Creative Uses for Candy Canes: From Cooking to Crafting

Candy canes are more than just a delightful holiday treat—they're a versatile ingredient with multiple uses both in cooking and in creative crafting projects. From enhancing your holiday baking to crafting unique decorations and DIY projects, candy canes can add a festive touch to your daily life. Let's explore some of the best ways to use these iconic peppermint sweets.

Cooking with Candy Canes

1. Make Peppermint Bark

Tweet everyone's favorite Christmas confection and one of the easiest ways to incorporate candy canes into the kitchen: peppermint bark. Melt white, semi-sweet chocolate, and add a little peppermint extract. Top with crushed candy cane pieces, and voilu00e0—a timeless treat that's perfect for gifting or enjoying as an after-dinner delight.

2. Dip Them in Chocolate

Make candy canes even more delicious by coating them in a rich chocolate shell. Dunk the stems into melted milk, dark, or white chocolate, then drizzle with a contrasting variety for some visual zest. Whip up a "lollipop" version by sticking chocolate-dipped candy canes into marshmallows covered in chocolate and rolled in nuts or crushed candy pieces.

3. Crush Them for a Crunchy Topping

Crush up a few candy canes in a plastic bag until they are small enough to add a minty flair to any drink, dessert, or sweet treat. Crushed candy canes can be used to top marshmallows, brownies, cakes, and homemade candies, or even around the rim of eggnog shots.

4. Stir a Toasty Beverage

Infuse sweet peppermint flavor into your hot beverages by slipping a candy cane into your coffee, hot cocoa, or spiced tea. As it dissolves, it adds a delightful taste. For a warm winter day, add some candy canes to a pot of cocoa, like cinnamon sticks are added to apple cider.

Using Candy Canes as Decorations

1. Convert Them into Christmas Ornaments

If you run out of ornaments while decorating or want to fill in gaps, hang candy canes on the tree. They're the perfect size and shape to hang from the tree, adding a delightful, unexpected touch. You don't even have to remove the candy canes from their plastic wrappers, making them reusable year after year. Striped candy canes add visual interest to your tree.

2. Put Them Together to Make a Wreath

Arrange the candy canes in a circle and secure them with hot glue to create an inexpensive, eye-catching wreath. Beautify it with ribbon, tinsel, or evergreen garlands. Ensure you have some sort of backing like a circular wire frame to hold the canes in place. Hang your wreath with a thumbtack hook or a detachable wall strip.

3. Turn Them into Napkin Rings

Adopt the Christmas spirit for your dinner party by attaching candy canes to folded linen napkins, using a length of ribbon or a strand of twine. Tuck the silverware under or place the napkins directly in the center of each plate. Encourage your guests to leave with their candy canes or enjoy them after the meal.

4. Accent a Centerpiece

A bundle of candy canes can transform a plain bowl, vase, candle holder, or serving dish into a vibrant display. Secure them using double-sided tape or ribbon. This is a cost-effective way to enhance old items without buying new Christmas decorations.

Making Candy Cane Crafts

1. Make Candy Cane Reindeer

Create adorable reindeer faces with candy canes for an arts and crafts project. Stick on googly eyes, tie a ribbon around the middle, and twist a brown pipe cleaner for antlers. Hang them on the Christmas tree or display them separately. Encourage your kids or students to personalize their reindeer with string, pipe cleaners, glitter, glue, and other materials. Make one a Rudolph with a red fuzzy felt ball for a shiny nose.

2. Piece Together Miniature Sleighs

Stack two candy canes side-by-side, hooks facing up. Layer fun-sized candy bars from largest to smallest, tie them with multicolored ribbon, and you have miniature sleighs. Perfect for gifting loose sweets or as creative stocking stuffers.

3. Use Them to Display Your Business Cards

Tie two candy canes together and use them as a business card holder for your desk or service counter. A thin line of glue between the shafts helps hold them together. When stood upside down, the hooks are wide enough to hold a stack of regular business cards.

4. Create a Framed Photo Ornament

Turn a pair of candy canes into a photo frame for your Christmas tree. Glue the ends together to form a heart, trim a photo to fit, and stick it to the back of the candy canes. This thrifty and unique way to reuse candy canes makes for a perfect fit with most wall-sized picture portraits. Preserve your fondest memories by hanging them proudly from your tree.