Castor Design have made a dining table and a pair of benches out of hard candy. Two inches thick, the treatment resembles a glass-top dining table. The set was made during the 2015 Toronto Design Offsite week for the Dinner by Design charity event hosted by GE Monogram and the Toronto Design Exchange, the proceeds going toward Toronto’s Casey House.

Responding to the theme of the event, at the intersection of dinner and design is an edible table. Following this line of logic, Castor Design made the table top out of hard candy, pouring a 150°C/300°F mixture of sugar, water, syrup, and colouring into a mould on top of an 8’ x 3’ powder-coated steel frame. The hard candy is meant to be used, so after pouring it is left to cool and solidify and then finished with a lacquer spray. Prior to its finishing the table would be edible, having a maple flavour.

The dining set was made at Parts & Labour’s catering kitchen where Castor Design’s principals Brian Richer and Kei Ng are part owners. The table was formed in three separate 60L pours, each with a slightly different shade of red, which results in a marbled texture in the candy. Lit from underneath, the table has molten look that is amplified by the back bench’s slow decline to the floor. Glass tableware is set up to catch the light coming through the table.

The table is installed at the Design Exchange from January 19-25th 2015.

For those interested in making a set at home, the recipe is as follows:

Table
120kg sugar
60kg water
30kg syrup
Food colouring as desired

Bench (x1)
40kg sugar
20kg water
10kg syrup
Food colouring as desired