Favor Ideas: Homemade Caramels are Perfect for Fall and Winter

Homemade caramels from the Tradewind Confections kitchen.

Caramel anything is good, in my opinion.  Homemade caramel anything is spectacular, and homemade caramels make a fabulous fall or winter wedding favor.

Never made candies before?  Don't worry--this is a pretty darn easy recipe to follow, great for a first-timer.

One batch makes approximately 100 perfect bite-sized caramels.  I say approximately because I didn't count the irresistible caramels that my daughter and I sampled.  Quality control is, you know, important and stuff.  Yeah.

 How To Make Fleur de Sel Caramels (Sea Salt Caramels)

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice
sea salt to taste, for sprinkling on top of the caramels.


Directions:
In a small saucepan, bring butter, cream, and the teaspoon of salt to a boil.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Boil sugar, water, and corn syrup in a second, good sized (4 quart-ish) pot.  Stir frequently until the sugar is dissolved.  Once the sugar is dissolved, stop stirring!  Gently swirl the pan until the ingredients turn a light golden caramel color.  Watch carefully--this happens quickly!

Carefully stir the cream mixture into the sugar mixture.  It will bubble up impressively, but don't worry!  That's why we used a biggish pot.  Keep stirring until the mixture reaches 245 on a candy thermometer.  Remove from heat, and quickly stir in the vanilla and vinegar (or lemon juice).

Pour into an 8x8 pan.  Here's my secret weapon in caramel-making.  See this blue pan here:

That's a silicone pan.  I don't use them for much, but for bar cookies and caramels, they're absolutely brilliant!  If you don't use a silicone pan, you'll need to line your pan with parchment paper, butter or oil the parchment paper and pan, and then cross your fingers and hope hope hope the caramels come out of the pan.  If you use a silicone pan, no stress, no worries, it just works.  No parchment or oiling or pan prep of any kind necessary.

Let the caramels cool for about five minutes.  Sprinkle with sea salt, if desired.  It's not necessary, but I love that burst of salt with the silky-sweet caramel.  Yum!  If you sprinkle the salt too early, it will dissolve into the surface.  Too late, and it won't stick.  

Let the caramels cool for at least two hours, then turn them out on a cutting board. 

Look how gorgeously it pops out of the silicone pan!  So easy when you have the right tools!

Cut into pieces.  You can use a knife, or kitchen scissors.  Both work, but I usually grab the scissors, myself.  One word of advice--don't turn out the caramels and then leave them sitting on the cutting board for an hour or so.  It will meld to the board and stick with a force heretofore unknown outside of the superglue testing labs.

Wrap the pieces in squares of waxed paper.  You can also buy commercial candy wrappers, but I've had sticking issues with those, and I love the classic, old-fashioned, homemade look of the waxed paper.


There you go!   I'm a big fan of edible favors anyway, but I would be so delighted to get this as a favor at any wedding I attend!  It's inexpensive, delicious, and so special to give something homemade.  Plus, you can make these several weeks ahead of time, unlike cookies!  Fair warning, though--it might be hard to keep from eating them all in those weeks before the wedding.  They're that good.

Fabulous Product: Miniature Bunting Makes a Darling Cake Topper

I find most cake toppers...meh.  It's my personal preference, of course, but I typically prefer flowers (whether real or gumpaste) or nothing at all.

But these miniature buntings, oh, how they've captured my imagination.

I'm a sucker for bunting.  I'm a sucker for anything miniature.  I suppose it was destiny that I'd love these gorgeous designs by Kiki La Ru.

Dawn from Kiki La Ru started the trend with her original cake bunting designs, like these:

The bakers twine bows add just the perfect touch. 

Look how absolutely darling those cakes look!   Such a simple, easy buttercream covering, too, looks absolutely perfect with these cake toppers.  This is an ideal look for anyone even thinking about making a wedding cake (either for yourself or for a friend), especially if you've never made a wedding cake before.  

The bunting can be bought in Kiki La Ru's Etsy shop.  Feeling like a little DIY project?  Check out their DIY kits!  

Sneak Peak: Swarovski Rhinestone Napkin Rings

More napkin rings!  (Told you I was on a kick.)

Here's a little sneak peak of a product we'll soon be offering at Tradewind Tiaras.  I love the concept of napkin rings, but I've always thought it's too bad that most napkin rings are made out of such sub-standard materials.    They're pretty expensive, too, especially considering that they're made from just a few cents worth of plastic crystals!  So dissapointing.

Out of desperation, I made my own.  They are so sparkly, so special.  They have that fire and flash only Swarovski can add.  High quality materials really do make all the difference in the world!

We'll be offering them for sale, of course, but we'll also be offering them to rent!  If you love the look, but don't have the budget for all 150 of your guests, we'll have a very affordable rental option to help dress up your table settings!  Watch the Tradewind Tiaras website for them soon!

Fabulous Product: Elegant Paper Napkin Rings

I'm on a napkin ring kick!  Check out these beauties from Paper Acorn.

I'm a sucker for any kind of paper craft, but these are just gorgeous!  You could write names on the napkin rings and they'd double as table cards, too.

Fabulous Products: Tissue Paper Pom Napkin Rings

We've all seen the tissue paper poms that Martha Stewart made popular several years ago.

Ceiling decor at The Canterbury Place reception site in Utah:

Poms are a fabulous way to add high impact, colorful decor without breaking the budget.

But that's not all tissue poms can do.  

How about this absolutely delightful idea from Etsy seller melodywei?  Tissue pom napkin rings!

These would add such beauty and elegance to even the most simple place settings.  You could even add a simple paper leaf, write your guests' names on the leaf, and they'd double as gorgeous place cards, too!

Fabulous Products: Chalkboard Glasses!

I'm completely in love with these chalkboard stemless wine glasses from Pier One!

They're only $3 in the store, which is a very reasonable price.  But I've heard rumor that they're only $1 at Pier One outlets!  That brings them down into the same price as rental stemware.  Save on rentals, have a really cool, useful product at the wedding, and a favor all in one.  Awesome!

Feel like a DIY project?  Check out this awesome tutorial from The Inadvertent Farmer.

Beautiful DIY chalkboard paint canisters from The Inadvertent Farmer.

Wedding Inspiration: An Orchard Themed Fall Wedding

Last week we took a short family trip to Michigan to visit dear friends.  We escaped the Phoenix heat, went apple picking, drank freshly pressed apple cider, ate hot cider donuts, and enjoyed a bit of glorious fall.

Eating apples directly off the tree.

I was inspired.  The weather, the scents, the tastes, the sights.  So perfectly, marvelously fall.  What could be better than an orchard wedding in the glorious autumn sunshine?

Long tables in the orchard, full of family and friends:

All set up for a formal dinner in the peach orchard at Schnepf Farms, Queen Creek, AZ.

From the gorgeous Orchard Wedding inspiration table put together by Once Wed:

Delicious favors like the apple butter (above) or caramel apples (below)!

And who can resist the allure of wedding pies instead of wedding cake?  Check out this beautifully styled concept from Lyndsey Hamilton Events: 

I'm in love with autumn, and its flavors and colors.   Maybe it's just the 100+ Phoenix heat (still!) getting to me, but I can't imagine a more beautiful setting or theme than an orchard wedding.