Do you end up with tons of candy canes during the holiday season?  I still have candy canes in my cupboard from last Christmas, in addition to the ones I bought this year.  We eat a few, put them in the cupboard and then they seem to get lost and forgotten.  That’s why I love the idea of doing creative things with candy canes.  These candy cane hearts are super cute, and the best part is that if you don’t get around to making them at Christmas time, they are great for Valentine’s Day too!

The ingredients for these are pretty simple.  If you don’t have them on hand, I recommend buying  from the bulk store.   Then you don’t need to worry about ending up with huge quantities.

5 from 4 votes

Candy Cane Hearts

These adorable hearts would make such a cute treat to take to school, or even to the office.

 

Prep Time20 minutesmins

Total Time20 minutesmins

Ingredients

• 4” or 6″ lollipop sticks
• mini candy canes
• white chocolateI used white Merckens chocolate
• Christmas sprinklesor if it’s Valentine’s Day, red and white sprinkles

Instructions

• Set out the lollipop sticks on a waxed or parchement paper lined cookie sheet.
• Arrange the mini candy canes at the top of the sticks in the shape of hearts.
• Preheat the oven to 300F and place the hearts in the oven for 3 minutes.
• Pull them out, press the ends together and pull out the sides to make the heart shape.
• Fill them with a few teaspoons of melted white chocolate.
• Finish with coloured sprinkles.
• Allow to set for at least 10 minutes.

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper or parchment paper.  Arrange the lollipop sticks in the pan and set out the candy canes in the shape of a heart:

Heat the oven to 300F and bake the candy canes for 3 minutes.  Don’t cook them for too long or they will melt completely.  Who knew candy canes actually melt!?

Use your fingers to pinch together the bottoms to close the bottom of the hearts.  This was a little hot on the hands, but it wasn’t too bad:

Then pull apart the sides of the candy canes to make the heart more full.  If they cool off too fast and harden, you can throw them back in the oven until they soften up again:

I used about 1/2 cup of white chocolate Merckens:

And melted them in the microwave until they were completely smooth:

Spoon the chocolate into the hearts until they are full.   Use your finger to even out the chocolate if you have to:

  Then sprinkle with sprinkles and you are done!

Don’t you love these!?  They are so adorable!  They would make such a cute treat to take to school, or even to the office.

Or if you wait another month or two, you can tie a little red ribbon around them, and give out heart pop valentines.

My girls are still at the age where they aren’t picky about the form that their sugar comes in.  Candy canes?  Chocolate?  Bring it on they say!

The most surprising part of making these was that when candy canes melt, they get stringy, kind of like cheese.  I tried using a fork to press them together when they first came out of the oven, because I was worried about burning my fingers, but the fork just pushed right into the candy cane, and when I pulled it out, it brought tiny melted strings along with it.

You can check out the inspiration for this project at Sprinkle Some Sunshine.

This is another treat that was super fast to make.  They took way less than half an hour to put together, and my girls loved them!  I’m sure some people would enjoy this flavour combination, but for me, these are more about the “cute” factor than the “delicious” factor.  I love the novelty!