Caramel Apple favors - Anyone ever make them or opinions?

Sara191431

I am thinking of doing caramel apples for favors.  I'm not a huge fan of favors, so if I do them I want it to be something people will like but still be budget mindey.  I saw a pic of a caramel apple that had white chocolate all around it and first I thought, yum, second I thought they looked pretty and was a fun idea that people would probably enjoy.  This one had cellophane around it with a ribbon.  I also hear you can buy edible glitter, which I though crystal type glitter on the choco chips could be pretty.  Our wedding is Sept. 17 so I though it goes with the season as well.

Thoughts?  Or has anyone done this themselves before?  If I do do them, I'm debating on either diying it w/ help I'd hope, or just buying them depending on price.  You'd have to think they'd be cheaper to diy, however, is doing 200 or so caramel apples 1-2 days before the wedding maybe too much of a daunting task you think?

Other thought is would this be majorly messy for our venue, Landmark Center, but I would think most people would just take them home, that's what I'd prob. do at least.

TIA!

Sara191431

Geez, I type long post sometimes, sorry:)!

LolaBelle515

This sounds AWESOME.  My FI went to one wedding where this was the favor and raved about it. Who doesn't love a caramel apple!

 That said, I think it really depends on how much you want to pay for favors...caramel apples, especially the "designer" ones with white chocolate or designs like you mentioned, are several dollars each.  Each just plain caramel apples can be a few dollars each.  Maybe there's a good deal out there, though!

Have you made caramel apples at home before? If you haven't, I will warn you that caramel is really difficult to make and get to the right consistency...even just melting caramel cubes can be hard to get "right"...they tend to be too soft and drip off the apple all over the place. So, making them at home sounds really tough to me---but maybe you've done it before, in which case, go for it!

Good luck--it really does sound absolutely delicious.

debbieupper

Sara! We're doing the same thing! Only a little bit different:

Our thought was to do a caramel apple station with pre-stuck apples (maybe already dipped into caramel), and then options like white chocolate, chocolate chips, cinnamon sugar, sprinks, etc. Tthink candy buffet, only it's make-your-own caramel apple. Then we plan to have cellophane bags with a monogrammed sticker (or something) and ribbons to package them and take them home.

I really don't know if or how it will work. We spoke to our caterer about doing it and they're looking into it. But I also have thought about the option of doing them all beforehand. I don't know! Keep in touch if you experiment with a recipe or DIY!

Thanks for posting, and I am excited to hear the responses!

Izzygrim

I think that idea is great! Who doesn't love a caramel apple? You might want to be sure to check with your venue though. I have a couple of friends that do catering as a parttime job, and they told me about how a wedding did caramel apples once and it was a nightmare for the caterers to clean up because the sticks were stuck to plates and such. But, as long as your caterer is on board, I say go for it! I really like the make-your-own caramel apple buffet also.

babybrd182

If I was still getting married in the fall I would totally do the caramel apple thing. Nothing like a sweet treat at the end of the night (or even the next day!) One thing to consider is the reception venue and their policies on bringing in outside food. My cousin had her reception in Shakopee last year and they were just going to go to Cub and get the apples and do it themselves (to save money of course). The venue did not want them to bring in ANY outside food.. Might want to double check with LMC about that.. Sounds like it would be a fun, sticky and delicious project Good luck!

butterflytina7

I think it's such a cute idea.  I think there's a technique to doing them.  My SIL made them for her wedding last Fall.  I don't know what technique they used, but the caramel didn't stay set on all the apples once the cellophane was applied.  It was all squishy inside the cellophane.  I think it has to do with the temperature of the apples when the caramel is applied...probably needs to be room temp.  I would avoid the elidble glitter.  The color ran and it kind of made it look weird.  Good luck!

MesmrEwe

I can safely say it'll be a PITA to try to add that to all you've got to do in the week leading up to your wedding.  Unless you've got a commercial kitchen to use for this, the mess alone will be miserable to clean up.  Caramel is NOT forgiving if you burn yourself with it (remember you'll have pictures of your hands with rings, you don't want a big ole' accidental burn line)...  Also, the cost of ingredients alone is going to break the bank for keeping it on a budget.  Apples, sticks, edible glitter (btw: European Cake Gallery out of Texas is the place to order edible Disco dust in bulk), chocolate, caramel supplies, wrappers, clear bags, etc.  will really add up in cost when you multiply it by 230 (spares for when you find an apple with a bit too much bruising)...  Plus, there's the cost of the "Practice runs" that you need to factor in...  AND... the value of your time the week of the wedding most importantly.

