Candy Clay Wrap Up

O.K so this is only about 2 months late.  But, I did want to do a brief report about my fabulous candy clay idea for my son’s candy theme birthday party.  It was not all I dreamed, but who could dream this?

I switched to colored melting disks made by Wilton.  (dumb.)  I thought it would be cool to have a lot of colors for the kids to play with especially since I was unsure about the ability of the food color markers to work on the surface of the oily candy.  So, in order to get a lot of colors, we had a LOT of candy clay.  I’m talkin’ pounds folks!

The only new and useful thing I have to tell you is this: when the instructions say to melt gently, them mean “uber” gently.  This stuff separated so badly that I was certain I would need to pitch it.  I spent a lot of time kneading the candy with my silpat mat to get it to come back together again, and was able to save most of it.

So the big Saturday arrives and I am well stocked with candy clay.  The day looks iffy weather-wise.  It has rained for days and there is only a chance that it will clear up.  I have mixed feelings about this.  On one hand, this means the clay project will take place in the dining room where I have nearly white carpeting.  On the other hand, I hate the carpet and have been neglecting it for years in the hopes that it will get so bad we will have no choice but to replace it.  This could be my big chance.

Party time, the rain stops.  The kids, who all have been cooped up for days due to rain and the start of school, go outside and play without giving the candy clay a second glance. (Who can blame them.)  The are all polite kids so they did give it a brief go.  I think only one kid actually completed some sort of sculpture, that he forgot to take home with him.  I was a little disappointed, but the rest of the party went really well, so who can complain.

The party gods were certainly on my side though.  That evening S started to complain of a sore throat.  Early Monday he was diagnosed with strep throat.  So my little project that would’ve meant lots of germ-my hands playing in moist candy to be eaten later would’ve been the perfect way to infect a group of children, except the great outdoors were a greater temptation. Huzzah!  No one who was at the party got sick.  How great is that!  (But I’m still stuck with this awful carpet.)

Candy Clay, Take Two

The second recipe is based on candy melting disks and is very simple.  But, despite the simplicity there were some variations among the recipes I found.  All of them used the candy melting disks combined with corn syrup.  The weight of the disks used varied from 10 oz. to 16 oz.,  but oddly the amount of corn syrup always remained at 1/3 cup.  The other difference was the amount of cooling time, this varied from 3 hours to overnight.  For my version I decided to use 14 ounces of disks (1/3 cup corn syrup) and cool for 3 hours.  

Here is how things went for me.

I slowly melted 14 oz. of candy disks, and then stirred in 1/3 cup corn syrup.  The disk were initially very smooth and creamy with a matte surface after melting.  I noticed a change in the quality of the disks as soon as I added the syrup.  It became gooier  and much more shinny.  At first I thought this was the effect of the cool syrup lowering the temperature but the texture change persisted even after the syrup was fully incorporated and warmed.

 

Candy Clay Cooling on Silicone Mat

I then poured the mixture out onto a silicone mat to cool.  Waxed paper would also be suitable.  You can see the clay is very shiny.  There seemed to be a layer of oil on the surface of the clay.  Most of the oil was pulled back into the clay as it cooled.  I then covered the clay with waxed paper to avoid cat prints from my very curious pets.

Candy Clay Bear Made With Melting Disk Recipe

After three hours of cooling, I made bear in the picture above.  

Here is how the clay rated against my criterion.

• Stickiness:  A little less sticky than the first recipe I tried.  The stickiness here was due to oil from the melting disks and not a sugar stickiness.  B-
• Color Fast: OOPS!  I forgot to color this clay, so I don’t know the answer here.
• Consistency: As you can see in the photo above, this clay held the shape much better than the first recipe.   A-
• Taste: Like white chocolate.  B+  But, I’m sure that the quality of the melting disks used could vary a great deal.  It will pretty much taste like what ever disks you purchase.

