Home Sweet Home: Increase Sales with Housewarming Gifts

 

A thoughtful housewarming gift can help commemorate the special occasion and make new homeowners feel more at home. Offering great housewarming gifts could also open up sales opportunities with local real estate agents looking to thank clients. What better way to welcome someone to the neighborhood than with a delicious and thoughtful gift? This week we’re sharing inspiration for crafting your own special housewarming gifts that make a lasting impression to both the recipient and the gift giver.

Photo credit: The Chocolate Girl

Candy House Box
This cute wooden box is the perfect container to house a sampling of your signature treats. Similar house-shaped wooden boxes, like this, can be found at your local craft store or online. As another option, RCI supplier member, Nashville Wraps, has a few styles of housewarming basket boxes, like the one pictured below.

Photo credit: Nashville Wraps

Photo credit: It’s Only Natural Gifts

Big Hug Care Package
This gift is sure to make anyone smile! We especially love the custom tote bag that reads “big Colorado hug,” which could be reimagined for your state or hometown. With the addition of your company name or logo, the reusable bag will remind the recipient of your brand every time it's used. This could also be repurposed as a back-to-school send off for college students—“send them to school with their favorite treats!”

Photo credit: Buffett’s Candies

Best in State
Welcome new homeowners to the “neighborhood” with a state-shaped basket filled with your signature treats and perhaps some unique-to-your-state flavors. RCI member Buffett’s Candies sources baskets shaped like their home state of New Mexico from WeaveCrafters. This Texas-based company makes handmade baskets in the shape of all 50 states and are highly recommended by many members. They also make a house-shaped basket. Click here for a past RCI blog post with more ideas for creating custom gift baskets for your state.

People are always buying and selling homes. This could be your opportunity to introduce your business to out-of-towners and be part of a special milestone for locals who may have just moved across town. Once you find out which presentation works best for your business, it’s important to get the word out! Post photos of your housewarming gifts on social media, ask around if you have a friend who works in the real estate industry or make a memorable introduction at some nearby real estate offices with a sample housewarming gift in hand.

We hope this inspires you to go put the sweet in "home sweet home" with your housewarming gifts!

Crave more? Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

How to Make Holographic Chocolate

Upgrade your confections with a cool, glimmering hologram. For this week’s blog post, Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate shares a simple technique that gives chocolate a dazzling, rainbow effect without the use of colored cocoa butter or pigments.

How does it work?
A diffraction sheet is made of plastic which consists of micro-etchings, which are tiny grooves that causes white light to disperse into a rainbow of colors. When liquid chocolate meets a diffraction sheet, the chocolate takes on the sheet’s micro etchings as it solidifies. These etchings in the chocolate replicate the dispersion effect of the sheet and separate white light into individual colors, which gives the lovely rainbow effect. When selecting a diffraction sheet (also known as a gradient sheet), the greater the number of lines, the more of an opportunity for the light to diffract and give a stronger iridescent look. Diffraction sheets can be found from a number of online retailers, such as Amazon.

How to do it?
There are a few ways to make this dazzling design.

The first, is using a magnetic transfer mould. Place the diffraction sheet into your transfer mould, similar to how you would use cocoa butter transfer sheets or other traditional design applications. Once placed, proceed to pour tempered chocolate into your mould. Be sure to knock the air out of the mould to ensure a seamless transfer of the design. When the chocolate cools, the liquid will mould around the micro etchings allowing the rainbow shimmer to be present on your chocolate.

Another method is to apply chocolate directly to the diffraction sheet. The easiest way to utilize the sheets directly is to slightly melt the top of an already moulded or enrobed product, place the melted side onto the diffraction sheet and let it cool. This way you can design items that have already been completed, like chocolate chip bottoms or chocolate enrobed cookies. Chocolate can also be poured directly onto the gradient sheet. When slightly cooled, the diffraction sheet can be bent or curled to add a shimmer to chocolate curls or tubes.

As discussed above, you aren’t transferring the design but instead, transferring the grooves into the chocolate. Because of this, the sheets can be used multiple times. As long as the micro etchings are clear, the design can continue to be moulded onto the product. Gently wash the sheet with soap and water after use. Make sure that the sheet is completely dry before the next use. A dry wipe down can also be completed between batches.

How can it be applied?
There are an endless number of ways to apply this shimmering design. Moulded truffles, chocolate curls, and enrobed treats can be elevated with holographic effects. The possibilities are only limited to your glittering imagination!

Crave more? Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

Using QR Codes for Labeling Small Packaging

As we all know, nutritional labeling can be a nightmare at times for one reason or another. In recent years, RCI member Dietsch Brothers has incorporated QR codes onto some of their smaller products instead of trying to cram all the ingredient information on a tiny packaging space. According to the FDA, if your labeling area is less than twelve square inches you can include a phone number or address to access the nutritional information for that product.

On small packages such as chocolate-covered sandwich cookies, four-piece boxes, graham crackers and etc., Dietsch Brothers provides a QR code on the label, along with contact information, so customers can link to the product on their website for consumers to find the nutritional and allergy information. By including QR codes, which most people are familiar with post-COVID, it helps drive traffic to their website and allows the candy maker to share the ingredient information in an easy-to-read format.

Setting up QR Codes are Easy
There are two different types of QR codes that should be considered when creating one for packaging. A static QR code cannot be changed, so once setup the URL it is linked to it cannot be changed. If you set up a dynamic QR code, the URL it links to can be modified at any time. A dynamic QR code also allows you to track how many times that code has been scanned.

Trusted QR Code Generators

Canva | Canva offers a static QR code generator for free and paid users. Customization features are limited to changing the background and foreground colors.

QR Tiger | Dietsch Brothers uses QR Tiger to create dynamic QR codes. QR Tiger offers fully customizable QR codes, which includes the ability to incorporate your logo. Monthly rates start at $7/month. QR Tiger also integrates with Canva to import your dynamic codes to be used in your Canva designs.

QR codes are an easy and low-cost solution for providing product information for consumers, especially when it comes to small packaging. By incorporating QR codes onto packaging, companies can not only provide product information, but also drive traffic to their website and increase brand recognition.

Crave more? Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

Apple Cider Infused Treats: Perfect for Fall

 

Long before pumpkin spice lattes were a thing, spiced apple cider was quite possibly the undisputed official beverage of fall. While pumpkin spice can be found nearly everywhere this time of year, there are still some of us who look forward to tracking down high-quality apple cider at the local farmers’ market or a roadside farmstand. Together the fresh apple flavor paired with the aroma of warming spices elicits all the cozy feels.

Before apple month draws to a close, we pay homage to the regal apple with apple cider infused confections.

Photo: This Mess is Ours

Cider Spiced Candy Apples

Put a fall spin on your candy apple recipe by adding apple cider to your recipe—or try this recipe on for size. This could also be applied to caramel apples by making an apple cider caramel. Check out this recipe for apple cider caramels.

Photo: Culinary Ginger

Apple Cider Caramel Popcorn
The addition of spiced apple cider brings a welcome depth of flavor to any caramel recipe—including caramel popcorn.

Photo: Dessert Now Dinner Later

Spiced Cider Fudge
This easy white chocolate fudge is flavored with apple cider and pieces of toffee for texture.

We hope you enjoy this post! If you try any of these recipes or would like to share photos of your favorite apple cider infused confections on Facebook, tag us @retailconfectioners.

Crave more? Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.