Make Edible Hair! Recipe for Candy Hair for (Cup)Cakes [VIDEO]
By livelonger
Want to decorate a cake with hair, but want to make it edible? Sure, you can pipe out small streams of icing or ganache with a fine tip, but sometimes that can look a little cheesy. Fortunately, there is a way to do it, and the resulting hair is shockingly realistic looking and edible. The fine follicles are actually made of pulled sugar, and they dissolve in your mouth! With a few simple ingredients and some elbow grease, you can turn out some hair that you can eat!
The technique I'm using is that used by Chinese confectioners when they make something called "Dragon's Beard" (or Dragon's Hair, or Dragon's Whiskers), a type of cottony candy with this hairlike candy on the outside, and a peanut filling on the inside.
Here's what you'll need (all of this is captured in the video above, too):
- corn syrup (about 150ml)
- corn starch
- a small round bowl (if glass, then spray baking release or a little oil)
- a large bowl or tray
- a small pot
- a candy thermometer
- dye (optional)
Possible substitutions:
- Instead of corn syrup, you can use sugar and water, although when you cook the syrup, you'll have to take extra special care to make sure all of the sugar crystals completely melt. You can also use honey or maltose syrup, too. (Corn syrup's the cheapest, of course)
- Instead of corn starch, you can use rice starch or toasted rice flour (what's traditionally used in Asia), or, if you want your resulting hair to be brown, maybe cocoa powder. As long as what you're using is dry, not sticky, and completely pulverized (i.e. a true powder), then it should work fine.
Important tips
- Try to keep the thickness of the strands as even as possible, especially at the beginning. Any irregularity will get amplified with each twist-and-fold pass you make.
- Be sure to dip the candy in corn starch with each pass. If you don't, the strands will stick to each other when you stretch them out and it is impossible to separate them.
- Keep the resulting hair as dry as possible. If topping on a cupcake, consider using a buttercream frosting instead of a ganache, since it has less moisture. It's not as fragile as cotton candy (candy floss) in the presence of moisture, but it will eventually get sticky.
Directions
- Put the corn syrup in a small pot and begin heating it up on the stove. If you want to dye your hair, now is the time to mix some food-safe dye into your corn syrup. (I've done this with red-dye and it worked terrifically).
- Boil the corn syrup until the temperature reaches about 260-265 F (128-130 C).
- Turn off the heat. The temperature might rise to 270 F (132 C) on its own, but that's OK.
- Let it cool down until for the bubbles to subside.
- Fill the large bowl with about a cup of corn starch. Alternatively, put it in a mound on a lipped baking sheet.
- Pour the reduced syrup (molten sugar) into the round container. Allow to cool to room temperature.
- Push/pull the puck out of the container.
- Poke a hole in the center. If the puck is really hard, use a sharp object like a chopstick. If it's really hard, soften it in the microwave for about 3 seconds. (Don't let it soften more than what's necessary to poke a hole in the center)
- Using your hands, work the puck into a donut (torus) shape. Try to make it the same width around. You can pull gently (don't tug) to thin out the "rope."
- Twist the torus into a figure-8 and then fold the two halves into a double-roped circle.
- Dip the double-circle into the corn starch, making sure all of the surfaces are coated and no bare sugar is showing.
- Using your hands again, and by gently pulling, segment by segment, stretch the small double-circle into a large double-circle.
- Twist-and-fold (step #9) again, dip in corn starch (#10) again, and pull and stretch (#11) again.
- Repeat this process for a total of 12 total times. You'll find that, while it requires some effort, it's not impossible. Keep on making sure that the "rope" is the same thickness all the way around before twisting & folding.
- When you're finally done, you can pull at one point to break the circle into one large "pelt." You can also shake it to get rid of any excess corn starch. The hair will not start to stick unless you're in a humid environment.
- If you want to have shorter segments of the hair, pull them off the main pelt, do not cut with scissors or a knife. That will cause the the strands to fuse together.
Comments
Haha, thanks! It's called "Lotus" for the first 6 minutes or so, and then "Shogun" for the final segment. (All from iMovie)
what is that
Forget sharing with blog this. Crap, I just added your hub widget to my blog. I don't know where you find these recipes, but keep it up.
Gee, this is a fun recipe. Thanks for sharing.
