Materia Candy Buttons: Final Fantasy Comes To Life!

Did you know there are virtually no candies out in the world commemorating materia from Final Fantasy VII? Seriously. Look it up: “materia candy”. You will find some really sexy looking marbled chocolates retailing for ~$30 USD. That’s it. And while they look amazing, I’m looking for something a little more… affordable. And while we’re revisiting one of the most beloved RPG’s ever, why not do it with an additional blast from the past: button candy! The little sugary hard candy drops that always stuck to the damn paper, remember? Well. Guess what? These homemade candy buttons don’t stick to the damn paper. For the most part. Like maybe 1 in 100 will stick a bit. That’s it. And that’s worth it. I went with three colors of materia (Red/Summoning, Yellow/Support, Green/Magic), but you can get as complex with this as you’d like (blue would look amazing). I’ll also be uploading my candy button template later on today. Just save and print! Ready? Let’s go. Gamers, grab your mats:

• 1 pound (3 1/2) cups powdered/confectioner’s sugar
• 2 egg whites
• a little water
• 1/4 teaspoon flavoring (cherry, vanilla, lemon, peppermint, anything you’d like really. Get creative. I used no flavoring for my red (control batch), lemon for yellow, and peppermint for green.)
• gel or concentrated food coloring
• FFVII materia menu template (ETA 2pm EST 7/30/15; kick me if it’s not here by then.)

Template!

Recipe adapted from What Will We Do Today?

Not nearly as intimidating as it looks.

Dump your powdered sugar in a medium-large bowl.

Preferably without making a mess.

Crack your eggs and separate the whites from the yolks into two different bowls. A smart person would not add the whites directly from the eggshell.

For once, I’m actually that smart person.

Add egg whites to sugar, blend for about 1 minute on low speed. If you have a stand mixer, today’s the day to use it. Otherwise… well… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.

Well. That looks… um…

Add about 3 tablespoons of water to mixture. If you plan on using only one flavor for your candy buttons, add your flavoring now.

That doesn’t look much better. This is supposed to be candy, right?

Now, beat the hell out of it. Vigorously. At high speed. For ten freaking minutes. If the mixture becomes too stiff, add a bit more water to thin it out. I did not need to do this at all. It should be about the consistency of sour cream.

This strongly reminds me of the South Park Crème fraîche episode.

Ten agonizing minutes later…

Gee, thanks Shake Weight!

You know I’m suspicious as hell of this, right? I taste tested this several times with my pinky to see if it was actually edible. (It is.) Next, separate the mixture in as many bowls as you need colors for. For this example we’ll be using three: red, yellow, and green. If using multiple flavors, this is the time to do it. Add your flavor of choice and color to each bowl. You’ll only need a little food coloring; more for red.

Tip: Add food coloring to bowls before flavoring to avoid weird accidental combinations like ‘green cherry’. I didn’t screw this up, but I could see this happening and it would be weird.

We only pretend to be organized here.

Mix flavors and colors in well.

(Taste it, go on!)

Pour each color into its own sandwich baggie and seal. I’d recommend using coffee cups or something to stabilize the bags when not in use. It’s also easier to shove the colored mixture in.

9.5/10 Prepared rating

Cut off a tiny corner in each bag and go to town piping your little buttons onto paper. You’ll want to use normal printer paper, not wax paper. Wax paper won’t work here.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy?

I only used 12 menu templates as my printer ran out of ink. The rest ended up like this:

Easily makes the Top 10 Most Satisfying Kitcheny Things list.

And this (the boy tried, it was cute, and we love him for it):

You can tell where I took over with the pink buttons.

Gently, gently, gently move candy button sheets to a safe place to dry. A covered pool table works wonders for this. These need to dry for 24 hours. Peel and enjoy!

Another Tip: If you don’t use up all the candy mixture, that’s okay! You can put the unused candy bags in the refrigerator to use later.

Full menu spread.

They’re only too fun to play with, too.

Only the very lucky got in on these.

This recipe makes a metric ass ton of candy buttons, but hey. They’re fast, they’re fun, they’re easy. Make pixel art with the leftovers if it makes you happy. From experience, stick to button shapes only. Sticking, impossible to remove sugar is no fun. Coming Up Next: Indie game post! We’ll be making the main character’s spaceship from The Next Penelope from graham crackers. If you get Indie Box, you’ll get it. =D Cheers, Leisel

Remember, cooking IRL doesn’t have to be a Feat of Strength!

Entry for #WeeklyChallenge for #FoodBloggers