Kukui Nut Candy Lei

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Kukui Nut Candy Lei

It’s that graduation time of year. So many celebrations…preschool, kindergarten, middle school, high school, college.

Giving lei is the quintessential Hawaiian way to celebrate any and all occasions. It’s a custom I’ve seen become more and more popular outside of Hawaii over the years.

At graduation time in Hawaii, it’s so nice to be greeted by family and friends, and sometimes end up with 20 or more leis around your neck. The commotion, the heady fragrance of flowers, and walking around under the weight of lei (those double carnation ones are the heaviest) while peering over the top of your stack of lei, are memories a lot of graduates and folks in Hawaii share.

Here on the mainland, the easiest fresh flower lei to get is the orchid lei, though there’s always a flower shortage, and you never know for sure whether you’ll be able to actually get the lei when you need it. Shipping fresh flower lei from Hawaii is very expensive, so candy lei are usually the answer. All kids seem to love getting candy lei, even the perennial old time favorite made of packs of gum and rolls of lifesaver candies in netting.

Use Lindor Lindt Truffles or Ferrero Rond Noir Chocolates to simulate Kukui Nuts

A couple of years ago for Laurel’s middle school promotion ceremony, I did sew her a baby carnation lei from several bunches of flowers that I bought.

This year though, I thought I’d order ahead early and get Quill an orchid lei, but I found out no one is guaranteeing any lei this year due to a severe flower shortage.

I really wanted something real. Kukui nuts are the hardiest lei; they last for years. They’re beautiful, but maybe not super exciting for a kid– so I crossed them with a candy lei and came up with a Kukui Nut Candy Lei.

Extra Dark Chocolate Truffles and Hazelnut Truffles

Traditional kukui nuts come in black, brown, or blond.

If you use Lindt truffles, the Black=Extra Dark Chocolate Truffle; Brown= Hazelnut Truffle; and Blonde (gold wrapper)= White Chocolate Truffle. The nice thing about these candies is that you can find them in almost any grocery store or drug store.

You’ll need 16 pieces for a child sized lei, and 20 pieces for an adult sized lei.

Press the wrapper ends down towards each other over the candy. Use a small piece of clear adhesive tape (scotch tape) to tape the two ends together. Make sure to do this over the seam side of the candy, or to cover up the UPC code (if there is one).

Steps:

1)  Cut 17 (child lei) or 21 (adult lei) pieces of curling ribbon, each 8″ to 9″ long and set aside.

2)  Lay a long strip of clear cellophane horizontally across the table. The strip should be 5″ wide, and 48″ long (child) or 56″ long (adults).

(Tip: when you are pulling the cellophane off the roll to measure the length, it’s easier to roll out half the length (24″-child or 28″-adult), then fold the cellophane roll back over and roll back to the initial edge. Cut along initial edge. Keep the cellophane folded, and you can then measure 5″ wide strips and cut through the double thickness of cellophane.)

3)  At the left end, fold down the top one third of the cellophane, then fold up the bottom third. Pinching together the wrap 1-1/2″ from the left end, take one piece of curling ribbon and tie where you are pinching with a knot.

4)  Place one truffle, taped ends up, into the opening about 1-1/2″ from the tied knot. (We are making the lei bottom side up to begin with.) Use a finger to gently push the truffle in as close to the knot as possible. Make sure the  top cellophane edge is folded down first over the truffle, then the bottom edge is folded up. Squeeze the cellophane gently, but tightly around the end of the truffle and tie with a piece of curling ribbon. Just tie once — after all the candies have been placed, we’ll turn it over to the front side and tie it another time.

5)  Repeat this process with the remaining truffles and ribbons. Sometimes if pushing the truffle with a finger isn’t working well, you can pick up and hold the empty cellophane part with one hand and use the other hand to gently “squeeze” the candy up towards the knot. Try to get the truffles as closely together as possible, but don’t get it too tight, or the cellophane wrap will start to tear with too much maneuvering. In the picture above, the first two truffles are appropriately close together, the next two truffles are too far away from the previous ones .

**If the cellophane wrap tears at any time, be sure to use clear adhesive tape to repair it, or your lei may rip later. Even if it means you need to untie a ribbon, it’s important to repair any tears. The tear and the repair won’t be visible if you use clear tape.

6)  After the last truffle has been placed, tie the end off with a knot. Trim off the excess cellophane wrap, leaving about 1-1/2″ at the end.

