Lumps of Coal & A Giveaway!

I’m ridiculously excited about this week’s posts. As you guys may already know, I’m a big fan of the holiday season. One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is to DIY some of the gifts, and this week is going to be all about homemade holiday gifts that you can easily make from the kitchen. So, everyday this week (with the exception of Thanksgiving), I’ll be featuring a fun homemade holiday gift idea, along with a giveaway from some very generous companies whose products I love to use!

Today, I wanted to share with you guys how easy it is to make these adorable “lumps of coal”.

Usually for Christmas, I’m grabbing red, green and white candy melts to make oreo truffles. They’re always a favorite for holiday gifting, and couldn’t be easier (directions/recipe here). Crushed oreos, condensed milk and vanilla extract for the filling….that’s it. 🙂 This time, however, I noticed black candy melts around Halloween and thought up these little treats. Since the oreo truffle filling is black, and the candy melts are black, how perfect is this as a gift? You could make these into silly gag gifts for friends and family. They’re just so fun!

Instead of molding them in truffles like I usually do, I ended up mold them to make them look like lumps of coal and dipped them in the black candy melts using this candy dipping set. I also sprinkled a few with some sparkling sugar (I can’t help myself when it comes to sprinkles), but they looked much more coal-y without them.

I love using Wilton’s Candy melts. I’ve used their melts for years, and the wonderful thing is that when you melt these candies, they’re very hard to mess up. When working with real chocolate, you get better results when you temper it, and you also have to be much more careful not to burn it. However, with Wilton’s candy melts, there’s not much work needed. I just melt them in the microwave with a little bit of oil (in 30 second increments), until the candy is smooth and easy to work with. I know the oil sounds a little strange, but a pointer that I learned when working with candy melts is that if you notice the candy is melting a little on the thick side, add 1/2 tsp. oil or shortening and stir the candy melts well. This will thin it out a bit…if you need more, just add more a little at a time, being mindful not to add too much oil.

To package them, I used Wilton’s clear party bags, folded them down, and stapled on a cute paper label (which I made in PicMonkey). I gave them to my coworkers, since they’ve been giving me a hard time about decorating my cubicle early for the holidays. They got a kick out of them! I think these would be much more fun to gift than regular oreo truffles, since they’re such a fun conversation starter. 🙂

The great folks at Wilton want to offer everything you need to make your own “Lumps of Coal” to one lucky reader of The Nifty Foodie.

Included in the giveaway are 5 bags of their black candy melts, 3 packages of their clear party bags, and 2 candy dipping sets! You could easily have a “Lumps of Coal” party with all of these goodies. 🙂

To enter this giveaway, use the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: This giveaway is supplied by Wilton and is open to readers in the continental US only. Entries will be accepted until December 3rd at 12:00am (central standard time). Winner will be emailed (make sure you leave an email address in the form), and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.

DISCLAIMER: I was sent 5 bags of Wilton Candy Melts, 3 packages of their party bags & 2 candy dipping sets at no cost to me, for writing this post. Wilton is also supplying the same candy making supplies for the giveaway. All opinions are 100% my own.