cherry lollipops

i've been wanting to make lollipops with alex for a while now so i had all the necessary items already on hand when she asked to make cherry lollipops. actually, her request started with lunch when they brought the bill along with some lollipops. they didn't give us any flavors that she was interested in and that started a whole issue that she wanted a cherry lollipop. luckily very cherry was a flavor i already had at home. we pulled out a recipe from my candy cook book, the molds, lollipop sticks, candy thermometer, flavoring, food coloring, and the sugars. lollipops are basically granulated sugar, corn syrup, water, flavoring and food coloring. you mix all the water and sugars in a pot, boil it for about 5 minutes, add your flavoring and color and mold it. spray your molds with pam and insert the sticks before you pour in the candy. it's just that easy, they set rather quickly and pop out of the molds easily. aren't these molds adorable too - alex chose to make the balloons and i wanted to make the mustaches. but when it came time for her to pick one to eat she chose the mustache - they're just more fun to eat i guess. i finished them off by wrapping them in saran wrap. alex seemed to like them, i only tasted some broken off bits. they were a little stickier than i had hoped, so i think a little less corn syrup next time. overall though they are nice looking, easy to make, tasty and could be an easy party favor or party decoration with limitless possibilites for color, flavor and mold combinations.