Rock Candy Jewelry. In marshmallow, watermelon, peanut butter flavor, and more. Bling bling.

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Because my mother is awesome, I tend to consider Mother’s Day months prior. This year, I went through the same series of hurdles when trying to decide what to give her.

I could buy her some nice slippers. She has an odd fetish for them, or something. I’m certain if I opened her closet several hundred pairs would come pouring out avalanche-style.  Although she’s always ecstatic to receive a new pair I think it’s been overdone.

A robe? Same issue as above. Yeah, this lady loves hanging out in her robe and slippers. Switch her glass of wine with a shopping cart and you go from a Greater Boston housewife to a bag lady.

A gift card for a massage/manicure/facial. She may lose/forget about this. When I say “may” I mean will.

Jewelry. This is worse than the slippers. My siblings and I know that if she cashed in all of her jewelry she could pay P Diddy to play a concert in her backyard. Everyday for the next 10 years.

You can catch my mom six out of seven days of the week looking at her jewelry on her bed, shining and cleaning each piece while drinking a cosmopolitan made from a William Sonoma mix. Okay, more like four out of seven days. The other two it’s a mojito made from a William Sonoma mix.

At a jewelry store, she will call out the sales person using her jewelry expertise.

“This is pure gold.”

“Actually, it’s silver with gold painted over.”

Or

“That’s only 2-karat.”

Many of our mommies would love to have a little something sparkly. This is unfortunate for us as the price of shiny things and gold has skyrocketed (guess who taught me that). This is especially unfortunate for those with moms who will guilt trip them for the next five years over a shoddy gift.

I wouldn’t be 1 Fine Cookie if I didn’t think of some sick and twisted way to make affordable bling. That’s edible.

The best part is that I have also devised a way to make them taste better. Edible bling.

It’s fashionable, pretty, tastes good, affordable and easy to make. What’s not to like about this. I ended that question with a period because there is not point to asking when no answer exists.

These pieces are not limited to moms. Think: bachelorette parties, projects with the kids, birthday parties, your gay uncle who loves to cross dress (‘aint nothing wrong with that),  just for fun, to celebrate ANY holiday (just change the colors), weddings, blah blah blah.

Boys, you could even make something for your special lady friend. 1 Fine Cookie is not liable for any marriage proposals resulting in a “NO” because you offered her a candy ring. 1 Fine Cookie is also not liable for any marriage proposals that end with physical damage to the face and/or body. Chicks take their engagement rings seriously.

Here’s What You Need For Rock Candy Jewelry

-          clothes pinsor tape

-          Something to strain with (such as a sieve, mesh colander, or strainer)

-          Very large glass containers

Containers that work:  Large fish bowls,vases, large glass bowls, cookie jars, apothecary jars.

Click on each link above for examples and to purchase.

-          ribbons
(any color, your choice)

-          A LOT OF SUGAR

-          Optional: food coloring to add hue to your bling

-          Optional but recommended: Torani syrups. Available in the shop here. I will also provide a link below for the site.

**See “In a Nutshell” description  in bold down below if you want BRIEF instructions.

First, you want to saturate water with as much sugar as possible. There are two routes for this. The easy way is to add 3 cups of sugar to every 1 cup of water and cook on low stirring often.

I decided to go the other route, which was to saturate it with as much sugar as humanly possible. I filled a pot about 1/3 of the way with water.

Since I made about two dozen necklaces, I used a BIG pot. I also used A LOT of sugar.

(You won’t need this much. Unless you are psychotic much like myself and plan on making two dozen necklaces)

I boiled my water and proceeded to add about 2-3 cups at a time, stirring. For your sake, add 1 cup at a time if you are making one necklace because you probably won’t have as much water as I used. Either way, you’ll figure it out quickly.

Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to get the sugar that has settled to dissolve. Once dissolve add more sugar. I walked away and would occasionally stop by to stir as it became more concentrated.

Continue to add more sugar and dissolve until the sugar on the bottom will no longer dissolve when stirred up thoroughly.

Grab your glass container. Place a sieve, colander or strainer on top. I added some paper towels.

