Gel Candle Designs: Valentine Cherries & Chocolate Candles

After Christmas, the first thing we do is try to find a way to drop those few extra pounds that the holidays seem to attach to our bodies. What happens next? Valentine's Day.

These Valentine Gel Candles are filled with beautifully decorated red, satin heart-shaped boxes of zero calories.

How do we combat this and keep healthy and energetic? With a fun alternative--a wonderful dessert gel candle, of course. Have your cakes and candies with Romance and conversation, instead of fat and sugar. And spend the evening with someone you love.

We have many wonderful wax pieces to give us a start at building some of the most tempting candles you can imagine. Whether you start with a fudge brownie base or a cake or pie, as you learn to use paraffin and gel together, you find another way that the ideas are simply endless.

Pay attention to restaurant dessert trays and the pictures in cookbooks. you can recreate ALL of it with your candles. Please note that all references made in this article to food items are actually 'WAX figments' of the food item.

This month we feature our 'Cherries in a Cloud' candle and also our 'Death by Chocolate'.... what a way to go! A description for building the candles comes now. the delightful scent and fun will come when it is given as a gift and enjoyed.

CHERRIES IN A CLOUD

We start our Cherries in a Cloud candle with a 4" wax heart, colored a light beige candle coloring, and scented with our Butter crème Vanilla.

(We have predrilled the hole in the center for the wick. and for goodness sakes... make and sell candles to BURN... not merely to grow dust!! Life is too short!)

Remember not to clip the wick too short; wait to see the finished height of your candle to decide where to cut the wick.

Next we melted some opaque white paraffin and scented with Wild Cherry fragrance. Once the paraffin has melted, remove from heat and allow it to start setting up. At this point you can use any kind of utensil to stir and fluff. Some candle makers like to add a little gel to their paraffin, and make it a little more flexible instead of brittle.

Next pick up pieces of the white 'whipping cream' wax and form little pieces to line the outside edge of the heart. Think of decorating a cake. in fact with all the dessert candles; just pretend you are using real food items. Build and decorate the candles with the same 'culinary' eye. If you wish, you could put a border of whipping cream at the plate baseline of the heart and also on the top cake surface. If you find the pieces become too set, you can re-melt a bit of the paraffin, allow it to cool till slightly thickened, and drizzle over your whipping cream pieces to lock them together. Even if drizzles of the wax flow over the side of the 'cake', it simply looks like icing or ice cream melting and flowing.

Once you have your whipping cream border(s) where you want them, then fill in the area inside the white border with wax cherries. Your last step is to melt gel, color with red and scent with Wild Cherry. You want to allow the gel to cool until it is 'thick syrup' stage.

Pour over the cherries, filling in the nooks and crannies. The wick should be trimmed approximately ¼ inch above the highest peak of the candle. Make sure the candle looks symmetrical and attractive to the eye. And DON'T lick fingers!!! It doesn't taste the way it looks!!!!!

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE

Our second feature candle is DEATH BY CHOCOLATE.

In our preparation work, we first poured some dark brown wax, scented with Milk Chocolate or Chocolate Fudge FO, into a shallow pan about 1/8" thick.

When the wax is almost hard, yet pliable, cut pieces and curl for chocolate curls and chunks.

We also used some of our wax Teddi Grahams, cut into pieces to resemble walnut chips. Our 'wax' chocolate crumb topping will act as an "Oreo" type sprinkle. Always find ways to make multiple uses of the items in your *candle stash*!

We start with our mocha colored snack cake base. Again, a hole is predrilled for the 50s series wick in the center of snack cake. You can use any type of white wax piece to build the height of this candle... molded mini bundt, ice cream scoop, or whipping cream dollop. Thread this piece also onto the wick. Thus you have the 'body' of the candle and simply need to add the scented 'toppings' for the appeal and pizzazz.

We then melt gel and scent with Milk Chocolate FO and colored with mocha brown coloring, either using liquid dyes or color palettes. Again, the SECRET is to allow the gel to THICKEN like syrup. If you pour it hot, it will simply melt your base pieces and run all over the plate. We pour our gel from the melting pot to a microwave safe, handled pan with spouts. You can swirl the gel in this pan to hurry the 'set'. When it looks 'gooey' start pouring over the top of your ice cream scoop and allow to run down the sides. You want it thick and delicious looking. Multiple layers will add a 'richer' look also.

While the gel is still warm, sprinkle some chocolate crumb topping, walnut chips (cut from teddi grahams) and push your chocolate curls randomly to look attractive. Remember NOT to cover over all of the white ice cream scoop or you will have nothing other than a dark brown 'glob'. You want to see the color contrasts.

You can add a wax cherry at the top, next to wick if desired. We like to also drizzle the chocolate gel onto the plate, decoratively, and sprinkle more crumb topping to decorate the serving plate and candle base.

There you have it.. you will be amazed how authentic you can design dessert candles. Package them in the window dessert boxes and your customers will take three looks and STILL ask "Is it real???" My answer?? I have never created ANYTHING but REAL!!!. Of course. 'Perspective' is in the eye of the beholder.

Enjoy ! No calories.simply warm, wonderful moments!

Article & Design by Patti Smith, Design Artist
BioMax Candle Supply ~ www.biomax1.com