Cake Pop Giveaway Winner

Congratulations Ahl Cooped Up, you're the winner of the cake pop kit!

Thanks to everyone who entered! And remember Monday they'll be another giveaway, so be sure and stop by to enter. 

Have a Happy Weekend!

Valentine's Paper Tape Candy (Candy Buttons)

Reminder- My cake pop kit GIVEAWAY is open until Friday January 25th. If you haven't entered yet, hop on over and leave a comment!


Paper Tape Candy, Candy Buttons, or Candy Dots- whatever you call them I love em'. But I'll tell you a little secret, it's not for the taste (which is good, just not the reason I love them so much). It's because of the colors. The rows and rows of colors all lined up just look too pretty to resist!

So when I learned that making it was nothing more than dots of royal icing, I was excited to try it for myself. But that got me thinking- if you're going to make it at home, you don't have to just make dots. Why not make something really custom that you couldn't get in any store?

Like say... hearts for Valentine's Day... in an ombré color scheme.

Or X's and O's and Love U's

All packaged up, these make fabulous Valentine's Day treats or party favors. And how adorable would something like this be as a wedding favor! You could even make sheets with the couple's initials!

How to make Valentine's Paper Tape Candy: I've also made my bag tags and pattern grid available as a FREE download! You'll find them at the bottom of this post.

Materials:

• Royal Icing, tinted to whatever shades you like.
• Piping Bags
• Piping Tips and Couplings: Number 2 Round (for Hearts), Number 1 Round (for Letters). Ideally one tip for each color (but you can wash them between colors if you have to).
• Bowl and Spoon for each color icing
• Wax Paper
• Pattern Grid (download below)
• Card Stock
• Treat Bags- 4 in X 9.5 in
• Bag Tags (download below)
• Stapler
• Painter's Tape

Start by making a batch of royal icing, tint to whatever colors you like. For my icing I used the recipe that came in a can of meringue powder and halved it- because trust me, a little bit of icing goes a long way when you're making paper tape candy! I also added vanilla flavoring.

Download (at the bottom of the post) and print the grid and tags. Or if you like- make your own.

Cut and fold the tags so they're ready to go.

Cut pieces of wax paper and a pieces of card stock into 3 inch by 8 inch strips. Cut one for each sheet of candy you plan to make.

Tape the wax paper over each grid using painter's tape. Painter's tape is the best thing I found that will stick to both the wax paper and printer paper but will also peel off easily. I found that laying the wax paper curl side down was best... I'll explain why in a just a second.

Note on the grid: The one pictured is my handmade one. The one available for download is a neater version. There are two grids on each 8.5 x 11 inch sheet.

Most of the ways I've seen for making homemade paper tape candy use regular printer paper to hold the candy dots. However I'm a firm believer in using only food-grade items on anything that comes in direct contact with food. Printer paper has chemicals in it- and while they probably won't make you sick or kill you- it's still not intended (or approved) for food. The icing comes off the wax paper easier than it would regular paper, but I didn't have any problems with my candy falling off. I tested both sides of the wax paper and found that the candy stuck to the back just a little bit better than the front- which is why I recommend laying it curl side down. Oh and by the way, don't use parchment paper, the icing will just fall right off!

Now it's time to pipe. I did one color at a time so I didn't have to switch piping bags constantly. And if you don't have enough piping tips for all your colors this approach is helpful because you can wash the tip after each color and use it on the next.

For the hearts I piped "V" shapes using a round number two tip. As the icing spreads the "V's" fill in to make a heart shape. Having the grid behind the wax paper helped me to get the spacing even. Piping the "V"s turned out not to be any harder that piping little dots, in fact it might have been easier!

For the letters I used a number one round tip. The smaller tip allowed the icing to spread without making the letters too chunky looking. I used my heart grid for this too and the spacing worked out fine.

Tip: If you make a mistake you can wipe the icing right off the wax paper. That's one of the nice things about using wax paper instead of printer paper!

Once the icing is dry the sheets can be packaged. Place a piece of the cut card stock behind the sheet of candy. The card stock helps the wax paper not bend too much, which could result in candy falling off.

Slide both the card stock and the candy sheet into a treat bag. Sandwich the top of the bag between the front and back of the tag, and staple on each side to secure it in place.

Downloads: I've made my grid and both tag designs available as FREE downloads. These are for personal use only. Please respect the time it took me to make these by not using them for any commercial purposes.

Get the Grid

Get the"You're a Sweetheart!" Tag

Get the "Sweethearts" Tag

Enjoy!

Giveaway: Valentine's Cake Pop Kit

The actual date of my 4th Blogiversary arrives this week. (Wow- I can't believe it's been that long!)
And I'm continuing to celebrate with the second giveaway, in my four weeks of anniversary giveaways.

Over these last four years edible crafts have become an intrinsic part of my blog- so I thought it only fitting to give some sort of edible craft kit away.

One (1) lucky winner will get this Valentine's Day Themed Cake Pop Kit.

It comes with everything you need (except cake mix and frosting) to make cake pops for Valentine's Day.

I chose this particular item for a few reasons: I like making edible crafts- especially with holiday themes. One of the very first blogs I began reading regularly was an edible craft blog (before that I hardly knew what blogging was). And one of the reasons I started making edible crafts in the first place was because of how inspired I was by all the wonderfully creative sweets I saw in the blogosphere.
They helped me to see the potential in candy and cake the same way I saw it in paper and glue.

Over these last four years I've been able to discover and explore the artistic possibilities of edible mediums, and connect a bit with my family heritage I have in the sugar arts. So this kit seemed perfect.

This Giveaway Is: Now Closed

Open to US residents only (sorry international readers it's too difficult to ship food through customs)
It runs from Monday January 21st 2013 at 12:00 AM EST-  Friday January 25th 2013 at 11:59AM EST.

To Enter:

• Leave a comment for 1 entry. (You can just say hi or tell me why you want to win this kit)
• If you're a follower or you become a follower you get a second entry. Just leave a separate comment telling me you follow my blog.

Important: If your name and email aren't in your profile, please make sure you leave it in your comment. If I can't contact you by email- sorry but your entry will be disqualified.

Winner Notification: Congratulations Ahl Cooped Up you're the winner!

On Saturday January 26th, 2013 a random winner will be drawn using random.org. The winner will be notified at the email address provided with entry. They will also be announce in both this post as well as a new post on Saturday. If the winner doesn't respond within 48 hours of the announcement, a new winner may be drawn.

Thanks for Entering and Good Luck to All!