A Fun Art Project!

 I love candy machines, and I love that this video tells you how to make your very own out of cardboard.

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Making a Chocolate Dinosaur

If you're unfamiliar with Kracie Pop 'n' Kitchen, it's a series of do it yourself candy making kits from Japan. The theme of most of these kits is to make miniature candy/snack versions of popular Japanese meals. The process to make these kits is can be very complicated, but also a lot of fun. I recently came across a new kind of kit from Kracie, one that focuses on learning, as opposed to eating, and it's also a bit less labour intensive. I picked up one of these kits that teaches you something (?) about dinosaurs.

The aim of the kit is to have you make several chocolate dinosaur parts out of chocolate, then using the handy placemat that also happens to be the bag holding everything together, figure out which dinosaur(s) you got and learn something about them. I did not learn anything about my dinosaurs, but that's only because I can't read Japanese. Fortunately for me my focus is on making the chocolates.

The instructions on how to make your kit are half illustrations and half in Japanese. I might have been able to figure out most of this without Google translate, but I may have had a few challenges figuring out the timing for letting the chocolate melt and set.

Speaking of melting the chocolate, that was the first step towards making these chocolaty dino shapes. It was surprisingly easy, and I can only assume I did it right. All you have to do is take the two bags of chocolate chips and put them in a cup of boiling water for 5 minutes. This was the part that I had the most guess work as even the translated instructions didn't make much sense. Fortunately it seemed to work fairly well.

After the 5 minutes I tested to see if the chocolate had melted by squishing the bags. I was pretty amazed at how quickly and smoothly the chocolate had melted, but I probably shouldn't be as the folks at Kracie are masters of candy chemistry. After melting the chocolate I folded it as shown on the package and cut the tip off.

The next step is probably the one that requires the most patience and steady hand of this entire project. Having said that, compared to the other Kracie kits I've done (see video here), it's still pretty easy. I had to carefully squirt the chocolate into the mould. One of the tricks on the package suggests that you tap the mould after you've filled it in order to let the chocolate settle better.

Before the chocolate sets, you're supposed to add the cookie crumbs. I'm not really sure what this adds to the aesthetics of the dinosaur, but it did add a little crunch to the chocolate. After the cookies were added it was into the freezer for 10 minutes (apparently you can also use your refrigerator for 20 minutes instead).

The next part was really the moment of truth. This would be the moment when I discovered if I made any mistakes, or if the kit had any flaws. It was time to pop the set chocolate dinosaur parts onto my plate. Fortunately for me, neither Kracie nor myself had any problems.

It did take a little work to shake out the pieces, some of the shapes were more challenging than others. In general I was pretty happy with the results, and while I had a few small bubbles in a few places, I felt like I, and the team from Kracie, did a great job making these dinosaurs.

The next stage was to sort out my pieces and construct my dinosaurs.

I had two complete dinosaurs.

A footprint and a shell.

I looked up my dinosaurs on the placemat, and I did find them, however I didn't really learn anything due to the language barrier. I didn't mind though because I always have Google to look up information on dinosaurs, and while I'm doing that, I have some tasty dinosaurs to eat.

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Making Mochi

 I don't think I've ever seen someone make mochi on such a big scale.

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Make Your Own Gummy...?

Recently I've noticed a trend in home gummy making machines and kits. There's now the implication that you can make your own homemade CBD edibles.

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Makin' Stuff To Eat

When I go to chocolate shops, it's very rare that they have exactly what I'm craving at that moment. With this kit I can just make it myself.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Thing That You Should Buy - Chocolate Bar Maker

If I had this I couldn't complain about the ratio of ingredients in my candy bars anymore.

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Candy in the Media - Chocolate Master

I love watching candy experts do their craft very well.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Thing That You Should Buy - Gummy Candy Lab

Make your very own ultra cute gummy creations.  Although they may be a little too cute for some.

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Amazing Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Candy Chemistry

This combines my love of science and my love of candy, and best of all, you can eat the results.

