I have two friends who are really, really into rocks. When one of them had a birthday coming up, I turned to the other for advice on a good rock-and-gem themed cake. She said, "Can you make a sugar rock, that he can break and find ‘jewels’ inside?" At first I thought I couldn't do anything like that, but then it dawned on me - yes, I can!


Here is the recipe I used for my geode.

 

Eat this Rock!

I set about making a geode-type sugar rock from toffee, rock candy, and the clear jewel-colored candy I broke off of Ring Pops. In addition to a good toffee recipe, you will also need assorted clear candies (I used the rock candy and Ring Pops), a cookie sheet with a Silpat on it, a greased ball of aluminum foil a little bigger than an egg, and a candy thermometer. I have my candies sitting on a piece of waxed paper to keep the Silpat clean, but you will not need the waxed paper to make the sugar geode.

When the toffee has cooked, you must work quickly. BE CAREFUL - hot sugar can cause severe burns. I divided my toffee recipe into one third for use as a chocolate-dipped candy gift for a relative, and the other two thirds for the toffee geode. I poured out the third of the candy onto a second Silpat to cool while I poured the other two thirds onto the first Silpat and quickly sprinkled it with the clear candies. Since I used a honeycomb toffee recipe, the

Using the edges of the Silpat, bring the hot toffee up around the ball of foil and seal the edges as best you can. Don't worry if it won't completely close, just do the best you can. Set the ball of toffee aside to cool completely. If you are concerned that the toffee ball won't hold its shape, you can set it in a small buttered metal mixing bowl to cool.

When the candy has cooled completely, wrap it in a clean, dry towel and give it a whack with a hammer. I like to use my meat tenderizer for
that job.

candies deflated some of the bubbles in the
toffee when I sprinkled them on, but that's okay. I also decided to add some sugar crystals (not as large as rock candy pieces) to fill in some space between the larger pieces of candy.

Break the candy open and remove the foil ball. The foil may stick to the toffee a little. That's okay, just carefully work it loose. Be sure not to leave any bits of foil behind in the ball; remove them if the foil tore when you took it out of the candy.

To eat the toffee geode, wrap it again in a clean, dry towel and use the hammer to break it into bite-sized pieces, and enjoy!