One of our favorite holidays of the year is Christmas, and it seems that we share that love with the majority of Pinterest. It is flooded with adorable decorations, festive recipes, and cute crafts to ring in the season! Over the next few weeks we are going to try to make as many festive Pinterest Projects as we can, addled as we are by finals and end of the semester activities!
One thing we really enjoy (hard as you may find it to believe) is baking things for our friends during the holidays, but somehow we seem to lose plates along the way. Really college is just a giant dish exchange- we have several in our cabinets with mysterious origins!
Our Version Pinterest Version
We saw these adorable homemade candy plates a few days ago and thought they were adorable! Peppermints certainly remind us of Christmas, and the red and green coloring makes it just about perfect. However, as usual our skeptical natures got the best of us and we thought that they looked to good to be true, so of course we decided to call shenanigans. The original pin claimed that you just have to pop the mints in the oven for about 8 minutes for a perfect holiday cookie plate. As you can see, ours actually turned out pretty well. This is how we made it:
What you’ll need:
- Wax or Parchment Paper (we used wax in this tutorial and it stuck to the plate)EDIT: We found in later attempts that tin foil works better than both wax or parchment paper because it doesn’t stick to the plate
- Cookie Sheet
- At least 40 mint candies (We used 19 reds and 18 greens for our design-If you want a bigger plate use more)
1) Pre-heat oven to 350. Place wax paper on the baking sheet.
2) Unwrap the candies and place them on the wax paper. You can get creative with your design- we tried to make ours look like a snowflake!
3) Place in oven at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. We would tell you to check on it periodically to see if it is done, because we think that we baked ours a little too long.
4) Take the pan out of oven and let it cool completely. Once it is cool, you can peel away the wax paper. Ours did not completely peel off, so be aware that the finished plate will not be edible. (Unless you have a craving for wax paper that is!) EDIT: In a later attempt we used tin foil and it peeled off perfectly!
5) Now you have an awesome plate made out of peppermint candy!
Although our plate is pretty cute, it did not come out exactly as pictured in the original post. The edges of our plate appear to look more “runny” than the Pinterest version. We think our mints might be to blame- we did not use Starlight brand mints like in the original pin, so our knock-off mints could have melted quicker.
We think that the original pinner may have sanded down the edges of her plate because it seems odd that the stripes around the edges of the mints are absent from the outside edges of the plate. Also the original pinner did not mention that the wax paper would stick to the bottom. EDIT: Later we attempted with tin foil and it worked much better!
Next time we do this we might try it in a round cake pan in the hopes that it will not spread out quite so much at the edges. Regardless, we still think it still looks pretty cool, and it does function well as a plate!
Check back to see what other Holiday Pinterest Projects we try next!
One of our followers sent us her attempt to at making a peppermint candy plate into Christmas tree, we thought it was so cute and creative we had to post it! Thank you, Ruth, for showing us your attempt at this Pinterest Project on our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/WereCallingShenanigans!
Shontelle also shared her awesome candy plate creations! She said that she used a good shallow pie pan, and that it didn’t stick and looked just like a plate. Thanks for sharing Shontelle!
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I will definitely be trying this! How cute!?!
Awesome! If you try it, be sure to post how it turns out on our facebook page!
Will do! 🙂
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I tried this but it stuck to the wax paper. What did I do wrong??
Ours did too 🙁 As we said, our plate wasn’t edible due to the wax paper that stuck to the bottom. I’ve heard that if you use a “flexible” cookie sheet it may work but we haven’t tried it so I don’t know if that is true. (like a cookie sheet made out of that flexible, silicone material) If you find anything that works please let us know! You can show us how your Pinterest Projects come out by posting them on our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WereCallingShenanigans
Thank you for your comment, check back for many more fun Pinterest Projects!
Ok, so we just tried the peppermint again with tin foil and it worked great! We are going to edit our post now to let people know that tin foil works better, because it doesn’t stick to the plate!
