Need To Spice Up Your Holiday Desserts? Wilton's Gingerbread Candy Mold Is A Great Pick!
Written: Nov 12 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Four designs per mold, cute designs, easy to make, great for kids.
Cons: Some designs on the mold can dent easily.
The Bottom Line: Four designs, twelve cavities and a whole lot of fun!
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| Freak369's Full Review: Wilton Mini Gingerbread Candy Mold |
With Christmas fast approaching I’ve started dragging out the red and green totes to see what I have, what I need [or rather want] and check out the new items that are hitting the stores to see what I can add to my collection. I never realized how many candy molds I had until I started storing them all together in one special tote, I won’t say that I have an addiction to them but if I keep purchasing them at this rate, I do see a 12 Step Program in my future. One of the nicest things about the candy molds is that they are a great way to add a little extra flair to basic holiday desserts, otherwise boring centerpieces and are a great way to get kids involved in making things for the holidays. This particular one has four different designs so it is a great way to make a lot of designs at one time without having to sink a lot of time and effort into the project. Even if you are someone that has no experience with candy making, this mold will give you great results with a minimal amount of effort. There’s no limit to what you can do with the candy pieces when you have poured them out and allowed them to set up – add them to cakes, top off desserts, put them on a fruit tray or even put them in little bags and attach them to gifts. For two dollars you get a mold that gives you a ton of design options so if you ever wanted to make your own candy for the holidays, this is a great mold to start out with.
Wilton Mini Gingerbread Candy Mold 2115-1539
This is a great way to make a lot of different designs from one mold; each one will yield you three each of the following designs: star, gingerbread man, candy cane with bow and stocking. The only one that has any real depth or detail to it is the gingerbread man but you can easily add accents to any of the designs before or after you pour the chocolate into the mold. One of the easiest things to do is to layer different colored chocolates; a great example of this is the star shape. Use red, white and green chocolate and fill the bottom part of the mold with one color, allow that to set up for about five minutes then top off the rest of the mold with a different color. One of the easiest ways to fill the cavities is to use the Wilton Squeeze Bottle; you can either melt the chocolate in the bottle or melt it on your stovetop or in your microwave them pour it into the bottle. This eliminates a lot of wasted chocolate, allows you to fill cavities with different colors and makes it simple for kids to help out.
Since the designs are rather basic you can fill them with one color and end up with a great looking piece of candy; to get the most from your money try buying white chocolate then investing in some candy dye to tint it to the shade you want. This way you won’t have ten colors sitting around waiting to be used. The stars looks great when you use a red and green combination – either side by side or layered on top of each other. You can also try adding some accents in the mold before you pour in the chocolate, I tried this out with some edible silver sprinkles and the effect was really impressive. You can use any type of sprinkle inside the cavity but you will want to play around with different kinds since some of them will break down or lose their color or shape when exposed to the chocolate, even more so if the chocolate is still super hot. What ever type of sprinkle or topping you try, please make sure that the container states that they are edible and “not for decoration only”. Some types of dragees are edible, others are not. Better to be safe than sorry so read those side panels, warnings and precautions! Since there seems to be a ban on them in California, no I am not kidding, I have to order them from online cake stores and have them shipped to me.
Out of all the designs on this mold, the stars are by far the easiest to fill but if you are going to do the layered style [one color on top of the other] make sure that you tap out the mold to allow the air bubbles to rise to the top. The stocking are nice but if you are going to go for the traditional red and white one you are better off painting on the white faux fur on the top of the stocking rather than trying to fill it in with a squeeze bottle. Much like molten lava, melted chocolate has a mind of its own and won’t stop until it hits an edge so trying to achieve a two color stocking by filling it iin the usual manner is almost impossible unless you are willing to stand there and damn the edge of the stocking ridge until it cools. Who wants to play around with that for a piece of candy? The same can be said for the stocking and bow, paint on the bow with a layer or two of melted chocolate, allow it to cool then fill it in with the main color. With the gingerbread man, the detail on it is so fine that you will need a steady hand to fill in the eyes and buttons, you can use a toothpick to do this but most of the time when I try that trick the eyes and buttons end up lopsided or are uneven. Now I just take the round cake toppings, put them in place with tweezers and fill in the cavity with a squeeze bottle. Just lift up the mold to see that the topping bits are still in place and if they move at all, just push them back into place with a toothpick.
Care, Cost & Cleaning
This is a fairly sturdy mold that will hold up to a good bit of use before it needs to be replaced; the edges of the stars and the bows on the candy canes seem to be the most delicate shapes on the mold so you may want to take a little extra time when cleaning this and be sure to store it so it won’t get crushed or have a lot of pressure against it. To clean it just soak it for about five minutes in warm soapy water and wipe out the cavities with a soft sponge. I air dry all my candy molds over night so they are completely dry but if you need to clean it and use it again in a relatively short period of time make sure you dry out the section of the mold completely because, as I have mentioned over and over, water and chocolate do not mix. You can find this mold at most craft and candy stores for about two to three dollars; Michaels usually carries this particular mold right after Halloween but you can order it year round from the Wilton Online Store for $1.99 plus shipping and handling.
The Bottom Line
So far I’ve had great results with this mold, I started trying out different color blends and designs with them and while there have been a few that turned out bad, a majority of them have looked great. This is a great mold for kids to use since all of them can easily be achieved with one single color, if you are going to allow children to use this mold I highly suggest that you use the squeeze bottles so that they don’t come in direct contact with the chocolate, there’s a lot less mess and clean up time is cut to a minimum. This is a great mold to have on hand to add a little extra zip to holiday desserts, platters, place settings or tucked into little bags and used on packages. Since there are twelve cavities per mold you can whip out a ton of these in no time at all once you get used to working with it and as I said, no matter what your experience is with candy molds or chocolate – even the beginners can have great results with this mold!
Thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2004 Freak369
Other candy and lollipop molds ..
Wilton Stars Candy Mold
Wilton Rubber Ducky Candy Mold
Wilton Tombstone Candy Mold
Wilton Mini Ghost & Pumpkin Candy Mold
Wilton Dancing Skeletons Lollipop Mold
Wilton Just Batty Lollipop Mold
Wilton Fright Night Lollipop Mold
Wilton Smiley Face Candy Mold
Recommended:
Yes
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