{Beach Wedding Week} DIY Favor, Make Your Own Sea Glass Candy

Well here we are again for Beach Wedding Week's Thrifty Thursday, all the good stuff on the cheap. If you want easy, inexpensive, and fun DIY wedding favors that will be a big hit with your guests, how about your own sea glass candy? You can make it any flavor and color you want to correspond with your wedding colors. Pretty tins or shells make great holders, add a tag and finish it off with some ribbon and you have a super tasty way to say thank you!  We love this DIY wedding favor idea for a beach themed celebration and thank Intimate Wedding letting us share their recipe.

Reception: Sea Glass Candy Favor

You will need: 2 cups granulated sugar, 3/4 cup water, 3/4 cup corn syrup, 1/4 – 1 tsp. flavoring oil (Raspberry and rootbeer were used here but the choice is yours) Icing sugar (to coat cooled candy for that weathered look)

Step One: Grease a cookie sheet or cake pan with butter. Measure ingredients.

Step Two: Pour granulated sugar, corn syrup and water in a medium saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves.

Step Four: Without stirring, boil the mixture until a candy thermometer reads between 300 and 310 degrees. (This will take about 30 minutes.) Drop a small amount into ice water. If it separates into brittle strands its ready.

Step Five: Remove from heat and let boiling subside.

Step Six: Measure flavoring oil and pour into candy mixture. Also add food coloring if desired. Blend with a wooden spoon. (You’ll notice that it will get really steamy for a few seconds.

 Step Seven: Pour onto greased cookie sheet or cake pan. Let cool. The fridge works well.

Step Eight: Cover hardened candy with parchment paper and tap with a mallet to shatter candy into small pieces. Make sure to spread the pieces around after breaking.

Step Nine: Use a basting brush and coat candy pieces with icing sugar.

Step Ten: Place into favor tins. A cupcake form works well to keep them all together. Tie with ribbon and adhere labels. One reader suggested using a shell to hold the sea glass candy and then wrapping the whole package in tulle or tissue paper.

So there you have it, super simple, easy way to create a sweet beach themed favor for your wedding reception. It is creative and different and sure to be a hit with your guests. Edible favors are a big wedding trend for 2012 and these little yummies definitely won't be left on the table by accident.

Your reception is the best place for lots of personalized DIY projects because people will be spending more time here than any other place. It makes sense from a branding perspective to bring as much of you to the party as possible. Just make sure you have enough time and don't bog yourself down in glue and glitter. Make sure you check out our other Thrifty Thursday post on DIY Save the Dates - Message in a Bottle.

 Happy planning and Happy DIY!


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P.S. Leah commented at Intimate Weddings about a couple problems a few people were having with this recipe. She says:

If you live in a humid place, this toffee will be sticky, it’s a fact of life and nothing you do will prevent it! Keeping it in an air-tight container in the fridge will help prevent stickiness in humid places. But also, if you do not cook it for long enough, it will remain soft and pliable once it ‘sets’ which may also contribute to stickiness. In terms of color – if you take the mixture off the heat before it turns amber your colour will be truer to the original colouring. However the less you cook it the more likely it will not set rock-hard and may remain soft and pliable as I mentioned above.