I have dreams of becoming a Candy Maker. Granted I don’t have the patience for the meticulous detail, nor the hand for cute creativity like others do. But still, I think it’s so fun to create art with candy! Someday I’ll actually be good at it. But until then, this will do for me.
What you need to make your own personalized chocolates:
- Chocolate. I used both chocolate chips (and butterscotch chips) and Wilton Candy Melts (which you can get at Joann’s for pretty cheap). **wish I had pink, red, white or purple candy melts when I did this
- Squeeze bottle (or fancy decorating equipment…no such thing in my house)
- Candy molds OR silicone ice cube trays! I found these heart ice cube trays at Target, 2 pack for $1. Nice!
[Never mind about the wax paper and sharpie, didn’t work out for me. You’ll see at the end]
Like I said, I’m no expert at candy making and my creativity really could use some help. But to start, I melted the butterscotch chips and put it in the squeeze bottle. Those squeeze bottles I got at Joann’s for about $1.99 for a 2 pack (use a 40% off coupon). I drew some designs in the bottom of the ice cube trays/“candy molds” and don’t forget to draw the letters backwards.
I put the tray in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to make sure it hardened enough before I started on the next step, which was adding the first layer of chocolate. Melt the Wilton Candy Melts as the bag instructs then I scooped in just enough chocolate to fill 1/3-1/2 of the heart mold. Then tap the mold until the chocolate flattens out. Again, put it in the fridge to harden that first layer.
Then I did an experiment! I decided to add some fillings to my chocolate hearts. I put small dabs of creamy peanut butter, nutella and caramel in the center of the first layer of the chocolate.
Next I topped the filling with another small scoop of chocolate, tapped the mold again to flatten and spread out the chocolate, then put it in the fridge one last time to harden the chocolates again. I left them in the fridge for a couple hours (while I ran some errands).
They came out of the ice cube trays really easy and turned out so cute. Even my experimental filling worked out awesome! Although, the caramel wasn’t as thick as I’d have liked, but it was similar to a Caramello! Next time I’d use valentine colors – red, purple, pink and white. I didn’t have those colors on hand when I decided to make these so I just settled for what I had.
Because of all the steps, it did take a while. And it seemed even longer because I had my little G man (2 1/2 year old) trying to help me the whole time. But in the end, it was worth the time and effort. Now I just need a cute valentine box for these!
CANDY FAIL---> Here is what not to do (cause it didn’t work when I tried it)! I wrote letters and hearts on wax paper and let them harden, then put them in the heart molds. It didn’t work out so well because when I put the chocolate in the mold and tapped it, the letters didn’t stay flat and the chocolate snuck under the butterscotch letters. Doesn’t look pretty and you can’t tell what they are (‘B’ and ‘M’). So, just draw the letters and designs right on the candy mold.
