This squiggly mass was my attempt at candying orange peel. It turned out pretty well, although I later found I couldn't curl it into tight springs, which when you think about sugar and stuff, makes sense. I'd used a channel zester to make as long a strip as I could for that purpose. D'oh! I found several different recipes for candying citrus peel, but they were in the end mostly the same. I'm guessing you can skip steps 2 & 3 if you managed to get your peel without any pith on it.
Candying Citrus Peel
1. Strip peel from fruit using a vegetable peeler (or channel zester)
2. Blanch in 3 changes of cold water (put peel in cold water, bring to a boil, rinse and repeat)
3. Scrape off white pith with a small spoon
4. Bring a simple syrup to a boil (equal parts sugar & water)
5. Put peel into boiling syrup and cook until peel is translucent (I think it took me about 20 minutes)
6. Fish peel out of syrup and roll in sugar (or not)
7. Set peel onto a piece of waxed paper to dry
I used the peel to decorate a carrot cake for a friend's birthday. This was before I learnt that that liquid food colouring that come in those cute little dropper bottles can wreak havoc on the consistency of my frosting. The cream cheese frosting used here turned out thin to begin with, the colouring didn't help, and even after refrigerating, it didn't set up. I'm guessing that was the intention of the recipe: Orange Pineapple Carrot Cake
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