Use parchment paper
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What about stickiness? Did you cover the plate with some kind of sealant to keep it from being sticky? Also, how well did it hold up to being used? I’m thinking it would crack pretty easy.
It was more fragile than a regular plate, but it still held up with brownies on it. If you put warm brownies on it, it will get kinda sticky, but not too bad (I would wait for them to cool off some). The bottom of ours had the wax paper still stuck to it, so that kept it from feeling sticky on the bottom.
I made the peppermint candy plate.I used parchment paper and it worked fine as far as peeling off. But, the plate is sticky. I put it in the fidge overnight and it’s still sticky. Is there something else that I didn’t do, or could do?
Awesome, so glad you made it! Because they are still candies, they will have a similar feel to a normal unwrapped mint. Avoiding placing warm items on the peppermint plate is the best advice I can give to curb the stickiness! If you come across any other remedies for the stickiness be sure to share them 🙂
I made these last year and they turned out really cute! The trick is to use a round, springform pan & fill it with the mints all the way to the edges; using the round pan helps prevent the “runny” edges…
I used them instead of cookie tins when giving out Christmas cookies. I wrapped them a couple of times with Saran Wrap, piled the cookies on top and then used cellophane to wrap it all up in a cute package. I attacked a little card (place cards I got from michaels) with ideas for what to do with the plate (ie. break and sprinkle pieces over ice cream, put a couple of pieces in a cup of hot cocoa, etc.)…they were a total hit; I’m definitely going to donut again this year!
I did this in a very shallow pie pan. No foil or paper. Did not stick. Turned out awesome
That’s awesome! We will have to try it out, thanks for sharing! 🙂
I am trying it now, what do you suggest to use so it may be used yearly or kept as a keepsake?
Can you eat the plates. Or are they useable for dishes. Microwsre. Diswasher. I made one the. End are thin
I suppose they are edible, because they are just peppermints that have been melted into a different shape. (I don’t think that they would do well in a microwave or dishwasher, because it would be the equivalent of putting a peppermint candy in there.)
My students made them this year for gift during Math while working on patterns. We found that letting it cool completely kept the wax paper from sticking when removing it. We are adding a felt circle and using the glue gun to attach an upside down candle holder on the bottom to create a raised plate. After seeing your pictures, I think the paper doiley works nicely also. Through trial and error, we discovered that leaving a little space between the mints helps with a more even thickness throughout. Initially, we had them touching and the edges were too thin and the middle took longer to melt. With those the colors in the edges ha run too much. The shapes were better retained also when we left the spaces. My assistant created small candy cane shapes that can be used for ornaments if you use something to put a hole in the top before it begins to harden. We might hot glue ribbon to the back of some to see how they hold up.
Edited to say gifts not gift.
Those are such great ideas! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂 we will have to add those ideas in another post! If you are looking for more fun things to do with your students check out some more of our kid friendly shenanigans: http://werecallingshenanigans.com/category/kid-friendly-shenanigans/
Mine bubbled up. What am I doing wrong. Baked 7 mins at 350
Hmm, I’m not sure, I know ours bubbled up a little but they flattened out when it cooled. Maybe try lowering the heat and baking it a little longer (or watching it till its ready). Also make sure that you leave some space between the mints, many of our followers told us that it works better that way.
I read somewhere place the candies in the middle first then bake for a couple of minutes. Add the next row, bake for a couple of minutes, then add the outer row and finish baking the 7 min or whatever depending on the size of the plate. The outer candies melt first so you have to melt the center ones a bit first before adding the outer ones otherwise the outer candies will start to over melt causing the stripes to melt together.
Please never put wax paper in the oven. There are bigger risks than contaminating your food it can also catch on fire.
I just tried it and some of the candies didn’t melt. I used nonstick tin foil and had no sticking. The outer edges melt faster than the inner ones. I will try what Marcy wrote.