We have a lot of leftover candy corn. I mean A LOT. I love the stuff but it’s hard to consume all of it on my own. Actually, it would be pretty easy but I think my lovely, caring wife might get on my case about not having enough variety in my diet, in which case she would prescribe some of these.
I have been asking friends what we should do with all this delicious candy corn. One person suggested making art projects with the candies, gluing them to construction paper to make pretty pictures. I thought perhaps they could be used as an ingredient in a recipe but cannot find one.
What would you do with a bunch of leftover candy corn?
My wonderful coworker Erin, who is our resident baker and craft goddess, made this little gingerbread house covered in chocolate. When i told her it looked good enough to eat, she warned me that it was actually a few wooden birdhouses spackled with chocolate. I maintain that this is enough for it to be technically edible. I will just have to wait until everyone goes home before licking it and will hope to not get splinters in my tongue.
If you look closely, you will notice that it is not just covered in chocolate, but it also has truffles and small pieces of chocolate on the outside. I am enjoying getting to know Erin and seeing the creative things she comes up with. Most of them are edible and rarely stay in our kitchen for a long time because of that, but some, like this, are on the line of edibility. I think it’s worth a try. Our front office smells like rich chocolate and it’s almost too tempting to just walk by. We will see how long it lasts.
I love December. I love Christmas and all the holidays this month - especially my birthday (I’m sure that’s on your calendar, right?). I love decorating and hosting parties and giving gifts (and getting gifts). I love everything about this month. And, given how much I also love candy, you’d think I’d be all about gingerbread.
The truth is, though, that I’m too lazy - or too busy, or a little of both - to be bothere
d most years. That’s why I love the pre-made kits you can buy from Wilton and other specialty baking companies. The kits even come with candy, though in my experience supplementing is always necessary because you can never have enough variety of candy on your gingerbread house.
This year, I’ve also noticed a plethora of bake your own gingerbread kits - the step in between starting from scratch and buying a kit - and I’m thinking about giving it a whirl. I love the concept because it allows you to choose your end results more specifically and to select all your own candy without feeling wasteful. There’s an option available at Williams-Sonoma and I found another at my local Trader Joe’s.
Then again, maybe I’ll skip the whole gingerbread baking project and just make a graham cracker gingerbread house.
NCA has put together some PDF files of candy-themed gift tags you can use. Simply print these on colored paper or else color in with crayons or markers - a great craft for kids! The one downside to this file is that there are no circus peanut images in there. I will have to fix that at some point…
Do you ever make your own gift tags? This can be a great way to add some creativity to gift giving!
A couple years ago, the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN, widely known as the largest mall in America, took on the project of hosting the largest gingerbread house for the winter holidays. There it is in the picture, and as you can see, people are lining up to walk into. Yes, it was that big.
That’s pretty neat, right? Well, not so fast. Here’s the thing you may not have know about this giant gingerbread abode. Unlike the ones we make at home, this one had an internal metal frame. You can see the top of it, still under construction, in this photo.
Is that fair? Seems to me that this is a bit like cheating. What do you think?
Gingerbread House by jpellgen.
As you can tell, Rosa’s gingerbread house is in a pretty good area of town. Her gingerpeople residents made snowpeople decorations for the front yard and keep the place well-decorated and looking very nice. Go check out more of her pictures. When I lived in Worcester, MA, I lived in a neighborhood that looked a bit like this, except less tasty to eat:
Have you made a gingerbread house? Leave a link in the comments. We want to see the photos!
I know you want the new occupants of your gingerbread house to move in quickly, and I am sure they will feel comfortable enough to have you install some snowmen for decoration. Okay, maybe I take candy’s feelings too seriously, but as soon as you build a house for a candy creature, you have already given it a personality, right? At any rate, let’s make some decorations and we can talk about our various neuroses later.
Supplies:
Marshmallow Snowmen
- large marshmallows
- small drink stirrers/straws or toothpicks
- icing
- small candy pieces
Icing Recipe
Ingredients:
- 3 egg whites
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 (16 oz.) box of confectioners sugar
Directions:
- In a large bowl combine all ingredients. Beat several minutes with an electric mixer until smooth. The icing should be thick. Use food coloring to achieve the desired color effects.
- The icing will harden quickly. Store in a tightly sealed container if you are not using it right away. While you work with the icing, keep a damp cloth over the unused portion.
Instructions:
- Trim the toothpick or drink stirrer to the exact height of two marshmallows stacked one on the other.
- Insert the trimmed toothpick or drink stirrer into the two marshmallows.
- Use icing to adhere candy pieces to marshmallow to create fun faces, scarves, hats and buttons.
