Molded Candy Tutorial

Making molded candy is very, very easy. Even so, it always gets the most compliments. Everyone is so impressed!
You can spend hours making a special fudge with candy thermometers and temperature control and no one notices the skill and work involved.

What you need for this project - candy melts, lollipop sticks (if you have a lollipop mold), candy molds, a microwave safe bowl, a spoon and something to wrap up your finished product.
**You can purchase candy melts, molds and packaging material at any craft store. I bought my more intricate molds online.**


Pour the candy melts into the microwave safe bowl. Heat the melts according to the package directions. I usually start at 1 minute, stir the melts and continue at 15 second intervals until they are melted. If you heat the candy beyond it's melting point, it will "seize" which is a fancy way of saying "You have burned the candy. Throw it away and start over".

This is what the candy melts will look like once they are melted.

All you do at this point is spoon the melted candy into the mold.

As a long time candy maker, I have learned a few tips:

1. Once you fill the mold cavity, tap the mold on the table. You don't have to be gentle - slap that mold on the table. You need to do this to remove any air bubbles in the candy.

2. If you overfill a mold, don't panic. It really doesn't matter. You can fix it later or leave it like it is.

3. Make sure your mold, bowl and spoon are completely dry. Water and chocolate do not play well together.

That's it. Once the molds are filled, I pop them in the freezer for about 10 minutes. (If you make a lollipop mold, insert the lollipop sticks after tapping the mold to release the air bubbles.)

Here is an example of a simple mold over filled.

Plus, I did not tap the air bubbles out of this one.

You can see that over filling is okay.

You can repair the over flow of chocolate by simply cutting off the excess.

If I over fill a mold for candy I am making for my family, I leave it alone. It just means they get more chocolate!!

You can not fix the air bubbles that were trapped in your candy. It is not very pleasing but, again, if it is for family it won't matter.

This mold makes a candy box. In this case, it is an Easter Bunny but you can purchase box molds in many shapes.

Here is the bunny box un-molded. The mold also comes with tiny carrot cavities you can make and put inside the box. You can also fill the box with small candy like M&M'S.
This is an example of a lollipop mold. In this case, it's a moose (surprise!!) but of course, there are hundreds of different shapes.

The moose lollipop un-molded.

You can package your candy any way you want. I used bags that were made for molded candy. They come with twist ties. I used the twist tie for the bunny box but used a white satin ribbon for the moose lollipop.

I have this huge swan 3D candy mold.

I thought it would be a great centerpiece for Mike and Sam's wedding.

I made the swan using white candy melts. I place the swan on a wooden circle and decorated with flowers and a candle.

The theme of the wedding was double hearts. I tied a bow around the swans neck and attached double heart charms on the ribbon tails.

I attached a wine glass to the board behind the swan and dropped in a white candle.

I was so impressed with this centerpiece!!!

But...we had a slight problem. I needed 18 of these white chocolate swans and the wedding was in the middle of August! No one had a place to store the swans.

Even if I had enough room in my fridge for 18 swans, they could not be stored like that for any length of time. If they were cold stored for longer than a day or two, they would sweat and look terrible once they were placed in room temperature.

So...this is what I ended up making for the centerpieces.

They turned out okay, but they are not as awesome as the chocolate swan!

I made them different colors and with different flowers. This is one of the decorated tables.

However, my molded candy did make an appearance at the wedding!! I made milk, dark and white chocolate hearts. I rubbed the tops with edible gold, placed them in a candy bag decorated with double hearts and placed a charm on the twist ties before sealing.

This is a picture of the basket full of them. I made 200 candy hearts.

(When Mike was about 4 years old, I told him we were going to make molded candy for Christmas. He said he didn't know why anyone would want to make or eat "moldy candy")

This is one of the wedding tables. They put one of the candy hearts at each setting.

This is Mike and Sam. Their first dance as a married couple.

For some reason, they do not look concerned about not having candy swan centerpieces!!

There you have it - molded candy.

Simple, quick and impressive.

You can color your candy by simply pouring different color melts into the different sections of the molds. You can also "paint" your candy once you un-mold it.

But...you can see, even if you just pour a solid color, they look great.

Now, go make some candy!!!!