My hands are tired just from watching the video! What a fascinating process.
That is so cool! But it really looks like a lot of work.
This is so interesting. That was a cool video too showing the process. I always like when recipes have videos so you can see exactly what is going on. My experience with boiling corn syrup and water has been a disaster. I see the importance of a candy thermometer now. How would I store this? Does it keep long?
Great hub & very cool recipe! Thanks for sharing this idea!
Thank you so much, everyone! Yes, it was a strenuous process, but still a fun and fascinating one.
stylezink: I think you could store this for a while with a generous sprinkling of cornstarch, in a sealed container, and stored where the temperature is cool and constant. When you want to use it, you just have to give it a good shake to get rid of the excess cornstarch.
What a perfect hub! LOVED the video, and found the music quite soothing. The technique you use to make the edible candy hair made me think of Chinese noodle making, but with a sweet "twist." Who knew I would be looking forward to finding hair in my next dessert!? This should be hub of the day, as the video and layout are a magic combination. Quite Impressive my friend, a tweeting I shall go!
Shalom and HubHugs of course!
K9
Thank you so much, K9! I did a lot of research over the weekend on this technique, and it is indeed very similar to the kind used to make hand-pulled noodles. The stuff looks unsettlingly hairlike, but it does taste sweet. The real masters, of course, make the entire process look effortless and they turn out amazing, untangled "hair." Thanks for stopping by - shalom and a HubBearHug back! ;)
That video was amazing! It looks like a lot of work, but worth it for the right cupcake or cake. I could just see it on a cake with ribbons to look like pigtails! Do you think you could add starch to stiffen it?
Everything about this Hub is very cool. The music, video, recipe and photos. Awesome job. I will vote up and bookmark as well as share! Awesome!
JSMatthew~
Thanks, Robin & J.S.!
Robin: I think to stiffen it, all you have to do is give it some time to dry out (if you live in a dry environment). Maybe putting it in the oven at a very low temperature (like 100F) for a while?
Cool Hub
We used to work with pulled sugar in chef school but I didn't even know you could do it with glucose. Pulled sugar has to be worked quite hot but it appears that the corn syrup was allowed to cool, yes?
I am going to try this recipe for Halloween! I never knew you could create (hair) out of sugar and make it edible. I wonder how long this will take? mmmm... My son and I should enjoy this! :D
Thanks, chefsref & AEvans!
chefsref: Pulling sugar for glasslike sculptures needs to be hot, but for this, it should be cooled down to room temperature. It does require some elbow grease, but not a ton.
AEvans: From start to finish, I would say about an hour, maybe a bit longer if it takes time for your reduced corn syrup to cool to room temp. Have fun!
This is just absolutely amazing, I never would've thought of this at all!
The video is amazing!! I was absolutely mesmerized by the way that puck of sugar eventually turned into those fine strands. It looks like it takes a lot of strength, though! I don't know if my spaghetti arms could handle it.
Your tips and advice are fantastic though- it's great that, in addition to providing instructions, you explain *why* it's important to do something (e.g. keep dipping the sugar in corn starch so it doesn't start melding together). So many recipes I've followed DON'T do that and it's a pity, because understanding a certain step makes one more likely to complete it properly.
Let's face it... your recipe Hubs trump most cookbook entries. I can't wait to see what you publish next!
Thank you so much, AnimeHime2011 and Simone!
Simone: It's more an exercise in patience than strength, but I've seen little old ladies make it in some videos I've seen, so I think you could manage. :)
Interesting hub..
Wow - you are the video king! I love these wonderful additions to hubs! I gotta make me some of those. I love the candy hair, too, by the way!
Hi livelonger,
For some reason your video would not play. Even copied the URL (from embed) to Google and all it brought up was your hub. So...that aside...this sounds interesting. I will probably never do any making of candy hair but was curious to see how it looked and how it would be used on cupcakes. Reminded me of some of the amazing things that they do on cooking channels. Thanks!
Peggy - Sorry you couldn't see the video. Apparently there are problems with the current player for some using Internet Explorer, but engineering is working on a fix. Thank you for the comment!
Wow, all I can say is WOW. thanks for sharing.
THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH THIS IS SUPER AWESOME
Thank you I love learning something new.
ezhang 7 months ago
I'm totally digging the music in your video!