Once your sugar water is cool enough, pour through strainer into container. The reason you want to strain it is to get rid of any dissolved sugar or pieces as possible. Why? Because they will fall to the bottom and the crystals will form there rather than on your ribbon.

Time to pick your color and flavor. I used Torani syrup to flavor it. They were nice enough to ship me over a few samples.

Here are some of the flavors I selected:

–watermelon

- peanut butter

–toasted marshmallow

–blackberry

Click here to see  other flavors to choose from.

You can a ton of flavors in my store or click on this link here for a store locator.

Please visit their site for more recipes and awesomeness : http://www.torani.com/

I poured in, ¼ cup for every large glass container. I say add to taste. WARNING: If you are in a rush to form the crystals, air on the lighter side of syrup. Otherwise it will take longer.

Use food coloring to add color.

Tip: Torani syrups already have their own color so you may want to create a color scheme for your jewelery based on that. If you have some other colors you had in mind and the food coloring with the syrup won’t create desired results, leave food coloring out. The crystals will form more on the white/clear side and pair well with any beautiful ribbon.

Tip: Whatever color you dye it, make it much darker than you want your results. I created a purple/gray sugar mixture that was so dark I could not see through at all. They came out MUCH lighter in hue. So overdo it with the coloring.

Use tape or clothes pins (you can get these at the dollar store) to “drape” the ribbon into the sugar water.

I left mine for a couple of hours to soak up.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, wax paper, or parchment paper. Pour some sugar over. Take ribbons out and allow excess syrup to drip off. Place wet part over sugar. Pour more sugar on top.

I left mine overnight to dry out.

The key thing to remember is that moisture= no crystals forming. So you need the ribbon to be dry.

Remove from sugar and delicately rub off excess chunks. I found that the best looking jewelry were the ones that had practically no sugar caked on. The ones with more sugar stuck to it were thicker but less jewel-like.

Use the clips to submerge the ribbon back into the syrup.

How long it takes depends on several factors.

1. How saturated your syrup was. The more sugar you are able to dissolve into the sugar the quicker the process.

1. Humidity. If you live in a humid area it will take longer. Dry will take less time. Keep the container away from anywhere that is moist (near where you cook food, humidifiers, bathrooms…)

1. How many ribbons you have in your container. I place about three ribbons in which took longer than the ones by themselves. Keep it to one if you want it to grow quickly.

1. How often you clean it.

This is important. Try to clean it out when you can.

See how a sheet forms  on the top?

You need to break that every day or it will stick to the ribbon.

When you break it, the pieces will sink to the bottom and form crystals onto the glass. You want those crystals on the ribbon so clean it out.

Pour syrup through strainer into a bowl. Wash out the crystals on bottom with hot water. Dry container out completely. Pour syrup back (use strainer again if you are particular) into glass container. Place ribbon back in container.

I did this every 1-2 weeks. If you want quicker, do more often.

IN A NUTSHELL (you do not have permission to copy and paste directions into your repost without 1 Fine Cookie’s written permission):

1. Boil 3 cups of sugar to every 1 cup of water (or saturate using the other method)
2. Pour into glass container
3. Dip ribbon into sugar water.
4. Cover ribbon in sugar to dry.
5. Dip ribbon back in and wait for crystals to form.

Mine took 1- 4 weeks .  It depends on how clean you keep it, how dry the air is, and other factors mentioned above.

Look at the results.

I created the larger piece by tying  three short pieces of ribbon to one very long ribbon. I used a long cooking spoon to push the necklace down with enough space for the three small pieces to hang below.

Black raspberry flavored.

Peanut butter flavored.

If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, then what about edible diamonds?

“Orange Sapphire” necklace.

Marshmallow flavored rock candy.

“Aquamarine” necklace.

See this amazing piece?

I created it by tying a piece across from one side to the other of the ribbon. There are actually two small pieces tied here but I would suggest only adding one.

I flavored these “red ruby” pieces with watermelon Torani.

And for my Pinnners:

Bling, bling biotch.

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