Panache Offblast

I’m having such a fail week! I’m blaming it on Day Light Savings (along with a few other personals), though – it’s getting dark way too fast, making my day turn upside down – definitely not use to it, yet. As it is Tuesday though, and missing 2 Tasty Tuesdays in a row, I need to get cracking and make it up to all of you with a sweet treat today. Today’s edition: Candy Coma!

Today’s post is not exactly going to be ‘fashion forward’ (aside from the rtw outfits I put together you will see below), but more-so avant-garde, when you’re in the mood for something extraordinarily out of the box, when you need inspiration for a photoshoot, or you’re just in a really energetic, happy, colorful mood! The first thing, or person rather, that comes to mind when thinking about candy (aside from Halloween, I suppose), is Betsey Johnson. If you’re a fan of hers, you know the aesthetic she chooses when designing her collections. If not, Betsey is known for her feminine, colorful, and whimsical designs; she truly brings out energy and happiness through her designs. I could go on for ages talking about Betsey Johnson, telling you bits and pieces about her from the day she opened her first boutique ‘Betsey Bunki Nini’, to this day with her labels Betsey Johnson and Betseyville, to her signature cartwheels at the end of each catwalk at her shows. I’ll save that for another post, though. Today, the reason I chose her as my muse for Candy Coma is because of her incredible use of bright colors and patterns, cute and candy/dessert embellished jewelry and accessories, and the overall exciting and energetic vibes showcased by her designs.

Now that you’ve learned I’m obsessed with Betsey Johnson… (I know, I tend to get somewhat off topic – I’ll try to cut that down! Hehe) today’s show and tell contains 3 parts: candy coated photoshoots, stylish ways to wear bright & bold colors, prints and patterns, and an edible homemade treat – rock candy!

 

 

Cotton Candy Coma by abcDanah featuring platform heels

Strawberry Blues by abcDanah featuring topshop tops

Pretty Berries by abcDanah featuring purple jewelry

Strawberry Lemonade by abcDanah featuring floral shoes

 

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• glass jar
• cotton string or kebab stick
• pencil or knife
• food coloring (optional – but pretty!)
• 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp flavoring oil or extract (optional – but tasty!)
• saucepan
• stove or microwave

Directions:

1. Pour the sugar and water into the pan.
2. Heat the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. You want the sugar solution to hit boiling, but not get hotter or cook too long. If you overheat the sugar solution you’ll make hard candy (hooray! you’re done with that ;p), which is nice, but not what we’re going for here.
3. Stir the solution until all the sugar has dissolved. The liquid will be clear or straw-colored, without any sparkly sugar. If you can get even more sugar to dissolve, that’s good!
4. If desired, you can add food coloring and flavoring to the solution. Mint, cinnamon, berry, or lemon extract are good flavorings to try.
5. Set the pot of sugar syrup in the refrigerator to cool. You want the liquid to be about 50°F (slightly cooler than room temperature).
6. While the sugar solution is cooling, prepare your string or kebab stick. Tie it to a pencil, knife, or other object that can rest across the top of the jar, so the string/stick hangs in the center of the jar, not touching the sides or bottom.
7. You want to ‘seed’ the string/stick with crystals so that the rock candy will form on it rather than on the sides or bottom of the jar. There are two easy ways to do this. One is to dampen the string/stick with a little of the syrup you just made and dip the string in sugar. Another option is to soak the string/stick in the syrup and then hang it to dry, which will cause crystals to form naturally (this method produces ‘chunkier’ rock candy crystals).
8. Once your solution has cooled, pour it into the clean jar. Suspend the string/stick in the liquid. Set the jar aside.
9. Check on your crystals, but don’t disturb them. You can remove them to dry and eat when you are satisfied with the size of your rock candy. Ideally you want to allow the crystals to grow for 3-7 days.
10. You can help your crystals grow by removing (and eating) any sugar ‘crust’ that forms on top of the liquid. If you notice a lot of crystals forming on the sides and bottom of the container and not on your string/stick, remove it and set it aside. Pour the crystallized solution into a saucepan and boil/cool it (just like when you make the solution). Add it to a clean jar and suspend your growing rock candy crystals.