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Candy In The Media - Hands Free Oreo Dispenser

I never knew that I wanted a hands free Oreo dispenser until I saw this one. Now I just have to have one.

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Candy In The Media - End Of Days Popcorn Maker

If you've found that you've survived the apocalypses, and you're craving a handful of popcorn.

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Candy In The Media - A True DIY Cotton Candy Project

This is the kind of candy project that I might try some day, but I'll probably mess it up as well.

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Candy In The Media - DIY Cadbury Creme Eggs

Did you eat all your Easter Creme Eggs already, maybe you could make your own.

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Candy In The Media - Classic Coke, I Mean Really Classic

I've always wanted to try some of the original recipes for Coca-Cola, but I also realize how much work it would take to make it.

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Candy In The Media - Photography And Candy Together Forever

This could possibly be the best cross over between my two careers of photography and candy.

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Watch Us Make Japanese Candy... With Commentary

All this week we're posting reviews of Japanese DIY candies, and I bet you're wondering how easy (or difficult) they were to make. Well have I got a surprise for you, we filmed the entire process, and to make it even more entertaining we have commentary as well.

If you liked this very long video, and want more (maybe not as long), make sure to follow us on YouTube.

Also make sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to keep up with the Japanese DIY candy review-a-thon.

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We Have A Japanese Do It Yourself Candy Review-A-Thon Happneing All Week Starting With - Popin' Cookin' "Sushi"

Allison and I picked up a few Japanese DIY candy kits on our recent trip to Japan, and we decided to carve out an afternoon and make them all. Each one was really fun to build and we had all kinds of surprises along the way. This week we're going to document our adventure with a review-a-thon and a really long video.  We're starting the review-a-thon with probably my favourite of the three kits, the Popin' Cookin' sushi set.

Click here to find out what I thought about this kit.

The video featuring us making all of these kits with a fun voice over commentary will be going up later this week (unless you're on Patreon in which case it'll be going up later today). You can keep an eye open on this blog or subscribe to our YouTube channel to find out when it's online.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to keep up with all the Japanese candy DIY reviews this week.

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Candy In The Media Halloween Edition - Some Candy Ideas From Good Mythical Morning

I'm not sure how "good" these ideas are for hacking your Halloween candy. I'll simply say that these are ideas and you can judge them however you like.

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Our Latest Experiment Is All About Cracker Jacks

In our latest experiment we tried to make homemade Cracker Jacks. Strangely enough it worked, fairly well. Below is a quick version of our recipe along with a few changes we think might make it a little better:

-  Heat your oven to 250 degrees.

-  Mix 8 cups of popcorn with 1 cup of roasted peanuts (maybe make it half a cup of peanuts if you'd like).

-  Take 1/4 of a cup of salted butter and melt it in a pot. Then add 3/8 cups of brown sugar, 1/4 cup corn syrup, 1 tablespoon molasses, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Whisk them together and heat them up till they reach 250 degrees (use a candy thermometer).

-  Take the sugar mixture off the heat and add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and whisk them all together.

-  Poor the sugar mixture into a large bowl over the popcorn and peanut mix.

-  Mix everything up until the popcorn and peanuts are covered (careful it gets hot).

-  After it's all mixed up lay it out on a baking sheet with a silicon baking liner (or you can grease it).

-  Put it in the  oven for 10 minutes, then toss the mixture. repeat this until the mixture has been in the oven for 30 minutes (my original recipe suggested 50 but my oven is small and very hot so I went for 30 instead).

- Take the mixture out of the oven and let it cool for 20 minutes.

-  Break the popcorn and peanuts apart and consume.

-  Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to check out some future experiments.

- Follow us on Patreon to help support us and get a bunch of extra content.

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Candy In The Media - It Shouldn't Be Hard, But It Is

Most people look at cheesies (or Cheetos)as a simple snack, but actually they're very complicated, and almost impossible to make at home.

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