Candy Apple Wedding Favors

Handmade arrows pierce homemade candy apples to make a fun and creative fall wedding favor. When brainstorming favor ideas for our new wedding style, “Katniss,” I knew I wanted to play with the Hunger Games theme and incorporate handmade arrows into the idea. After reading this post about candy apples, I knew I wanted to try making my own because the recipe seemed simple and I loved the idea of poking real branches into each apple.

Candy Apples
Adapted from A Beautiful Mess
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• Food coloring (I used 4 drops of red + 2 drops of yellow)
• 6 apples

Special Tool: Candy thermometer

This recipe makes enough ‘candy’ for six apples. You would of course need to double (or quadruple) this recipe to the number of guests attending your event.

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan (or large pot depending on the amount you are making). Heat the sugar mixture over medium high heat until it reaches 300 to 310 degrees. This will take a while, about 20 minutes. Have your apples ready on wax paper. Remove the candy mixture from heat and dip in your apples (I used a fondue skewer to help with the dipping process). Place dipped apples back onto the wax paper and drizzle a little more candy mixture on the top of each apple. The candy will harden very quickly once removed from the heat, so have everything you need ready and work fast.

To make my arrows, I first gathered some sticks from my backyard. Using this tutorial and also this one, I sat down for an afternoon of crafting. There are lots of ways to create ‘vintage’ arrows so I suggest looking at either tutorial previously mentioned as a guide and make up your own technique. I used all materials that I already had on hand (sticks, colored duck quill feathers, acrylic paint and a paint brush, scissors, garden clippers, and craft glue).

Once my vintage arrows were completed I added some Katniss style oval favor tags and stabbed them into each apple just before serving to guests. The candy will be completely hardened so you may need to use a knife or pointed skewer to poke through the hard candy to the apple. I also wittled the ends of my arrows to a point so they would be easy to insert into each apple.