DIY Life

Step aside, bears: Craftster user Goosezilla, Katy Hargrove, recently made these fantastic tiny gummi candy replicas of the Venus de Milo.

They're nifty on their own, but also a reference to an old episode of The Simpsons. As you can see in the photo, they're only about an inch tall!

It turns out that you can make candy like this in just about any shape you want: it takes surprisingly little time, and the possibilities are endless. I'll show you how to do it after the break.

To make your own gummi candy, you will need molds and a recipe.

For the molds, choose one of these two options:

• Purchased molds to make small candy
• Food-grade silicone and a clean model for your mold, like a miniature figurine or toy, or a coin.

Food-grade silicone can be purchased from Culinart (Katy's source). You can also use it to make much larger molds for chocolate, candle wax, butter, and so on. Depending on which version you purchase, it can take up to a few hours to set up and cure, but after that, it's smooth sailing.

There are a number of recipes out there for gummi candy. All are based on a single concept: add a whole lot of extra unflavored gelatin (like Knox) to a single packet of flavored gelatin (like Jell-O). There may be other additives, such as Kool-Aid powder or juice, in the recipe you choose.

The following recipes mostly vary in terms of the ratio of unflavored gelatin to flavored (anywhere from 3:1 to 7:1). If you use them with candy molds -- either purchased or self-made -- the majority of them should set up in about ten minutes.

• Gummi and Gelatin Candy Recipes at About.com's Candy site
• Gummi Bears at Cdkitchen (includes gummi worm instructions)
• Gummi Bears at EasyFunSchool
• Gummi Bears at Recipezaar

That's all there is to it! You can see a few more photos of Katy's Venus gummis at her blog, Tangrala.