Middle Night Art Making

[minoanmiss]

I do need to become diurnal, but at least what I did tonight was this: My roommates are visiting W!Mom, and so I took a nap in the evening and then spent some hours making rainbow candy. (I like to work on it when I know no one else needs the space or the dishes I'm going to be using.)

Tonight I made:
1) a batch of rainbow fudge with an alternate flavor set I want to try out
2) a batch of "regular" rainbow fudge. The colors came out oddly dark -- not unpleasantly so, just surprisingly.
3) an attempt at rainbow jelly candy. Note to self: pomegranate powder blobs up rather than mixing in; try a different red fruit next time
4) rosehip jelly candy, because rosehips are yummy.

I don't know if the rainbow jelly candy will work, but even if it doesn't I think I can see a way forward towards making it work. That would be nice as another version of rainbow candy, especially a naturally vegan one (I'm using pectin as the gelling agent).

Also, everything edible that's blue is actually purple. I used cornflower petals and got... a beautiful violet shade. Rar. Food color kits should come with two bottles of blue.

I appreciate getting to make things. Much thanks to WD, lemonsharks, and my roommates, who helped me obtain my art supplies, as it were. ;) *blows grateful kisses*

Now to see how everything turns out after getting to set.

Comments

[cjsmith]

Ooo! This makes me wish DW had an easier way to share images. :-)

[tibicina]

I believe part of the problem with blue is that for most 'naturally' blue things it's a structural color rather than a pigment (and, of course, cooking or otherwise transforming the ingredient destroys the structure.)

(There /are/ some natural blue pigments, but they're also mostly toxic, sooooo, yeah.)

[sabotabby]

Good luck! I am sure it'll be magical because, well, rainbow fudge!

[mekare]

I wish I could see those because they sound beautiful.

[acelightning]

One good way to add fruit flavor and color is to get freeze-dried fruit (they sell it in Target, near the breakfast cereals) and pulverize it in a food processor, then sift the powder to remove seeds. Since the only fruit I like is raspberry, sifting out the seeds is especially important. They used to sell freeze-dried "astronaut strawberries" in the gift shops at science museums - when my son was little, he liked to crush the berries and mix them into his lemonade. But you can then blend the powder into other things - I make a raspberry sauce for desserts by just mixing the powder with sugar and water and boiling it for a while to make sure everything dissolves, and then adding a shot of framboise (raspberry liqueur) to boost the flavor. Also, you can use agar agar powder to "gel" things in a way suitable for vegans.

But you're right that there is no blue food. (Mother Nature seems to be very fond of purple!) There is a blue plant -"butterfly pea flowers" - the pigment is pH sensitive, and you can create a color-changing drink that, when you add some lemon juice, changes from blue to purple. The basic color the flowers provide is about the closest to "true blue" you can get with something edible. I have no idea what it tastes like :-(

[cjsmith]

Butterfly pea flowers are the nifty color ingredient in Empress 1908 gin, a beautiful pH-sensitive cocktail builder. I learned about this stuff maybe a month ago and I think I made like eight cocktails with lemon juice in a row just to watch the color turn. ♥

[ororo]

and now I have another gin to look for. I seem to be collecting it.

[cjsmith]

So pretty. If you have Total Wine (a chain) in your area, they're a good bet to have some of this. BevMo failed me but those folks had some.

Of course, on the day that every liquor store within walking distance of Noe Valley (San Francisco) had no Aviation gin, Safeway (generic chain grocery) had some. So I guess I just never know.

[acelightning]

I read somewhere about people who made punch containing blue peaflower, then created layered ice rings to float in the punch, where different layers had different amounts of lemon juice in them - so the punch would keep changing color dynamically as the ice melted. (I wonder if you could make layered ice balls in those hipster "ice ball" molds?)

[cjsmith]

Oooooo.

[acelightning]

Please invite me to that party! :-)

[cjsmith]

The commute might be tough but you’d be welcome!

[acelightning]

And you're invited to my 100th birthday party, which I hope will take place in Luna City or an orbital resort, in 2047. ;-)

[hitchhiker]

to-do list!

[hitchhiker]

ooh, that sounds awesome!

[acelightning]

I'm looking forward to the day when the developers make a glow-stick type of mixture that's safe to ingest, so we can have glow-in-the-dark drinks :-)

[cjsmith]

Oooooo. Bioluminescence might not always be toxic, and that can be synthesized in a basic o-chem lab by a first year student. Hmmmmmm.

(Did some basic googling. The most common luciferin is at least irritating to mucous membranes... oh man, time to shelve this one until after my current project (get better job).)

[acelightning]

There would be a tremendous novelty market for something like that. "Tweens" would refuse to drink anything that didn't fluoresce. The performers in K-pop videos would be taking swigs of the stuff between acrobatic moves. (Make sure it has luminous bathroom effects, of course.)

[lemonsharks]

<3 <3

(I still have dreams about your cherry fudge btw)

[minoanmiss]

*blushes so much* The cherry fudge is to the marasca cherries' credit. They are the best things ever. (Not to be confused with mascara. ;)

[med_cat]

Glad to hear you enjoyed working on your edible art project, and that it was successful :)