Candyland and the Daffodil

I haven’t talked about it much lately, but long-time readers will recall that my son got engaged last August. His fiancé, who I must still refer to as ‘the Daffodil’ is fabulous. Why ‘the Daffodil’, you ask?


Because they are in their late 20s, have been together more than five years, and ‘girlfriend’ just didn’t seem adequate. It seemed trivial, in a way. I thought of her as my ‘de facto daughter-in-law’—see? DFDIL. Daffodil. Isn’t it obvious? Anyhoo… Soon she can shed that sobriquet and be my daughter-in-law officially.

So the wedding date rapidly approaches, and the excitement is mounting. The Daffodil spent the weekend assembling the invitation materials, while the groom-to-be was away for the weekend for a bachelor party. His friends gathered to celebrate with him as the last spring break of graduate school came to a close.

My job? I spent the afternoon making candies for the bridal shower my sister-in-law is hosting for them. She needs them a little ahead of time so she can assemble little packets for the guests to take home as party favors. I’ve got them all wrapped up tight to stay nice and fresh till then, but I snapped a few photos of them to share with you.

The bride has chosen orange and cranberry-colored flowers for the occasion, and her bridesmaids will be wearing chocolate brown. You will see a correlation to the candies I made. I swirled some red and some yellow together to customize the colors.  I hope she likes loves them.

You may have seen the materials for making candy at your craft store. Trust me, this is easy-peasy stuff, and fun to do. People enjoy them, and it adds a special, personalized note to special occasions.

I’ve done this for years for bridal showers, baby showers, birthday parties, anniversaries, graduations, and assorted weird gatherings. While a store like Michael's or Hobby Lobby will have some basic (but very useful and very cute) candy molds (we’re talking about $1.99 here), if your area has a cake decorating shop like our Karen Ann’s or Sallie’s, you can find some really specialized designs. Like the cactus and chili pepper molds I got for our annual Chili Party. Or the posh medallions with 60 on them, for a 60th anniversary party. Check it out.  I made wedding bells, bride and groom couples, hearts with 'Love' on them, and wedding cakes!

You nuke the candy melts (again, Michael’s, Joann’s, Hobby Lobby) and spoon them into the molds. Stick them in the fridge, and soon you can just pop them out and go again! As I said: Easy-peasy.

As I was finishing up, the Center of the Universe stopped by the kitchen, tongue hanging out, jonesing for samples.

“What happened to your willpower?” I asked. “You said you were going to lose some weight.”

“I have plenty of willpower,” he said. “And I WILL eat some candy.”

Yep, he did. So now we know—willpower he has. It’s the won’t-power he’s missing.