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Sour Patch Kid

by Robin 11 photos Rated 87% 230 votes when voting closed

About this build

A pectin-based sweet flavoured with sour Kool-Aid is set in a homemade figure mould and coated in sour sugar to recreate a giant Sour Patch Kid.

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The finished sugar-crusted giant kid photographed beside a normal-sized Sour Patch Kid for scale
Notes from the contributor

Selected passages from the original account. Quantities may describe shopping, tests or the final build; follow the linked passage for its full context.

I found a recipe for gumdrops that used fruit pectin as a gelling agent. Here are the ingredients, and please ignore the very, very dirty wall behind them…

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First I made a positive mold out of air-drying clay. This is what I hoped the final product would look like:

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The original account

After four years of college I have found myself back at my parents’ house for a month with no job.
So what better way to spend my time than eating, napping, and making a monster sized Sour Patch Kid?!

First I made a positive mold out of air-drying clay. This is what I hoped the final product would look like:

Reddish-brown clay model of the grinning candy kid lying on spread newspaper

Then I mixed up some Plaster of Paris to make the negative mold and poured it over the clay man.

Hands stirring a tub of white plaster with a long wooden stick

Plaster poured over the clay figure in a foil-lined cardboard box to make the mould

I let the mold sit for 24 hours– here is the finished mold covered in plastic wrap to keep the candy from getting gross:

Pale figure-shaped plaster form on crumpled cling film in a baking tray, wrap box behind

I found a recipe for gumdrops that used fruit pectin as a gelling agent. Here are the ingredients, and please ignore the very, very dirty wall behind them…

Ingredients laid out: corn syrup, granulated sugar, Kool-Aid sachets, Can-Jel pectin and cooking spray

I boiled sugar and corn syrup in one pot and in the other pot combined the remaining ingredients. I used lemon juice and three packets of Kool-Aid to make it as sour as possible, since that is of course the most important part of a Sour Patch Kid.

Deep red candy mixture being stirred with a spoon in a large saucepan on the hob

In the mold, setting for 24 hours:

Red candy mixture poured into the cling-film-lined mould and setting in a baking tray

After coming out of the mold– lookin delicious, little man!

The bright red set candy figure turned out onto cling film on a tray

I did some research into the sour sugar they put on Sour Patch Kids — it’s made of sugar and citric acid. I don’t have much citric acid lying around, so I used some lemon Koolaid with the sugar to make it sour. Turns out citric acid is the main ingredient of Kool-Aid. Who knew acid could be so delicious??

Tearing open a Kool-Aid sachet over a mug of pale liquid for the sour coating

It was hard to get the sugar evenly distributed since the moisture from my baby kept soaking the sugar up, but it looked pretty good in the end…

Woman on a porch holding up the sugar-dusted giant candy kid on a sheet of paper

And now I must decide what the hell I’m supposed to do with a foot long Sour Patch Kid…

The finished sugar-crusted giant kid photographed beside a normal-sized Sour Patch Kid for scale

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