Tag: candy

Carnival in your kitchen… and on your sofa… and in the carpet… and on the drapes…

Nostalgia Electrics Retro Series 50's Style Cotton Candy Machine

The carnival has packed up and is heading off into the sunset. The sounds of the midway are faint in the air. A slight breeze carries the scent of fried foods and roller coaster grease. You take a step forward, hoping to capture one last taste of the county fair and all that it has to offer. Instead, you find a sticky paper cone attached to the bottom of your sole; a piece of pink-stained detritus left over from the summer carnival.

Lucky for you, you can take that crumpled tube of paper and breath new life into it with your very own cotton candy machine. The Nostalgia Electrics Retro Series 50’s Style Cotton Candy Machine is a countertop appliance set to spin all year long. Just add sugar mixture and use the included reusable plastic cones to catch the freshly flossed cotton candy as it spins out of the machine. Now, that sticky and goopy mess that you thought you left out in the fairgrounds can finally be made at home. Lucky you.

Spooky gingerbread house is a home for candy corn

Fox Run Halloween Gingerbread Haunted House Kit

As far as gingerbread houses go, Halloween seems like the perfect holiday for them. Candy flows freely during this time of year, a happenstance that offers mounds of sugary treats just waiting to be converted into building supplies. Alas, the fat man in the red suit has usurped this logical practice, turning gingerbread houses everywhere into gumdrop-adorned travesties of tradition. Well, no longer!

The Fox Run Halloween Gingerbread Haunted House Kit offers the ability for kids of all ages to decorate a gingerbread house the way it was meant to be. Plastic pumpkins and pillowcases full of chocolate treats finally have a place to end up aside from turning into a melted glob of goo found under the mattress months down the road. Perhaps most importantly, this gingerbread house finally supplies a place to put all that horrible candy corn. Comes with seven cookie cutters, a cardboard base and an icing set for decorating.

***Update 10/21/24: The candy corn escaped! Product above no longer available. But lo! What do we spy here? A Halloween Haunted Gingerbread House with reviews on par with candy corn!

Halloween Haunted Gingerbread House, Cookie Decorating DIY Kit with Sour Candy, Instructions Included, 26 Ounces Brand: Bee International, Inc.

Diving into candy coating

Sweet Coating Maker for the KitchenAid stand mixer

Candy is made in giant tumblers that coat nuts and other small ingredients in sugar. Just put in your ingredients and turn it on. Before you know it, you have a (great big) batch of candy. While most of us do not have the luxury of installing one of these people-sized machines in our home (or the need for that much candy), we can use the stand mixer to make some candy with this simple attachment.

The Sweet Coating Maker works with the KitchenAid stand mixer and is capable of producing 30 pounds of candy-coated sweetness per hour. The stainless-steel tumbler allows you to coat fruit, nuts, or other candy pieces in sugar or even chocolate and almond paste. With about a 16-inch diameter, the attachment is considerably smaller than its industrial cousins, making sure that it won’t take up too much room when not in use—or tempt us to dive in and candy-coat ourselves.

***UPDATE***
The link above no longer works, so give this one a spin: De Buyer Sweet Coating System

Ring Pops to the max

tovolomolds

Ring Pop’s were so 80’s. Or were they 70’s? Either way, you can bring the fashion trend up to date with Tovolo Frozen Jewel Popsicle Molds. The set features six different popsicle molds that rest in a spill-resistant base. When done, just pop ’em out of the freezer and turn your fingers into a glamorous (and sticky) fashion statement. Ring Pops have had a good ride, but every good trend needs an update. Stay ahead of the curve and catch these fashion pops before they melt.

Bacon forever–or at least seven years in your stomach

Bacon Gumballs

Bacon is so 2008… and 2009… and will be so 2010, 2011, 2012…

You see my point: Bacon never goes out of style. It is just too delicious to ignore. The bacon meme has given us everything from the bacon bra to a Bacon Explosion (not necessarily at the same time), and it’s a trend that may never let up. Think of it: bacon (and all that it goes with) could attain that iconic status only reserved for the pinnacle of American taste and culture. I’m talking the level of Elvis on a UFO here.

If the wonderful taste of bacon suffers from anything, it would be portability. It’s rather hard to fry up some bacon anytime, anywhere, which is why we have Bacon Gumballs. One tin supplies 22 bacon-flavored gumballs, each one a potent defense against bacon cravings. While the real thing will never be replaced by any novelty, bacon on the go sure makes it easy to counter the cravings while dreaming up what to do with those five pounds of bacon you have waiting for you at home.

On-demand caramel apples: The Apple Dipper

Apple Dipper

Some people like to keep a dish of candy on a nearby side table. Whenever the candy craving hits, a sweet treat is never too far away. As practical as that may be, some people appreciate other sweets adorning their tabletops. Like caramel. Melted caramel.

The Apple Dipper is probably not intended as a perpetual sugar-dispensing device, but it does have that capability. Designed to melt caramel and keep it heated, the dipper is a fun way to create caramel apples. Turn it on, fill it up and dip away. Be careful though, with the ability to keep caramel in a continual ready-to-dip state, that candy dish is going to get jealous!