Custom Gummy Molds
| Projects | |
|---|---|
| |
| Participants | |
| Skills | CAD, Molds, Cooking |
| Status | Active |
| Niche | FoodHacks |
| Purpose | Fun |
Introduction
Some of us have been talking about making molds for casting, for example, creating a mold from a 3D print. Others of us regularly gather and share weird foods, especially at the social. This project combines those two interests, making custom molds for gummy candies, and then figuring out fun/surprising flavours and colours.
The project is meant to be small enough to work on together during the social, and the output is meant to be something we can eat and discuss while we're eating other things and discussing other things already.
The Plan
The overall plan involves three key pieces:
- We need a reliable recipe for making gummy.
- We need one or more shapes for candy, either found or created.
- We need to create a mold from the original shapes.
The Recipe
Gummy
Gelatin Gummies
We are currently adapting our approach from these key videos:
From that last video, here are the ammounts:
- 30g sheet gelatin, freshly ground
- 70g water (for blooming)
- 80g sugar (cook to 115-120 Celsius)
- 30g water (for sugar)
- 100g glucose (or other very thick inverted sugar syrup)
- 5g citric acid
- 2 drops food coloring (may vary)
- 15-20 drops aroma extract (may vary)
In summary:
- You need a lot more gelatin than you would for "jello".
- You need to use as little liquid as possible.
- You have to let them air dry for a long time.
- You have to oil them to keep them from sticking before you can store them.
Non-gelatin Gummies
There are vegan alternatives to gelatin. Agar is fairly easy to use but has a more firm and non-chewy texture. It can also be made with just hot water, molds, and supposedly cools at room temperature.
There's also fruit pectin and corn syrup, which seem like they would have a better texture than agar, but they require cooking to a precise temperature rather than just using boiling water.
Yet another idea is to use Psyllium Fiber to make gummies.
Salmiak
Salmiak uses a different process, which requires a longer curing time (they say 24 hours, maybe we can accelerate that with a freezer).
The Flavours
Once we have a formula that we like, we can add various flavourings/colourings, both as solutions we mix in, and as powders we coat the finished product with.
The Shapes
We can find premade silicon molds for baking, candy making, or even making ice. However, part of the fun here is learning to go from a positive object to a negative, reusable silicon mold. It would be nice to make it something that relates to the space, for example, candies with the wheel logo. These would be designed in CAD, 3D printed, and then used to create a mold.
The Molds
Although there are various ways to create a mold, for this project we need something food safe.
If we want to cast something, there are binary mixes of food-safe silicon that seem like a good fit. Although long term we should come up with reusable flexible forms we can use for molding existing objects, for this project we can use 3D printed molds to cast silicon molds.
Another idea for the 3D "mold of a mold" forms is to pack them with corn starch and use the corn starch as a one-off mold.
Work Log
September 6, 2026
We poured the first silicon molds and left them to set for the social. Although there are dedicated sprays, for this pass we used vegetable oil (food safe, waterproof). We'll demold them at the social on the 9th.
Week of September 3, 2026
We have designs and prints of the molds we'll use to cast the food-safe silicon molds. The silicon is on order and we need to cast and let it cure, then clean it up to remove any plastic residue.
On September 3rd, we made a first attempt at making candies with a silicon ice cube tray. We used gelatine sheets, and tried using twice as many sheets as the box recommends (for a gelatine dessert). This didn't end up setting up very well, we should keep doubling until we find a strength that works. We might also need to acquire firmer gelatine from a baking shop.
For the initial pass, we used sugar syrup (1 cup sugar mixed into 1 cup water) for about 1/3 of the volume of liquid. We should probably just use sugar syrup for all of the liquid, as the results were not sweet enough.
We tried using milk to add a pastel quality (and a bit of flavour). This worked well enough, but will have to be tweaked to ensure that we don't water down the mixture too much.
Still to Do
- Make the silicon molds
- Figure out at least one usable base recipe for gummy
- Try making a powdered sugar slurry to made a non-dairy whitening agent
- Try making a gummy from psyllium or other substances.