Monday, October 18, 2010

Cute Candy Buttons and Butterflies - and a giveaway!

I make an effort to make my food look nice, which most of the time just means being tidy so that batter doesn't make weird shapes, swirling icing on with a piping bag, or dusting the finished product with icing sugar. Sometimes it's necessary to go a bit further than that, though. For example, when baking for kids' parties it's nice if the decoration takes another step up, to, say, incorporate a theme - or just get the consumers to massage your ego a little by exclaiming how lovely they are!


There are a bunch of ways of doing this kind of thing - I quite often like to play with white icing (called fondant in the US), because it's easy to colour and you can shape it with your hands or roll it and use cutters - plus it tastes good, which is the most important part! Chocolate is another great medium - but kind of limiting in that it's brown, and doesn't easily take on other hues... Enter candy melts! These are similar to white chocolate, but with no cocoa butter so they're easy to melt without having to temper it or anything fussy - like the 'white chocolate' melts you get from the supermarket but they come in a bunch of vivid colours.


I was very keen to try these out - and I've had my eye on this button mould for a long time, since I spied it on Bake it Pretty a year or so back. When I saw Kirstin from Torte had ordered a bunch of these from the US I ordered a couple of packets to try - and she has generously sent me seven packets, one of each colour, to give to one of you lucky folk!


The melts are super easy to use - would be awesome for getting the kids in the kitchen, if you're willing to risk a bit of mess! ;-) You pop the melts in a microwave-proof container, then zap for 40-50 seconds, stir, then zap in 10-20 second bursts until the candy melts. It's a bit thicker than melted chocolate - keep that in mind if you want to dip things, since they'll have a thicker coating than they might with chocolate - and sets pretty quickly once you put it in a mould or whatever you want to do.


As well as the button mould I got this cute butterfly mould, which I think will make perfect cupcake decorations. I used a paintbrush to put a thin layer of one colour on the inside of the mould, and then let it set before filling it with another colour. This makes them a bit more interesting, I think - and depending how artistic you're feeling you could paint details on too.


I made buttons with each of the three colours I got, to get a cute and colourful assortment of 'buttons'. This mould was a bit of a pain to get the shapes out of when they were set, I think because each button is so small and the plastic is quite firm. However, it wasn't enough of a pain to stop me from having my buttons!


The butterflies were easier to get out, though a couple broke - I was probably a bit impatient. If you're doing this with small and eager helpers bigger, less fragile shapes might be more successful. Or it could be a lesson in patience! (guess I could use that lesson...)


I love the butterflies - they will definitely make gorgeous summery cupcakes. :-)



I'm really please with how the multi-colour thing worked, too - it was really easy, too; just a little paintbrush (like you might use for watercolours, or, if you're like me, cakey stuff!) and just play around.


I'm also happy with the buttons - how adorable are they? And they look like, well, buttons. ;-)


If you'd like to win some of these to try for yourself - one packet of each of the seven flavours - all you have to do is comment on this post before 7pm next Monday (the 25th of October) telling me what you would make if you won. Be as inventive (or conservative!) as you please.

Competition open to NZ residents only, sorry - sending this lot out of the country would probably bankrupt me! Candy melts (as well as lots of other cool stuff) are available from Torte.

12 comments:

  1. I sooo love this , i always have such a time with white choc melts !
    I'm popping over right now to Torte !
    Yay.

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  2. Can you get little lego block molds too? Those buttons look fairly impressive and give a whole new meaning to "chocolate buttons" - though any child watching an Uncle Sam eat buttons may think they can eat every button. Certainly looks easier than trying to get the right colour balance - and easier to match the next batch.

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  3. I hope to be organised and make xmas decorations in some moulds I have similar to your butterflys. (I may even make an advent calender). I also have a santa mould that is like an easter egg mould that would be fun to make in multiple colours.

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  4. Love to make some Christmas or easter decorations with these lovely colours. Do you get these colours in Moore Wilsons or somewhere. I live in Wellington too

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  5. Hi Rosa! I've actually just brought some high-heel shoe chocolate moulds that could do with some fun colours!

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  6. As you may know I'm moving house this weekend so I would love to use them to make celebratory cupcakes (either to share with anyone that volunteers to help me shift, or with my co-workers who have given me so much helpful advice on mortgages etc)

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  7. My son is getting married shortly and I have some cupcakes and shortbreads to decorate for day after wedding celebration. These would be ideal. I also have the butterfly mould and as they are having monarch butterflies at their wedding it would be great to experiment with them.

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  8. Thay do look fun.
    What about making BB Anchors for your Uncle and Grandfather!

    SG :-)

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  9. wow! I like the pastel pink melts and the green ones! crazy.
    my best friend is coming back to visit from Sydney in a few weeks and I've made her some bunting to go in her bedroom...so maybe if I won these I could make her some delicious cupcakes and decorate them since we both have the biggest sweet teeth ever! (not literally although it would be hilarious if we both had ginormous teeth that tasted sweet!)

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  10. looks grear. i think I would start getting ready for Christmas with multicoloured advent calender s. Thanks for the great ideas, Appreciated your tips on choc cake

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  11. I love your blog :)
    I own a lot of chocolate moulds - Strawberry Shortcake, numbers, letters, hearts, you name it - but these pretty colours would be perfect for my "girly" shapes. There's a lipstick, high heel shoe, a handbag, tiara, a ring and a pair of lips. Ideal for my daughter's 8th birthday party in a few weeks!

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  12. Think of the Xmas choc possibilities.....and hand made ones are so much better than the commercial foil wrapped ones. Looks like you had fun with your candy melts! Kimberley

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