When he finds one he really likes, he comes to me begging to do them. Often times, I say no. We don't have the supplies. Or it's too complicated. Or I just don't want to mess with it. On Saturday, I decided not to say no.
He found a video where a lady made a giant lollipop and he wanted to make one too. I actually had most of the food ingredients. She said to use food coloring and food flavoring. I decided we'd use jello to cover both. The next issue was the mold. She used some kind of pink tray and a large dowel rod. B didn't want a giant lollipop, he want a normal sized one.
While I was looking around for something to use as a mold, B announced he had something - the plastic tray from the sour straws he had at the football game Friday night. He also had coffee stirrers from Starbucks for the sticks. I tried to explain that the hot lollipop mixture (it has to get to 300 degrees) would melt that plastic. He wasn't have it. I could not convince him. So we forged ahead. Some things you have to learn by doing.
Making the mixture was easy. Waiting for it to get to 300 degrees was not so easy. B ended up going to play while I watched the candy thermometer. I called him back to the kitchen when it was time.
He only wanted the sour straw mold but I knew we'd have a lot of mixture left so I got out my Texas A&M Jell-O molds out. I poured into the sour straw mold first and, sure enough, it began to shrivel. Hot lollipop magma poured out onto my counter top. I poured into the first A&M mold. It didn't shivrel put it did kinda bend in. I poured into the second A&M mold and everything seemed ok. All this took just about 30 seconds. Here's what it looked like.
I decided to let it cool before I tried to clean up the mess. By this time, B had lost interest. He watched the sour straw tray melt and he was done.
About 30 minutes later, I came back to the kitchen. The puddles left by the sour straw tray melting came right up with a spatula.
I decided to throw away the first A&M mold. As you can see from the pictures, the hot candy lava melted right through the mold onto my cabinets. But that mess came up easily too.
The second A&M mold actually produced candy. I was able to pop them out pretty easily. B came running back for that. He was so excited.
All in all, not a bad way to spend some time on a Saturday morning. The mess was minimal. He didn't get a lollipop but he got some cool looking candy. They taste pretty good, too. They are big so you can't put the whole thing in your mouth. The big boys tried them and liked them.
The best part was when B said "Record this!" and introduced our candy to the world. Here he is...
Sometimes, it's best to learn by doing. Join us tomorrow to see B's next DIY creation.
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