{"id":405415,"date":"2018-03-17T00:14:13","date_gmt":"2018-03-17T00:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/origin-www.tasteofhome.com\/?p=405415"},"modified":"2022-09-26T14:23:21","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T19:23:21","slug":"sponge-candy-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/article\/sponge-candy-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Vintage Sponge Candy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sponge candy is a simple and delicious treat that brings back memories of Grandma's kitchen and the corner sweet shop. This vintage dessert<\/a> recipe goes by many different names: cinder or honeycomb toffee, fairy food, seafoam candy, angel food candy<\/a>, Hokey Pokey and more.<\/p>\r\n

Whether you grew up calling it sponge candy or another name, we're all talking about the same thing: A deliciously sweet, airy, crunchy confection that has a lovely molasses-y flavor.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

What Is Sponge Candy?<\/h2>\r\nSponge candy is a crunchy, airy, toffee-like candy<\/a> made with brown sugar, corn syrup, vinegar and baking soda. After boiling the sugar, corn syrup and vinegar in a pot, you add baking soda to spark a reaction that causes the mixture to expand and foam. This creates the bubbly interior of the candies. Next, the mixture is spread onto a baking pan to cool <\/span>into a crispy mass. <\/span>\r\n\r\nOnce broken apart, the pieces are usually covered in milk or dark chocolate and served as individual candies. While you\u2019ll find variations of this type of crisp, sweet candy all over the U.S. and Europe, sponge candy is a specialty of the Great Lakes region, particularly in parts of western New York.<\/span>\r\n

Sponge candy vs. honeycomb<\/h3>\r\nRegional names aside, there is a slight difference between sponge candy and honeycomb candy. Both are technically a type of toffee made with brown sugar, corn syrup, and baking soda. But each uses a different type of acid to create their individually unique bubbles.<\/span>\r\n\r\nIn sponge candy, vinegar helps form slightly smaller, more uniform bubbles that resemble a sponge. The texture is crisp and airy and it melts in the mouth with one bite. Honey does a similar thing for honeycomb, only it creates larger bubbles and a crunchier candy. The jagged cells inside resemble honeycombs found in beehives, which is how it got its name.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nAnother difference between sponge candy and honeycomb is that sponge candy is almost always covered in chocolate, while honeycomb is often eaten on its own.<\/span>\r\n

Where Did Sponge Candy Originate?<\/h2>\r\nUnlike honeycomb, which is often called different things in different parts of the world (yellowman in Northern Ireland, fairy food in Wisconsin, and puff candy in Scotland), American sponge candy is traditionally only found in cities around the Great Lakes.<\/span>\r\n\r\nHoneycomb most likely originated in Europe in the early 20th century, made famous by the Cadbury Crunchie, a chocolate-covered honeycomb candy bar, in the late 1920s. But American sponge candy began to appear in northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York, specifically Buffalo and Erie, around the 1940s and 1950s. Independent homespun candy makers like Erie\u2019s Steffanelli\u2019s Candies and Buffalo\u2019s Watson\u2019s Chocolates continue to make the sponge candy in small batches using copper kettles and age-old recipes today.<\/span>\r\n

How to Make Sponge Candy<\/h2>\r\n

Ingredients<\/h3>\r\n