How to Make Homemade Cotton Candy WITHOUT a Machine!

I recently did a fundraiser for a mission's trip I'm going on and at the time I was thinking of ways that would attract people to help support me. I really wanted to make cotton candy but I didn't want to buy a pricey machine, so I searched and searched and I found something I didn't know before. Air is very important to make cotton candy because that is how it gets all fluffy, so I found a recipe to make cotton candy mixture and adjusted the ingredients to what I wanted. I also found that if you find something to dip in your mixture then swing it around really fast it will turn into cotton candy! Now I will share it with you and hope you all enjoy it and have fun with it!

Step 1: Ingredients and Materials

Alright, there is a lot to list, hopefully I don't forget anything!

Food;

Granulated Sugar

Corn Syrup (clear works better if you want to dye it)

Water

Flavoring of your choice(I used watermelon and blueberry)

Food Dye(I used blue and red)

Pam Spray(or something like it, I used coconut spray)

Tools;

Candy Thermometer

Three Spatulas

A Pot

Something to collect the cotton candy with(I just used a bowl)

Something to pour the cotton candy mixture into that stands high heat and can go in a microwave

A whisk that you don't care about

Measuring cups( A 1cup, 1/3cup, 1/4cup, and a 1and1/2 tsp

Two things that are heavy(I used two bricks)

Scissors

Step 2: Getting the Spatulas and Whisk Ready

I would suggest doing this outside because cotton candy is going to fly everywhere, and it's a lot easier to clean up outside rather than in your kitchen. Put both of your spatulas on a ledge or table and put something heavy on their ends. Now you can spray Pam on them or something similar. Now for the whisk. Take your whisk and snip the ends and it's ready(I just bought a cheap one because I didn't want to ruin my good ones). Just leave that stuff where you have decided to make it and we will now move on to making the mixture!

Step 3: Making the Mixture

Alright, this is probably the trickiest step because you need to make sure you don't over stir it and don't over or under cook it. Here is the list of ingredients you will need;

1 cup and 1/4 of a cup of granulated sugar

The corn syrup is tricky!
1/4 cup and 1/4 of a 1/3 cup of corn syrup

1/4 and 1 1/2 tsp of water

Food dye of your choice(optional)

Flavoring of your choice(optional)

Pour all of your ingredients above into the pot you are using and cook it over medium-high heat with your candy thermometer also in the pot. Keep slowly stirring your mixture until it comes to a boil then stop. Let it sit there until it reaches 320 degrees F. After it reaches that temperature, pour it into your microwave safe bowl or container and add in your food dye and flavoring(optional).

Step 4: Making It Into Cotton Candy

After your mixture is ready, go to where you set up your spatulas and make sure you have a bowl to put the cotton candy in and most important, bring your mixture. Alright, so basically you just have to dip your cut up whisk in your cotton candy mixture, and wave it over the spatulas(pic 1). So how does this happen? When you wave the whisk, the mixture falls off in strings and air gets mixed in and that is how it gets fluffy, so the harder you wave the whisk the fluffier the candy will be. When a good amount of cotton candy collects on the spatulas, take your bowl and grab the candy from the spatulas, you are all done!

Step 5: Clean Up

To get leftover candy mixture and gunk out of pots and your patio, pour and soak everything with boiling water. If you did this on a patio(like me) when you pour the water on the patio, most of the candy will soak into the ground(if your patio has moss and dirt cracks) so the ants will stay underneath.