Sunday 5 March 2017

Candy Making at Spun Candy



Mr Jones is a most excellent present buyer so when I opened an envelope on my birthday, a candy making class at Spun Candy, I was over the moon!  I'm pretty good a cooking, I'm not so bad at baking but making candy?!  One of the options was making candy flowers which to me was a no brainer (pretty AND edible!)!  So fast forward 9 months to when I had some time booked off work, I found myself walking from Aldgate East station and into the sweetest smelling place I've ever been to!  Is this what Willy Wonka's factory smelt like?!

Spun Candy launched in 2013 and not only offer classes such as the flower making one I booked but also candy face making, a confectionery masterclass, parties AND they make bespoke sweeties for companies (the guy who taught me had been making chicken, curry and onion bhaji ones for a customer earlier in the day) AND they have a normal shop that you can buy their sweets from.



When I arrived ( had to restrain myself from eating everything in the shop at the front of the building), I was greeted by the lovely chap who was going to be teaching me all about sugar and sweets and we headed to the back of the shop.  What's great is that you can see it all from the shop so if you were to pop in to pick up a bag of sweets, you can watch them in action (or me making my best effort to make sweets as good as them...)


Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.


First I was shown the [rather intimidating] pot of boiling water and sugar that would start to become my candy flowers once it hit the very specific temperature of 155C.



Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.


While the sugary lava was bubbling away I got to choose what flavour my sweets would be...Lime? Lemon?  Rhubarb?  Strawberry?  (I could go through the whole list...there were a lot of flavours...) After having a sniff of most of the flavours I went for a combination pineapple, coconut and banana - perhaps not flavours you would associate with flowers but hey, it smelt amazing and why can't candy flower taste like a tropical island?!


Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.

Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.


Once the sugar had reached the right temperature, the flavouring was added, stirred and then the scalding mixture was poured into a metal frame on a granite surface.  The cooler temperature of the granite allows you to mix in colours and slowly cool the sugar so it becomes a safe temperature to handle (with gloves).



I wanted my sweets to be red, pink, purple, blue and white so to start with the sugar mixture was coloured with red, white and blue and then once the base colours were properly mixed and kneaded, they were split up to make the pink and purple.  I kind of got colour envy when the two little lads behind me were twisting rainbow coloured lumps of sugar into their own lollipops...


Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.


My first lesson was how to make sugar roses.  I've never worked with any sort of thing like sugar before but once I got the hang of how the warm surface kept it pliable, how it stretches kind of like dough and how quickly it cools, I formed some petals and my roses started to take shape!


Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.


The chap who was teaching me said that the two hours I had for my lesson could be used just making flowers but it might start to feel like I was working on a production line so how about we make some lollipops?  Yep!  Let's do it!  Strips of the coloured sugar were rolled out into sausages and then flattened.  


Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.


White strips were put in-between the colours and then the whole thing was rolled around a giant sausage of white sugar.  


Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.


Using skinny rolls of the sugar (kind of like bendy stick of rock), I made heart shaped, cat shaped, star shaped and even snail shaped lollipops.  Oh, and not forgetting that MASSIVE lollipop in the picture at the top of the page.  With a few rolls left over, I rolled them on the granite surface to cool and then holding the sticks on top of a metal block, chipped off little chunks that were a more mouth friendly size than the other lollipops.


Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.


I honestly had so much fun!  Learning about how hard candy is made, learning how to work with and shape different types of sweets and an insight to how difficult it can be to get those little pictures inside hard candies.    Not to mention the two bags laden with lollipops and flowers that travelled home on the tube with me...


Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.

Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.


Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.

Spun Candy - a sweet shop in London that also offers masterclasses in how to make candy flowers, lollipops and faces.


If you're not lucky enough to be able to book your own masterclass, fear not!  You can also buy their delicious sweets from their website or you can even have your own personalised sweets made for weddings, birthdays, valentines, ANY special occasion!  

58 Wentworth Street, 
London, 
E1 7AL 


*this candy making masterclass was a fantastic gift from Mr Jones and this review of my visit is not in collaboration with Spun Candy.  As always, my opinions are open and honest and entirely mine!

3 comments:

  1. I just love candy so much, I can eat a mountain in just hours. This is the reason my parents make me python assignment help to earn 2 chocolate balls each day. I pray my teacher gives me homework so I can get my chocolates.

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