Printer-friendly versionHave you ever wanted to make your own custom flavors of gourmet cotton candy? Or cotton candy colors that you can't buy from the store? This easy tutorial will show you how to make cotton candy sugar in any flavor you want.
It's so simple to make cotton candy sugar in a huge range of flavors and any color you want!
I came up with this technique after deciding that I wanted to make cotton candy in candy corn colors to hand out for Halloween this year. I could buy orange and yellow floss sugar, but the colors of commercial cotton candy aren't very vibrant, and the yellow was banana flavored, which sounded terrible to me. DIY custom gourmet cotton candy sugar to the rescue.
How to Make Cotton Candy Sugar:
Materials for Making Flavored Sugar for Cotton Candy:
- granulated white sugar
- food coloring (powdered or gel)
- concentrated candy flavorings
The process for making your gown gourmet cotton candy sugar couldn't be easier. Just add a few drops of the candy flavoring (I like using Lorann Oils brand flavors) and some food coloring to the sugar, and mix.
You can use either powdered food coloring or gel food coloring. Both work, but you can get more intense colors with the gel. It also takes longer to mix together, but it's not difficult at all.
To use the custom cotton candy flavors, just pour into your cotton candy machine, just like you would with the commercial stuff.
Cotton Candy Machine Review:
For years I've used an inexpensive plastic cotton candy maker. It worked, but it was loud and slow. I recently upgraded to a Clevr Cotton Candy Machine, and WOW, do I love it! It's steady and doesn't try to shimmy its way off my counter like the old one did. It's a lot quieter. And man oh man is it FAST. I can make several huge, fluffy cotton candy cones in a minute. With my old machine, it took about two minutes to make a single cone, and I had to dissasemble the machine and clean it after every two or three cones. Not with the Clevr cotton candy maker. I can make cone after cone after cone and it keeps working just as well as the first cone.
The Clevr brand cotton candy maker is a remarkable step up from the little toy versions you can buy for $30-$40. But at less than $200, it's far less expensive than true commercial cotton candy machines. Still, this machine is substantial, sturdy, well built, and is a workhorse. I am VERY happy with my purchase!
WARNING--How NOT to Make Gourmet Cotton Candy Flavors:
If you want to make custom cotton candy flavors, stick to the flavorings. I tried making gingerbread flavored cotton candy by mixing ginger and cinnamon with sugar, and it made a terrible mess in my machine. It clogged things up, the sugar burnt--it wasn't pretty and it was tough to clean up. Similarly, don't try mixing cocoa powder in with the sugar. Stick to extracts and candy flavorings, and you won't damage your cotton candy machine.
I'm determined to make a gingerbread flavored cotton candy, but next time I experiment, I'll stick to ginger and cinnamon oils rather than the actual spices.
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