It doesn’t feel much like Christmas. It was 70 degrees and rainy today, but despite that, I restrung my Christmas lights outside after the first string randomly burned out, and I bought my last Christmas presents, and I attempted to do a Christmas craft.
And now I am writing this with slippers on because my significant other has turned the air conditioner on (not even fucking kidding), so it sort of does feel like Christmas again.
Anyway, the Christmas craft I attempted was the DIY Candy Serving Tray:
Image from Tutto Bella
This is the sort of craft that I imagine makes people who give away food get really excited. After all, the whole problem with giving away food is also giving away your dishes. This you can give away, no problem, because it’s not even really a tray. It’s food, too.
I, however, do not give away food. If you’ve been reading this blog, or know me at all, you know that this is because I am a kind and decent person in general, and do not subject innocent people to my baking as a rule.
But I made it because it seemed cool, and I think it’s probably a better use for those hard peppermints than actually eating them– yech.
It’s all fairly straight-forward. Lay out your mints in the pattern you want (I went with a not-too-crazy square) and then roast ’em in the oven for a bit.
Mine came out like this.
The blog post said to let it cool for 5 minutes, but I let mine cool much, much longer because it was still sort of ooey after 5 minutes. Once it hardened all the way, I peeled it off the wax paper.
Now here’s where I foresee you might have a problem. Know what happens when you melt candy together and then let it cool again? Nothing much changes besides the shape. So it’s still candy.
And it’s still sort of sticky, although sticky in that hard candy kind of way that only gets gross and melty if it’s been in your grandma’s pocket for an hour and then she hands it to you in church to make you be quiet, but you can’t be quiet because when you unwrap it, the sticky stuff gets all over your fingers, and you shout something like, “GRANDMA, IT’S WARM AND STICKY!” in the middle of The Prophecy advent sermon and everyone turns around and looks at you and Baby Jesus is not impressed. Ahem, oops.
Anyway, I don’t think this would hold up well if you had an unseasonably warm Christmas and did not have your air conditioner blasting. Do with that as you will.
Also, I put peppermints on my peppermint tray. I don’t exactly know what meta means, but I’m pretty sure this is meta.
49 Comments
One good coat of shellac (sp?) and you’ve got yourself a festive trivet!
Teach381 Better make sure the shellac is non toxic if you plan on putting food on it.
Teach381 I was thinking the same thing. A spray sealant or some Mod Podge should work.
God I love your page, this made me smile!
the a/c is on because it’s hott in herre.
Thank you for this one! I won’t waste my time now. I had pinned that last year. ;o) I wish it was 70 here1 It was closer to 75 today.
I’m like a half hour from you and I feel your pain on the heat. I wanted to turn on the a.c. too but with my 97-year-old grandma in the house, it was a no-go. Instead I locked myself in my bedroom and sat naked under the fan for most of the evening. I must admit, I’ve felt Christmas-ier.
24.8 F in Ontario Canada tomorrow, right now its only at 32 F
So was this a half fail? What final consistency did you have?
I hate you for having your christmas shopping done. Really and truly hate you.
That thing is crying out for a really large mug of hot chocolate to drop it into.
We have also had really warm weather. But there is a cold front coming through so it rained a lot today and then the temeperature dropped from like 71 to 27. Not kidding.
We just got 10 inches of snow over the weekend and it was -3 degrees here last night.
I’m feeling the season.
I wonder if you could spray it with clear coat. I realize that would render it inedible, but it might also make it not-so-sticky.
susanvandervort Now I have the image of someone trying to actually eat this. I am literally tearing up at work imaging someone picking up the whole thing and trying to cram it into her mouth.
I am pretty sure this is a for looks only thing.
@chickieD My kids would totally try to eat that.
susanvandervort So, if you have any ideas or questions about the actual craft, I clicked the link to the original blog post and there are about a thousand comments on the post from people who tried it with Jolly Ranchers, who used it to make gingerbread house windows, who turned it into a bowl, who used it to make ornaments and on and on. And a lot of conversation about clear coats, mod podge, too. I was kind of impressed with all people had done with it…and kind of concerned about the world we live in.
Also, to the commenter on that blog who wrote this:
“Has anyone tried using these as trivets to rest hot dishes on? Did it work or does it start to melt the mints again?”
Priceless.
chickieD I snorted. 😀
Know what I want to do? I want to make one of these trays and put a whole bunch of cookies on it before it cools. Then when people go to take a cookie they will be unable to remove it from the tray and I won’t have to make any more cookies, ever.
This will be the PERFECT gift for my mother-in-law. Pretty but useless.
It turned out well! Seems like it was easy enough to do and you ended up with a nice looking result. I’m one of those people who bakes cookies and things to give away. Wrapping them attractively is not as cheap as you would hope. I could see doing this on a smaller scale – maybe 9, 11 mints in a circle. Maybe wrap it in clear plastic wrap so your cookies don’t get all gooey and peperminty. Then place a small stack of cookies on top. Wrap the whole shebang with some cello wrap, stick a small candy cane in the top, tie on with some curling ribbon. It’d be very festive and would cost a lot less than, say Mason Jars or gift bags. I think that candy is dirt cheap for huge bags of it.
