Giant Gummi Sculptures

Small gummi bears are great, but for that extra special party snack make a ginormous sized gummi creation. I call mine the Gooey Duck. Essentially the strategy is to buy many pounds of cheap gummi bears and melt them into a mold of some sort (i used a cake mold) and then cool in refrigerator or freezer. 

If you search online for World's Largest Gummi Bear, you get a link to Vat19.com offering a measly 1/2 lb gummi and their 'World's Largest' at 5 lbs. They also claim "there is no candy more magnificent or more powerful". Well unfortunately for them I made an even bigger gummi sculpture (at 6lbs though not a bear) 7 years ago!

Gummi=Gummy. Haribo calls them Gold Bears. Black forest calls them Gummy Bears. Whichever you prefer. Original German was gummibär, so that probably originated the gummi bears.

I did this experiment in my youth. So don't blame the current me for the brash and questionable nature of this idea. You've been warned!

Step 1 Procure Gummis and cake mold

6lb bags of Brach's Gummi bears used to be available from costco. I can't confirm anymore whether this is the case, but let's admit it Amazon is probably the best place to go. A brief cursory search revealed:

The cheapest 5lb or 6lb bag was from Brach's at 6lbs for $11.50.
http://amzn.to/cBsPCg

The lowest $/lb ratio for gummi bears was from Albanese at $1.70/lb (10lb for $17) :
http://amzn.to/aPgICd

And going for only top quality from Haribo reveals this gem of a deal 12 lbs for $34.
http://amzn.to/cBsPCg

This should provide plenty. For the Brach's there were 5 colors and for the Haribo and Albanese there appear to many more. So if you want a solid colored gummi monster look for places where you can either buy a bunch of one color or you'll have to buy many many pounds of this stuff.

How I came into 6 lbs of gummi bears was a funny story. After finding they sold such a delightful item at costco, I off-handedly mentioned they should be the token prize at a prize raffle for our highschool band end-of-the-year party. Because of my fortunate luck, I actually won said raffle.

Be creative when choosing a mold. I just got a cheap cake mold from the 99¢ store or something like that. I wanted to do both sides, but it turns out that would've required twice as much and I didn't want liquid gummi seeping through the seems of the mold.

Comments

[obesemidget]

How can you make your gummy candies not sticky when cooled?? :-/ Mine are sticky :(

[truovrld]

How long would this last? I want to make one for a Halloween party, but would need to make it a week or two ahead of time.

[brawns214]

If you put this in a freezer bag and store it in the refrigerator, you should be fine.

[truovrld]

Yay! Giant gummy brain!

[xProShotx]

can you do this for small molds like skulls?

[brawns214]

Any mold should do, as long as you can remove it.

[shinyegg]

We made 2 12 pound giant gummi bears.

[brawns214]

Pictures! Or it didn't happen :)

[shinyegg]

:)

[brawns214]

Also, is that a custom mold?

[shinyegg]

We actually used a container that held animal crackers. It just looked like a giant gummi bear.

[craig3]

How did you get it out?

[shinyegg]

I think we cracked it open w/ scissors and any other sharp objects that were lying around.

[brawns214]

Brilliant! Way to blow away the laughably underachieving named 'world's largest gummy bear'!

[maximus276]

actually the largest is 26lbs. and has a hollow stomach

[bobandthemonkey]

made a large pill sort of thing with this, thanks for the great ible

[NatNoBrains]

OMG I'm sooooo doing this!

[nijireiki]

You could also use the recipe from SFHandyman's Ible to make a custom giant gummi! (Handy for the diabetics/low-carbers among us.)

[willrandship]

That's just jell-o there. really thick finger jello, nothing more. Gummies have mostly corn starch, and not as much gelatin as jell-o

[willrandship]

Heck, at my local grocer they have huge bins where you just shovel out the gummies. You can buy them at $2.79/lb or about $8.50 for a 5-lb bag. (not a calculation, they sell 5 lb bags prepacked) The gummies with the foam cost more, but you wouldn't use them for this anyways.

[Troyboyd]

the artic tundra xD

[Troyboyd]

wd-40 made me lol

[margime50]

This is such a great idea. I have MANY cake and cookie molds and plan on giving it a shot for halloween - hand out gummy pops that are much less expensive than store bought. Thank you for a great way to spend otherwise wasted time :)

[Fiction]

Nice! A couple of kids I knew did this in highschool. To keep it in a bear shape, they used a giant bear container that some store like costco sold masses of gummi bears or animal crackers in.

[hondaman900]

If you float the bowl of gummis in another pot of water, and boiled the water, would that be hot enough (100c) to melt the gummis? It's a method used to melt other things like chocolate or wax without burning them. As long as there's still water in the main pot the temp will not exceed 100c.

[brawns214]

I think I remember trying double boiling and it was just way too slow. Though that was many years ago, my memory may not be so good. Worth another attempt perhaps

[brawns214]

Did you line the pan with something like vegetable spray? I remember that helping.

[piaferre]

I'll sooo do this for my next bday

[Trebor__24]

it keeps sticking to the mold :( im sad

[thepelton]

I thought the largest bivalve was the Tridacna gigas.

[INSTRUCTUBAL]

This, is AWESOME.

[xilefakamot]

If you're lazy you can get giant Gummi Bears here
Still, great i'ble - I might have to try this!

[brawns214]

Well unfortunately, this is only the 5 lb gummi bear that you'll find everywhere else. But who is lazy on instructables?

[bettyz24]

I love that you did this at your computer desk, vs. a table/in the kitchen. LOL

[dark sponge]

USB gummy bear melter...

[Kozz]

Let me say that your "Gooey Duck" looks far more appetizing (in small bites) than the /other/ Gooey Duck (geoduck): http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/largest-clam-known-to-man.html