for preservation: Vaseline
A no-go when carving pumpkins: the classic kitchen knife. The reason: The risk of injury is particularly high here. The blade is usually wide at the back and then tapers to a point at the front, which makes carving more difficult. In addition, the handle is far away from the blade, which makes precise work difficult. Optionally, you can use a kitchen knife with a serrated and consistently thick blade or a jigsaw.
Step by step: scoop out pumpkin properly
- Clean: Lay out a newspaper on the workspace to protect it, and use a damp rag to remove any gross dirt from the pumpkin.
- Cut out the lid: Using a cutter knife, cut in a circle (or jagged) along the stump of the pumpkin until the lid comes off. You can also use a jigsaw for the fun factor. It’s best to pre-draw the cutting pattern, otherwise it will quickly become crooked. The opening should be large enough so that you can easily scoop out the flesh afterwards.
- Scoop out: Once the lid is off, it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty: To do this, scoop out the entire interior to a thickness of 2 to 3 centimeters using a large spoon or small garden shovel. The thinner the remaining wall layer, the thinner the pumpkin will be. Do a test with a flashlight.
- Lubricate: Now comes the Vaseline into play: the entire interior and the cut edge with Vaseline lubricate, this makes the pumpkin more durable.
And now it’s time to carve. Now choose the carving variant that best suits you (and your skills).
1. The Halloween classic: carve a scary pumpkin
You can’t go far wrong with a classic scary face for Halloween. These tips will make carving easier:
- Use a stencil and a waterproof marker to draw a spooky face on the pumpkin.
- Cut out the face along the lines with a craft knife.
- You can use a chisel to make the grimace even more intricate if you don’t cut out the whole eye or mouth directly – like the Pinterest example below:
Or maybe you’ll be inspired by this creepy cabinet:
Important: Before you use a regular wax tea light, be sure to cut a triangle on the back of the pumpkin for the air supply. Or simply use an LED light.
2. Carving a pumpkin with a drill
Carving with a cutter knife is too exhausting and time consuming for you? Or maybe you’re afraid of hurting yourself? If you have two left hands, you should rather go to carving method 2: the “carving” with the drill. With this all-around tool, you’ll make your own pumpkin art easily and without bloodshed:
Here’s how pumpkin carving with a drill works:
- Scary face or other arbitrary patterns as points on the pumpkin paint.
- Remove the lid from the pumpkin and hollow out completely (see above for instructions)
- Cut out dots pattern with a drill and remove the remnants from the pumpkin interior.
- Insert tea light or LED tea light, done.
Variation 1: Star Wars pumpkin
Let your creativity run wild when carving (or piercing) pumpkins with a drill – the more unusual, the cooler the result, as this example shows:
Variant 2: Decorative pumpkin for your sweetheart
Your girlfriend is mad again for no reason? Just drill her a decorative pumpkin, then everything is forgotten again, promised.
Conclusion: You don’t have to be a Halloween fan to carve pumpkins
And now we wish you a lot of fun trying it out. For all men who have already given up after step 2 of the carving instructions: no problem. Just put ice in the hollowed out pumpkin and it has a new function as a beer cooler. This tastes us.