Cheap Cotton Candy Machine

There are numerous ideas given out online as to how you can make a DIY version of a cheap cotton candy machine one being by using a wire whisk and trailing the melted sugar across two wooden spoons and letting it solidify again in the air.

Firstly I would say that this is spun sugar, it is not cotton candy. You need lots of air into the molten sugar to make the cloud effect and speed, neither of which you are going to get just using a whisk.

The resulting strands are very nice and are used in a lot of dessert recipes, they can look quite effective if you make a basket shape by draping the strands over an upturned bowl to harden and then fill it with fruit, or icecream etc. but it is NOT cotton candy.

Way, way back in history they first did this sort of thing using a fork dipped in the liquid sugar and creating those strands and letting them harden in the air, but that does not resemble the airy fluffy sugar treat we know today.

There actually are cheap cotton candy machine deals on the internet where you can buy one and they really are quite inexpensive. There are even kids versions, but I wouldn’t think they would be too strong.

You could search the popular auction sites and I have no doubt you would find a good buy there.

Another idea would be to find a cheap rental deal and there are many of those available too.

If you don’t think you would be making cotton candy that regularly the rental idea would probably suit your purposes best. On the other hand, if you have young children in the family I think buying a machine could prove to be quite economic.

It doesn’t take much to make a serving of cotton candy, 1 oz. of sugar, and if you buy the proper floss sugar it already has flavoring and coloring  added so no need to buy flavoring extra.

You can use the ordinary granulated sugar you would already have in your kitchen cupboard but in that case you would need something to flavor it, either the concentrate sold by the machine suppliers or some other kind of syrup. You can buy all sorts of flavored syrups in the supermarket so you could experiment with those.

The question of speed is not only for speeding up output but I believe that you get more volume to each ounce of sugar you use.

There are some newer style commercial machines that use a tubular heating element instead of heat ribbons. This type of machine is usually much more efficient, is easier to clean and is not going to clog up as much as the machines still using the heat ribbons.

Some of these machines are capable of producing 200 servings per hour. This has to be excellent news if you are going to be using your cotton candy machine for business purposes, or even if you are just using it at a fundraising event etc.

If you were to use one of these super speedy machines by getting more candy cotton per ounce you would in fact have yourself a cheap cotton candy machine.