After making our Penguins of Madagascar cake, which used a lot of rock candy, I received many requests for a video on how to make your own homemade rock candy. So, I started practicing . . . two weeks ago! This activity takes quite a long time to grow (1-2 weeks), so be prepared a head of time if you need homemade rock candy for a project.
Making this recipe brought me back to high school chemistry and supersaturated solutions. I did not really want to go back to high school in my mind, but I had to. All for the sake of rock candy. As far as the actually creation of this recipe, it is fairly simple, and straight forward. “Supersaturation is a state of a solution that contains more of the dissolved material than could be dissolved by the solvent under normal circumstances”, thank you Wikipedia. Basically, you need to get as much sugar into the water as possible, in order to make sure that the rock candies will grow.
Tips:
- ensure that the stick does not touch the bottom or the sides of the glass
- make sure that the sugar has dissolved in the solution completely
- add colour and flavour to make it delicious looking and tasting!
Rock Candy
Ingredients:
- 3 cups white granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- Food colouring
- Flavouring (optional)
- Wooden skewers/sticks
- Clothes pegs
- Cylinder shaped jars or glasses
Directions:
- Pour the water into the saucepan and bring to a boil-212°F (100°C)
- Start adding the sugar a 1/2 cup at a time, until it no longer dissolves (making a saturated sugar solution).
- Add a few drops of your flavouring if desired.
- Take your mixture off the heat and allow to cool – around 15 minutes.
- While the mixture is cooling, place some sugar on a plate and wet the ends of the wooden sticks. Let them dry for a few minutes until they are completely dry.
- Set out your glasses/jars and add a few drops of food colouring and/or flavouring to the bottom of each.
- Carefully add the sugar solution to each glass/jar and stir.
- Take your sugared sticks and place a peg at the top of each and place into the glasses.
- The crystals will start growing in 2 – 3 days. I grew mine for 2 weeks.
- When you are ready to remove them, gently break the top with a sharp object. Gently remove the skewer and hang it upside down until the excess liquid drips off and it dries.
