Yes, it does take a little elbow grease, but making homemade candy canes can be a great creative outlet. If you love making candy for the holidays but are tired of the old sugar-cookie-and-gingerbread-house routine, learning how to make candy canes might just be the perfect DIY activity for you. The truth is, no one really knows how candy canes became so popular at Christmas, or even why they were invented.
However, these stories are mostly myth , making the origins of the red-and-white candy canes we know and love just another Christmas mystery. Before getting started, read your recipe thoroughly to make sure you know the steps. You can also watch a video like this one from Cookies Cupcakes and Cardio , which gives a super useful overview of how to make your candy canes. Many people believe that the shape and form of the candy cane have religious meaning. It is believe that the red stripes of the candy cane represent the blood of Christ and the white stripes of the candy cane represent the purity of Christ.
The three fine stripes are believed to represent the Holy Trinity. The ''j'' shape of the candy cane is said to represent the name of Jesus. The solid texture or hardness of the candy cane is said to symbolize the solid rock foundation of the Church.
The peppermint flavor is supposed to stem from an herb called hyssop. In the Old Testament hyssop was used to symbolize the purity of Jesus and the sacrifice he made. The crook shape is said to symbolize a shepherd's crook. Believe it or not, the origin of the candy cane actually goes back hundreds of years to a time when candy-makers, both professional and amateur, were making hard sugar sticks as a favorite confection.
It was around the beginning of the 17th century that Christians in Europe began to adopt the use of Christmas trees as part of their Christmas celebrations. The trees were often decorated using foods such as cookies and sometimes sugar-stick candies. The original Christmas tree candy was a straight stick and completely white in color. The first historical reference to the familiar cane shape though goes back to The choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany first bent the sugar-sticks into the shape of canes to represent a shepherd's staff.
The all-white candy canes were then given out to children during the long-winded nativity services. The clergymen's custom of handing out candy canes during Christmas services would eventually spread throughout Europe and later to America.
At the time, the canes were still white, but sometimes the candy-makers would add sugar-roses to further decorate the canes. In, , the first historical reference to the candy cane in America appeared when a German immigrant named August Imgard decorated the Christmas tree in his Wooster, Ohio home with candy canes. About 50 years later, the first red-and-white-striped candy canes appeared. No one knows who exactly invented the stripes, but based on historical Christmas cards , we know that no striped candy canes appeared prior to the year Illustrations of striped candy canes didn't even show up until the beginning of the 20th century.
Around that time, candy-makers began adding peppermint and wintergreen flavors to their candy canes and those flavors would soon become accepted as the traditional favorites. In , a candymaker named Bob McCormack began making candy canes. And by the middle of the century, his company, Bob's Candies, became widely famous for their candy canes.
Initially, the canes had to bent by hand to make the "J" shape. That changed with the help of his brother-in-law, Gregory Keller, who invented the machine to automate candy cane production.
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