5 Steps for Making a Candy Tree

Contents

    – Step 1: Prepare the base

    – Step 2: Plant the tree in the pot

    – Step 3: Decorate the tree with candy

    – Step 4: Garnish the base of the tree with candy

    – Step 5: Wrap your tree

A candy tree is a spectacular gift for a sweet tooth and an unusual decoration for a birthday party, baby shower, baptism, or wedding.

Making a candy tree is easy once you have gathered all the necessary materials. This post explains how to proceed for the amazement and delight of children and adults.

1. Prepare the support

    – In a floral supply store, get an oasis ball (green florist’s foam) of the desired diameter: 10 cm for a small tree and 20 cm for a large one.

    – With a sharpened pencil, poke a hole in the oasis ball.

    – Cut a wooden stake to the desired size for your tree (about 15 to 20 cm, depending on the size of your oasis ball).

    – Push the stake into the hole you pre-drilled.

    – Wrap the oasis ball in tissue paper that matches the color of your final piece, holding the paper with a few toothpicks.

Optional: If you are making a pastel tree for a christening or wedding, add a touch of sophistication by wrapping a white or pastel ribbon around the tree’s “trunk.

2. Plant the tree in the pot

    – Get a clay pot with a diameter that roughly matches the diameter of your oasis ball.

    – Fill the hole in the pot with a small amount of salt dough made by mixing a little flour, water, and salt. You can also use modeling clay if you have it.

    – Prepare some quick-setting plaster and pour it within about 5 cm of the edge of the pot.

    – When the plaster starts to set, plant your tree in the middle of the pot and hold it upright until the plaster sets completely.

Note: if you are making a candy tree in pastel colors for a baptism or a wedding, you should also use a pastel container: you can paint the clay pot as you like or use a white or pastel-colored pot cover.

3. Decorate the candy tree

    – Depending on the size of the tree, get about 6 to 12 packages of candy of your choice, soft enough to be stuck on toothpicks. Opt for, for example:

        ◦ small, soft, multi-colored spherical jelly beans, 

        ◦ white and pink marshmallows (for a baptism, wedding),

        ◦ white marshmallows topped with a very red strawberry or banana, etc…

    – Put on disposable gloves to work hygienically.

    – Take a toothpick and skewer a candy on it (or 2 candies if you overlap a marshmallow and a strawberry or a banana, for example).

    – Dip the end of the toothpick you will stick into the oasis in a little water.

    – Prick the skewer into the top of the tree.

    – Continue candy by candy in this way, working in wider circles around the first candy.

    – Trim the ends of the toothpicks that stick out of the candy with scissors.

Optional: cut leaves out of green marzipan (or use unleavened bread leaves sold in supermarkets) and poke them here and there between the candies with a toothpick.

4. Fill the foot of the tree with candy

    – Cover the plaster at the base of the tree with aluminum foil.

    – Garnish the base of the tree with candies that match the style of your work: sugared almonds for a pastel tree, small colored candies filled with chocolate for a multi-colored tree, etc…

5. Wrap your tree

Finally, wrap your tree in cellophane paper.

    – If you want to give the tree as a gift, this florist-style wrapping will work just fine.

    – Otherwise, the cellophane will keep the candy from drying out quickly and allow you to prepare the tree a few days in advance.

Materials needed to make a candy tree

Pencil 

Toothpick 

Wheat flour 

Disposable latex gloves 

Florist’s foam 

Pair of scissors 

Aluminum foil 

Tissue paper 

Clay pot 

Wood saw 

Fine salt 

Wooden stake