You could also use just plain colored hard candies for a stained glass effect, and that would eliminate the peppermint smell from overpowering your gift’s lovely aroma.
chickieD Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Christine G chickieD I have tons of great ideas. I have a fantasy where I am like Martha Stewart, and I come up with all these fantastic ideas AND I have a team of people who run after me taking notes and actually make all the things I dream up. That’s what I’m doing with that lottery cash.
Sometimes I have the same one. Only, with more dog hair. Seriously, where does it all come from? Perhaps my minons could take care of it. Now I have a new fantasy. Menwhile, I was thinking it could be dusted with powdered sugar to cut some of the sticky. That’s how I handle the homeade hard candy…
Ginamonster I do not have dog hair. I have cat fur. I am blessed with one white cat, one black cat, and one that is a little of both. The white cat handles all the black stuff. The black cat the white stuff. The mixed up one all the other colors. It’s good to have a system.
Powdered sugar is a good idea (doing my Dr. Evil finger thing here).
This is one of those pins that someone created something that wasn’t needed. Seriously paper plates. Not sticky and I don’t want them back.
Libraryofbird yes i totally agree!! paper plates are the way to go! even those aluminum trays that they sell for cheap are better than trying to get sticky candy all over the place!
http://www.lilmsadventures.blogspot.com
Makes me want to hop up and down hollering FESTIVE TRIVET at the top of my lungs. Srsly. Say it ten times fast and see if you don’t get a little lively too.
Everytime I see this pin, I was to scream!!! I’m a baking and pastry student and I, too, know that candy gets that weird sticky coating after it sits uncovered for really any amount of time. I just can’t fathom doing this because things would stick to IT after a while. I can’t really handle that!! But, I’m glad you did this 😀
So I tried this one. I wanted to start small and structured, so I used one of my smaller round cake pans. It actually turned out really cute and not a bit sticky. At least not at first. I figured I could make more and use them as dessert plates for Christmas Eve. A day or so later, I noticed that the test plate was a little sticky. Then I noticed small red streaks on the surface. Within a few days it got really sticky and streaky. Turns out the cat has been licking it when no one is around. I’m saving that one for my father-in-law.
Leslie K OMG that is absolutely priceless!
Leslie K LOL hilarious!
bnkessler Leslie K So funny! I guess that was a craft fail? When she was in 4th grade, my sister entered a 4H baking contest. She made cinnamon rolls. The cat licked the icing on the tops. My sister went ahead and entered them in…and won! True story. My mom (a teacher) likes to tell that story to food competition judges just before the big event.
We live in Africa and this would be the worst idea ever since over Christmas time it’s so hot we have to eat the ice cream while standing in the fridge. This tray would become liquid very quickly so perhaps I can try this as a topping for something puddingy?
70 degree Christmas. Welcome to the south.
I was hoping, hoping, hoping you’d try this one!!! I am so glad I won’t waste my time this weekend trying to make myself look snooty for my co-workers, who already know better anyway. Instead, I’ll stick with chain-eating (is that a term like chain-smoking?) those little candies instead. They’re like little peppermint devils.
I LOVE peppermint…but only in candy cane shapes. If you’re REALLY cold, you should wear down booties. They look like ugly little snuggies for your feet. But they’re so big that it makes your legs really tiny. Worth the trade off.
bnkessler Good point. Plus, snuggies are awesome. My unborn children, when they were still in-utero, gave me one. They knew this was a trick cuz then I’d get sentimental about it and would never want to get rid of it because they bought it with their teensy fetal hands. Their father is sneaky. More recently (since they’re 5 now), I made my mother-in-law wear my snuggie last weekend and that rocked.
wonder if spraying a coat of clear glossy spray paint would help keep the sticky away? just a thought.
that would make it less stickey…but i think the idea is for it to be edible
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So I made this for my cookie exchange party last Wednesday. First I cooked one too long and it looked yucky, then I made another with waxed paper and a spring form pan( the secret to having nice edges with everything!). After I served my lively store bought mint cookies on my homemade mint tray, I wrapped the tray with cling wrap . It kept it nice and fresh, like most candy that is bought from a store wrapped in plastic. But after it sat for a few moments, it fell and broke
i did this! it came out great, made it in a pie pan. let it cool in the pan and then lifted it out useing the excess wax paper. i didnt have anyone to give it too so i just kept in in the pan i used to make it and wraped it up in the same wax paper. it didnt get sticky at all, and it took me like a month to eat it.
I have never made this, but wonder if you put some kind of “lacker(clear)” substance on it after, if it’d be more hard & less messy in the event it got wet…
I wonder the same thing…
I always wandered how this would work out. I never actually tried doing it because I thought it would just turn into a sticky mess. Now I’m pretty glad I haven’t.
Can’t you just use paint gloss? I know it renders eating the tray useless but then you can use it the next year and it wouldn’t be as sticky.