Archive for: candy corn
Candy corn is one of my favorite Halloween treats, and it’s a fall staple for many whether you are a fan of them or not. Lately, I’ve been using candy corn as inspiration to make some yellow, orange and white baked goods for the holidays, such as cupcakes and cookies. This fun candy corn-inspired pan from Wilton lets you use the candies as a template for creating candy corn-shaped cakes. The Candy Corn Mini Cake Pan has six triangular cavities, each with three lines dividing the cake where the candy corn typically change from one color to the next. You can use any batter you like as the base for your cakes and, after baking, you can use the lines as guides when applying your icing or fondant to get the candy corn look. The pan is nonstick, so you don’t need to worry about the cakes getting stuck in the pan.
Of course, candy corn cakes are something you might not want to make year-round. Fortunately, this pan can actually be used for other occasions, too. For instance, you can turn the triangles into little Christmas tree cakes for Christmas. The triangular cakes also look like slices of a full sized cake, so you could even just decorate them with non-holiday frosting for birthdays and other occasions. Still, the pan is perfect for candy corn-inspired baking and a fun thing to have around for October and November baking.
Candy corn are one of the most iconic Halloween candies out there. Some people love them, and some people hate them, but everyone seems to know exactly what the orange, yellow and white triangular candies are. I happen to be a fan of the slightly honey-flavored fondant candies, and put them out in candy jars both as a snack and for their colorful look.
These Candy Corn Cupcakes are candy corn in cupcake format. They’re orange and yellow miniature cupcakes (because candy corn are so small!) with a point of white icing on the top to give them that signature candy corn shape. They taste like regular vanilla cupcakes instead of candy corn, so everyone can enjoy them even if they don’t like the candies that inspired them, but definitely capture the colors of the season.
I made these by dividing up vanilla cupcake batter and dying one portion yellow and one portion orange. I piped the orange batter into mini cupcakes pans and topped it with the yellow batter, then baked them. Once the cupcakes baked, I cooled them and unwrapped them before frosting, and flipped them upside down so that the wide, yellow portion of the cake would be the base of my candy corn – just as it is in the real candies – and the cupcakes would have a more recognizable candy corn shape. Make sure to store these cupcakes in an airtight container once you’ve unwrapped and frosted them. Since the sides of the cake are unprotected, they will dry out a bit on the edges if they sit out for too long. As long as you store them in an airtight container, you shouldn’t have any problems.
Make sure to use enough food coloring that you get bold, bright colors in your cake. Gel food colorings will give you the darkest colors, while you will need to use more regular (liquid) food coloring for the best color. Be generous with the colors and you’ll get great results.
These cupcakes can also be made as full size cupcakes, layered and decorated the exact same way as the mini cupcakes. They look great as full size cupcakes, but the mini cakes will always look a bit more like actual candy corn because they’re so much closer in size to the real thing. Still, if you do opt for the larger cupcakes, just put the batter into full size cupcake liners and add 3-4 extra minutes or so of baking time.
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Candy corn is candy that fills up candy aisles during the fall holiday season, and the distinctive orange, yellow and white triangles have become a fall icon. Candy corn is a type of fondant, a candy paste made from water and sugar. Fondant can come in many different consistencies, from a flowing candy filling to a smooth dough that can be rolled out to cover a cake. In the case of candy corn, the fondant is very firm and somewhat dry, with a slightly chewy texture to it. Candy corn is also coated with a thin confectioners’ glaze that makes the candies very smooth and gives them a slight shine. Candy corn has a distinct honey flavor to it and the most famous candy corn maker, Brachs’, uses real honey in their recipe to get that flavor.
Candy corn was first conceived in the 1880s by a man named George Renninger, of the Wunderlee Candy Company. The idea behind the candy was that it would resemble the colors of a kernel of corn, with a small yellow tip, dark orange center and a large yellow “kernel” at the end. The candies have been popular ever since and the National Confectioners Association estimates that more than 30 million pounds of candy corn will be made and sold this year. The candies are typically served on their own (i.e. put out in a candy bowl to add some fall color to a table) or used to decorate cakes and cookies. They have also been the inspiration for some other holiday treats, such as the limited edition Candy Corn Oreos that Nabisco released this fall, as well as the template for multi-color variants that are now released for other holidays.
Candy corn is a fall and Halloween staple, even though many people have a love-hate relationship with the candy. They’re quite pretty to look at, they make a great addition to a candy dish and my favorite brand (Brach’s) as nice notes of honey and vanilla to it. Brach’s actually sells enough candy corn (and the related Mallowcremes) each year that, if they were all laid end to end, they would circle the globe four times. On the other hand, candy corn’s over-the-top sweetness and slightly gritty, yet marshmallowy, texture means that these are not on the top of everyone’s Halloween candy list. I happen to be a candy corn fan when they come in small doses, and find them to be a good source of inspiration for some colorful desserts, including this Candy Corn Terrine.
This frozen dessert has no candy corn in it. It consists of white, orange and yellow layers of ice cream and sorbet that mimic the colors of a classic candy corn. I used a good quality vanilla bean ice cream for the white portion, a blend of orange sherbert and vanilla ice cream for the orange, and a mixture of mango gelato and lemon sorbet for the yellow layer. The different colors are layered in a loaf pan and then frozen. You can serve it in slices, or carve it into candy corn-shaped triangles to serve.
The vanilla bean ice cream was an obvious choice when I needed a white layer. The mango was a very dark yellow color (I used Ciao Bella gelato) and the lemon sorbet (Haagen Dazs) was almost white, so combining the two resulted in the perfect bright yellow. I mixed the softened ice creams in the food processor to blend them. The orange was a bit more problematic because my orange sherbert was a very pale color. I ended up blending it with some ice cream and adding a small amount of orange food coloring (I recommend a gel coloring) to get the bright orange I was looking for. You can use the same trick or look out for a dark orange sorbet when making yours.
Candy corn – Brach’s brand, anyway – is made with real honey, and in the past when I’ve made a candy corn-inspired recipe, such as Candy Corn Cookies, I’ve used honey to help capture that flavor. I did the same thing in this terrine, adding layers of honey in between the layers of ice cream. The honey isn’t a dominant flavor, but it oozes out between the layers when slicing and when you’re eating the terrine you get just enough honey to know it’s there.
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Most of the foods we buy at the grocery store can be made at home, some easily and some with a fair amount of difficulty, but just about everything will transfer over. Foods like bread and cookies are easy targets for home bakers, candies and foods that seem like “specialty” items tend to be labeled as items we’re better off just buying. Candy corn – a fall/Halloween favorite of mine – is one of the items in the latter category. I should have suspected that it can be made at home, since marshmallows can be. Nosh with Me decided to include homemade candy corn in her Halloween celebrations this year. The recipe, which happens to be vegan, was first made by The Urban Housewife and picked up in popularity from there. You’ll need a candy thermometer, but the recipe is actually quite easy. Whether homemade corns are tastier than storebought (or than cookie candy corns) is for you to decide.
And while we’re on the subject of candy, if you have a sweet tooth, you might want to head over at CandyBlog because Cybele is having a Limited Edition Giveway. The prize package includes: Dark Chocolate Flavored Sixlets, Elvis Reese’s Peanut Butter & Banana Creme Miniatures, 3 Musketeers Fall Mix (Strawberry, Cappuccino & French Vanilla), Tropical Tootsie Pops, Twix Java, Candy Corn Kisses, Nestle 100 Grand versions (Coconut, Peanuts & Dark Chocolate), Peppermint Peeps, Limited Edition & Seasonal Pop Rocks and more! All you have to do is leave a comment to enter. The deadline is November 15, 2007.