Red: "Frosting" Clay, White: Melting Disk Clay

Over all I think I liked the melting disk clay better.  A disadvantage of this clay is that you need to use the stove to melt the disks; clearly this can’t just be handed to young kids for an “on their own” project.  Since I will prep this clay in advance, the use of the stove is not an issue, and the active prep time for this clay was less than the frosting clay.  The white clay seemed to handle much better, and held shapes much better.  As you can see in the photo above, the frosting like clay continued to slump even more after I took the first photo.  I am also considering just leaving the melting disk clay white and letting the kids color their creations with food coloring markers.  I will probably chill them in the fridge for a while before coloring.  I know some kids will love sculpting with the clay, some will just eat it and some will head straight for the sand box.  But everyone will be busy.

Plans for our party are going well and I’m really looking forward to the day.  I will post some photos of the kid’s sculptures (and maybe mine) after the party next month.

BTW, I finished the invites yesterday.  I think they will be a hit!

Candy Birthday Party Invites. The invitation is printed on the reverse of the wrapper.

 

 

 

Candy Clay

Birthday parties are a big deal at our house.  We get a little crazy and always try to do something out of the ordinary.  Last year we had a Pokemon party.  Since the characters in Pokemon frequently are on the road and camp out a lot, we did too.  I borrowed a digital projector and we showed Pokemon movies on the back of the house while the kids roasted marshmallows.  Later they all retired to tents.  You can see the cake I made on the Photos page.

This year S has requested a “candy” party.  As an activity, I thought we should make some sort of edible candy craft.  Candy clay seems the perfect thing.  Many of the guests bring younger siblings and pleasing them all is sometimes problematic.  If they are not interested in sculpting with it, they can still eat it.

I started hunting around the net looking for recipes and found lots of variations of one that used candy melting disks and one other that was frosting like.  I decided it might be a good idea to test the recipes first.  The potential for disaster seems pretty high.  (Our party will be outside and I can just see 8 children covered in sticky goo that leaves brightly covered stains on everything after we turn the hose on them!)  I would like a candy clay is not too sticky, is relatively color fast, has a consistency similar to playdoh, and would taste good.  I decided to try the frosting like recipe first. Here it is: 

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup margarine, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• food coloring

1. Combine powdered sugar, corn syrup, salt, margarine, and vanilla extract in a large bowl.  

2. Mix until the dough doesn’t feel sticky.  You may add more powdered sugar to make it less sticky 1/4 to 1/3 cup.  be sure to add it slowly and stop when the dough feels dry.

3. Divide the dough into smaller balls and put each ball into a separate bowl.

4. Add a few drops of food coloring to each bowl.  Make the dough in each bowl a different color.

5. Mix the food coloring into the dough with a spoon so you don’t stain your hands.  Once the food coloring starts ti blend in, use your hands to knead it in.

6. Sculpt a creation.  Eat them soon as they will become rock hard over time.

THE RESULTS:

I made a 1/2 recipe all in the same color to keep things simple.  The clay took a lot of mixing to get it to come together.  I did have to add the extra 1/3 cup of powdered sugar, ABOUT THREE TIMES!  The clay was very sticky for a long time.  I added about 1 teaspoon of red paste color.  When I got to the point of kneading the clay, I added MORE powdered sugar, maybe a cup.  I stopped when the surface of the clay would crack a little when I pushed down on it.  Despite all the extra sugar this clay still gets sticky when your hands get warm.  It is sugar after all.  So, here is how it rates on my criterion.

• Stickiness:  Not too bad, although doing this on a sunny deck may be problematic.  C
• Color Fast: Also, not bad a after all the mixing was done and it rested for a minute or two. B
• Consistency: As you can see in the photo below, there is a lot of slump.  C-
• Taste: Like frosting.  S thought we should have something that tasted more like candy, or that we flavor each color differently.  That would be easily accomplished by substituting various extracts for the vanilla.

Candy Clay Bear made with the "Frosting" Recipe

So, I think I will test the other recipe sometime next week.  Look for Candy Clay Take 2.