Valentine Candy Cane Suckers

Do you have any leftover mini cnady canes from Christmas? I was shocked to find some hiding in the back of the pantry, so I had to make these cute suckers (taken from The Idea Room). They were really easy to do and I made them tonight while I was finishing up dinner. The simple steps allowed me to multitask!

Grease a cookie sheet VERY well. Lay down wax paper, and then grease the wax paper VERY VERY well. Unwrap your candy canes and lay them out like this around your sucker sticks. Make sure you leave space between cane tops like I did, because you will be bending them into shape.

Heat the oven to 350 and bake them for 3 minutes. It doesn't take long for the candy to soften, and it doesn't take long for the candy to bubble either! 3 minutes was just about right.

Enlist the help of another person because you have to work really fast in this step before the candy cools and hardens too much. Shape the soften candy to form a heart. No need to make it conform around the stick because the melted chocolate will meld it all together.

(I don't know why I picked the most crooked heart to take a picture of! The other ones looked better.) Do NOT remove them from the pan until they are 100% cool, and do NOT put them in the fridge to let them cool. The sudden cold on the hot candy will cause them to crack. Let them cool at room temp while you do something else, for about half an hour. Then carefully remove them from the wax paper.

Melt your chocolate pieces in a bowl. I used pink and red pieces from Wilton, about 1/4 a bag for each. It doesn't take much chocolate to fill in the candy cane hearts. Heat them in the microwave on 50% power for 90 seconds, stir, then heat again until you have a smooth texture.

Spoon the chocolate into the center of the hearts and smooth it out. Then sprinkle with something fun!

Now you can put them in the fridge to let them set up. In about half an hour you can eat them!