Making the Candy

(*See post below if you missed it!)

Meringues

I had to get a little creative with the meringues. I was too cheap to by the icing-decorator-tube-dealio with the star shaped tip. Looking around my kitchen, I spotted a water bottle cap. I can't really say how the thought formed, but suddenly I was melting the cap over my stove top. Turns out the plastic goes clear and you can shape it (pic with pliers below). Several caps later, I realized the plastic was just too thin once stretched to hold up to the pressure of icing.

*Aside: Did you know if you melt plastic too much it kind of disintegrates and disappears, leaving a hole? Probably turns into plastic fumes. Don't worry. I opened a window! (I can see my Mom's eyes rolling now).

Anyway, I began scouring my kitchen again. This time, I found a bottle of Sunny-D. Cut the handle, snip triangles out, melt the tips over the stove and curl them in, and VOILA! Poke it through a plastic bag and seal with packing tape, Badda-bing, badda-boom! It's a little rough, but hey, it was my first attempt. Watch out world. I am Rebecca Hanks. I will save money! (At the sacrifice of a few brain cells).

Confession #1... The before is from batch 1. The after is from batch 2. Apparently I've been out of school too long and didn't do the math right for my baking time. Burned the bottoms. Just slightly. But I decided to attempt again, given how easy they are to make. Messy, but easy. I also figured out the coloring better, so success!

Chocolate Creams (Cremes?)

The chocolate creams were always my favorite growing up. I remember rolling the mint creme into little balls and trying to control my anticipation for dipping them in the chocolate. I got a kick out of covering the little toothpick hole with a drop of chocolate!

Confession #2 - Dan is the only reason these turned out. I don't have a double broiler to melt the chocolate in. I attempted the old "pot in a pot of water" trick. Didn't work. Not ideal for chocolate dipping anyway. I had a mini freak out. Fortunately some ingenuity on Dan's part (and some soothing words) we had my fondue pot tipped to the side, and a crisis adverted. I also want to point out the back side of my table in the bottom picture. ALL ingredients, half opened and most-likely spilled. Being a great baker comes at a bit of a cost. This time the sacrifice was my kitchen and table!

Fudge

There really isn't much to say about this one except MMMMMMM!!! So good. My Grandparent's Rocky-Road Fudge, minus the "Rocky". (I'm not a big fan of nuts in chocolate stuff). I threw in a giant scoop or two of caramel instead. No confessions on this one... except that it's sinfully delicious! And... it makes A TON. Though, I'm complaining about that...

And in the end... I'm pretty sure it took me just as long to do all the dishes as it did to make all the candy...

*If you're wondering "what about the peanut brittle?"... It was delicious! Ha, the only picture I have is the one in the last post, in the fridge. Same with the chocolate mint pinwheels. Fun to make, so-so to eat, and not a special recipes, so que-cera!