Week 47 - learning to make lollipops

At the end of last year, when I set about writing a big list of all the things I wanted to learn during this endless challenge, learning to make lollipops was not featured, surprisingly enough.  However, saying that, I am sure that most people my age will have seen the original (and best) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the legendary Gene Wilder, God rest his soul.  And I am sure that if pressed, most of those people would say that they would love nothing more than to spend a day in a sweet factory learning to make all the delectable concoctions.  

Well essentially, you can sort of do that (granted, in a slightly less glamorous fashion) at Spun Candy, a company that produces homemade hard rock and confectionary.  They have a shop and kitchen in Spitalfields where they make all their creations and hold parties and masterclasses.  When I came across the website, I quite fancied learning the science behind those classic, round lollipops with swirly colours and so signed up for a sugar rush.  

When I arrived, there was unfortunately not an Oompa-Loompa in sight, just a few humans of ordinary height and colour going about their business, rolling out some brightly coloured goo.  There wasn't a gorgeous aroma of rich chocolate or sweet honeycomb, just a slightly sweet and artificial smell in the air.  It was all very ordered, quiet and business-like.  That being said, there were things to look at everywhere like sweets and machines and tools and there were a whole lot of noises going on as well.  I met with Ivo, one of the confectioners who showed me round and took me over to a huge pot of bubbling sugar that we would use for my lollipops.  It is a mixture of sugar, glucose and water and needs to get up to 155 degrees before it can be manipulated into confectionary creations.

While that was going on, I got to choose what flavour I wanted my lollipops to be.  There were all sorts of essences and extracts but only the fruit ones were natural, I didn't want the artificial flavours like bubblegum or custard.  I was tempted by passion fruit but even that smelt a little odd so in the end I went with yummy raspberry, a nice, healthy fruit (added to my kilo of pure sugar and glucose).

Once the sugar mixture had reached 155 degrees, we took the liquid and poured it onto a specially enclosed, granite worktop.  I wanted my lollipops to be red, pink and white swirls so Ivo added red and white food colourings.  The red comes from beetroot extract but the white is artificial.  We had to move quite fast and mix everything with careful consideration as the liquid cools very quickly.

You can then see that it turns slightly solid and at this point it becomes malleable.  Ivo cut each coloured section, which we then put onto a heating table to knead and make sure the colours distributed evenly.  You have to keep moulding and squeezing so that not only does each section look even but also to get a really nice shine.

The pink piece that I made by mixing some of the red and white made me think of the river of slime in Ghostbusters 2.  Once we had all the pieces, Ivo lined up alternate sections of red, white and pink and started to roll them out into a huge, bulbous piece that looked like a baseball bat of stripey goo.

We each then started cutting off smaller pieces to roll, mould and turn into traditional lollipops.  Ivo's creations were a little more impressive than mine!  He did everything from a snail, to a butterfly, a flower and a pile of ice-cream.  I managed circles, hearts and squiggles.  Nevertheless, they all looked  rather cute and pretty and will no doubt make some children I know very happy (and some sweet-toothed adults too).  

The process is really interesting and I really enjoyed going through it from beginning to end.  Although, it doesn't make me want to eat sweets ever again, being shown the amount of sugar that makes them, literally, nothing but sugar.  Nevertheless, its a really fun thing to do and children probably go utterly mental for the masterclasses so I would only encourage it.  Get ready kids, the Xmas lollies are coming!