These mini cupcakes are decorated with "stained glass hearts," which are actually quite easy to make. The ingredient? Jolly Ranchers! When I first read about this method of making edible stained glass, I was informed that crushing the candies into small pieces would make it easier. I found this to be completely false; it just got messy. So I skipped that step. I put some tinfoil on a baking sheet, and simply lined up Jolly Ranchers of the same color in two rows, about 1/4 inch apart from each other. I put them in the oven at 350 degrees for 3-4 minutes. This melted them down to a bubbling (very hot!) liquid. I let them cool for 1-2 minutes, and then pressed small heart cookie-cutters into the liquid. After waiting another 2-3 minutes, I pressed the cookie cutters into the hardening candy, reprinting the previous imprint. After breaking away the edges, this process creates beautiful "stained glass" shapes (you can do this with any shape/size cookie cutter.) I then placed them on top of the mini cupcakes (recipe to follow soon) and ta-da! Easy but beautiful decorations.
Here's a picture of the hearts cooling:
Another method of making shapes like this - crush up the candies (I'm sure there's a way to do this without making a huge mess - I just have yet to find it), and place them inside cookie cutters. Melt in the oven (at the above-mentioned temp & time). You won't be wasting any candy this way, but you'll need multiple cookie cutters.
Enjoy!
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