Wilton Halloween Candy Kit, reviewed

I’ve made molded chocolates before many times, filling up plastic or silicone molds with melted chocolate and letting them set. I don’t typically attempt anything too fancy, like you might see at a gourmet chocolate shop, although I can fill the chocolates with relative ease and consistency. When I spotted this Wilton Halloween Candy Kit on the Halloween shelf at a local store, I immediately liked the cute look of the candy molds, but was a bit skeptical of whether I actually wanted – or needed – a kit to make them when I could simply buy similar molds and work with those alone. I was swayed by the fact that I needed an activity to do with some very helpful taste-testing kids I know, and bought the kit to give it a try.

I was immediately impressed with the fact that the kit came with every single thing you need to make the chocolates. It included not only the plastic Halloween molds (3 sets of different designs), four different colors of chocolate candy melts (cocoa, vanilla white, vanilla orange, and vanilla green), piping bars, lollipop sticks, a decorating brush and a variety of treat bags with colorful twist ties for packing up the goodies. The convenience of having everything in one box is not something to underestimate when you’re undertaking a potentially very messy project.

I was able to melt the candy melts directly in the piping bags, making it simple to transfer the chocolate right into the molds and avoiding dirtying extra dishes. I didn’t think that the small paintbrush was good enough for getting the small details colored with chocolate – such as the eyes, etc. of the creatures – so I instead started with very tiny holes in my piping bags to direct the chocolate with precision and pushed it around with a toothpick. I reheated the chocolate in the bags, as needed, to soften it back up when it became too firm. I liked the variety of the chocolate molds and the fact that popsicle sticks were included, since I probably would have opted for the simpler stick-free chocolates if I hadn’t had them. The little bags made for easy transportation and a great presentation (not to mention that, especially to the kids’ eyes, they looked just as fancy as anything you could buy in a store once they were wrapped up).

Now, these aren’t going to compete with a high end chocolatier on looks on on flavor, though the chocolate melts have a pleasant flavor and a smooth melt, but the kit is a lot of fun to work with and I doubt you’ll have any trouble finding a very appreciative audience for these Halloween goodies.