Your best bet is to call up some of the local apple orchards... Jacobson's Pine Tree Apple Orchard in WBL,  or Afton Apple Orchard, or Apple Junction, POSSIBLY Creative Confectionaire in Hastings, grocery stores, etc. and just price them out.  You may find that they can refer you to where they get theirs from if they hire them out.  You can probably even call now and get things rolling to get an estimate of how much it'll run you.  Don't be afraid if they don't do it to ask where to go... 

Sara191431

Debbie - Yay on the similar ideas!  The buffet is a cute idea, I do wonder though how messy it'd turn out to be.  Why you ask:)  Well since my post I've done some research and first found out my venue doesn't allow you to bring in food made from home, it'd have to be bought from whereever sells them.  So I was thinking maybe just buy the regular caramel apples from a vendor, but add the chocolate chips myself and package them.  So - I decided to do a spur of the moment diy caramel apple to see if the chocolate chips still stuck to the caramel after it totally cooled, which it did, but hello messiness and it wasn't as cute as the pic I saw online (the chips looked a little too big, mini ones would look better).  And those who talked about the consistency were right, hard to get right.  I'm sure there's better methods/caramel types that work better, however, just the one trial was enoughfor me.

So with that said, I'm going to try to find a deal online or local.  Daffy Apples seem to have good prices, but one I want to try them to see what their special crunch tastes like and two I wonder if they'd be too small, they are 3 ounces and about 2 and a quarter to 2 and a half inches in diameter.  Thoughts on size?  Price is right though, 24 apples for $26.

I'm also going to contact the orchards as well as a couple culinary schools like a friend suggested.

Thanks for the opinions ladies and Debbie you'll have to let me know how the buffet goes if you do it! 

AmberDerek

We made homemade caramels that we put in little mittens for our favors.  The caramels took forever to make, cut, and wrap.  I had made them before though.  In the end it was worth it, but I think homemade caramels may be easier than caramel covered apples.  Good luck in whatever you end up choosing : )

debbieupper

Gah! Now I'm torn. I think I was really just *hoping* the caramel apple station would work out well because we have a ton of apple trees and it would be a cool homemade thing. But when I look at it realistically, it will absolutely be a PITA.

Our venue doesn't allow homemade food either, but I was thinking if we had our caterers use my fam's apples, it would be kosher because it would be coming through our caterers, technically.

Amber, I like your idea of homemade caramels. Maybe we could do that and just throw them in a box along with an apple, a stick, some toppings and instructions and call it a take-home caramel apple kit! That would certainly be much easier and reduce the mess!

Sara, I'll keep you updated on what we go with and share any DIY disasters with you.

hkiesling

Just to add my two cents, it sounds like a really fun idea, but...

1. As said before, there's cost to this.
2. Transporation.  They're big and bulky and can't be squished together.
3. Sticky.  Are you having kids at your wedding?  Picture sticky fingers and nice dress clothes
4. Set up.  They'll take up a lot of room.  We had 150 1/2 pint jars of canned goods and they took up a whole 8 foot table once set out.
5. Time.  You'll have to make them the week of the wedding.  I made some sugar cookies for the kids and wanted to pull my hair out at the end of it.  It really is a busy week!

sunset7435

i'm going to try to jumpstart this thread again and see if there's any new comments to add to this since autumn is around a corner or 2...  I'm thinking of doing the caramel apple buffet at our fall wedding this october (we're loving the idea, even after sleeping on it for a while), and we're trying to see how its turned out for other weddings...  has anyone done them or seen it done? 

we would def want to have a basket (or 10) of apples, sticks, a chafin bowl (or fountain) of caramel, and like 9 different "toppings" to add, but i'm worried about the logistics of it...  posts will rave about the idea then there's posts with the horror stories of the mess it made.  we'll have little disposable saucers to catch drippage and use as a plate before containing, hoping this will lessen the mess.