7)  Turn the lei over to the front side. Gently twist any truffles that need repositioning so that the nice side is facing up. Re-tie all the ribbons snugly on this side now.  A full knot isn’t necessary unless the ribbon seems very  loose.

8)  Handling the truffles gently, curl all the pieces of ribbon, except for the ones at each end.

9)  Bring the two ends of the lei up, one end overlapping the other at the ribbon knots . Tie together twice– once with the ribbons from each end. Curl the ribbons. Once more, check and readjust any pieces if needed.

10)  Finish off the lei by tying a bow at the joining with an 18″ piece of (3/8″ to 1/2 ” wide) black or brown ribbon.

Grosgrain, velvet or satin ribbons are the most traditional and best looking.

For the curling ribbon, you can cheat a little and buy some of these curled ribbon bows from the dollar store.

The white ribbons are actually a three pack, all hanging down in a row. Each separate one had about 10 ribbons, which I cut in half to get 20 pieces. Only the cut end needs a little re-curling.

Surprisingly I got the cream and brown grosgrain ribbons at the dollar store, which is also a good place to stock up on clear adhesive tape.

The easiest place to get inexpensive ribbons and cellophane wrap is at a craft store like Joann’s or Michael’s.

Online, Papermart and Wrappedallup both have nice selections, and the latter actually has a warehouse store in the Sacramento area.

Kukui Nut and Shell Candy Lei

How about those kukui nut and shell lei? I love those too. Don’t those shells kind of look like popcorn from far away?

Ferrero Rond Noir Chocolates do not require any special prep. Again, wrap the pieces snugly and as closely together as possible.

Use some local caramel popcorn like this from the Sacramento Sweets Co., or even some Island Princess Caramel Popcorn.

Crunch ‘n Munch is easy to find in any grocery store. What’s good about this caramel popcorn is that it has a lot of round individual pieces, which makes it easy to use without having to break apart big chunks.

I used two round pieces to simulate each shell.

Wait, in more recent years, painted kukui nuts have shown up on the scene too.

They come in all different colors and designs!

It’s a good thing Lindt Lindor Truffles come in a variety of colors and flavors too.

Though the most commonly found truffles in grocery and drug stores are the red (milk chocolate), black (extra dark chocolate), gold (white chocolate), dark blue (dark chocolate) and light blue (Stracciatella- white chocolate shell with cocoa pieces, and a white chocolate center).

World Market, where I got these green (mint chocolate) truffles, usually carries a few more varieties than the grocery and drug stores. More colors and flavors seem to be out around the holidays.

Marhalls and Home Goods stores are also good places to find Lindt Lindor Truffles.

Colored Kukui Nut Candy Lei with Single Ribbons–Twirl the curled ends of each ribbon together to get them to stay in the middle

It’s fun to try and make the kukui nut candy lei in matching school colors.

Green & Gold and Blue & Gold combinations seem to be the most popular school colors.

Double up the fanciness by tying an additional piece of curled ribbon at each joint.

This option is good when there are more than two school colors. You can add extra colors with extra ribbons.

For example, here in town, West Campus High School has five school colors: cardinal, white, silver, maroon, and grey. I’d use a red (milk chocolate) truffle, and tie on white, silver, maroon, and grey ribbons.

Here are a few lei to match the colors of other nearby schools:

Blue & Gold:  UC Berkley, UC Davis, Rosemont High School, California Middle School, and Martin Luther King Jr. K-8

Powder Blue & Gold: Luther Burbank High School

Purple & Lime Green: School of Science and Engineering  (This lei is a good example of using just the ribbons to match the school colors. You can actually buy purple and green Lindt truffles on the Lindt online website, but just using the more readily available black truffles with ribbons of the school colors works fine. If you think the black extra dark chocolate truffle is not sweet enough for your recipient, use the gold white chocolate truffles.)

Rotating Truffle colors makes an eye catching lei too.

Red & Blue:  Didion K-8, and Sam Brannan Middle School

Instead of a second piece of curly ribbon, you can tie on satin ribbon bows. I probably would only do this for girls — I’m not sure any boys would appreciate the bows.

Cardinal & White: CK McClatchy High School

Green & Gold:  JF Kennedy High School, Sutter Middle School, John Still Middle School

Colored Kukui Nut Candy Lei

I think I can open up a lei stand now.

Kukui Nut and Shell, Brown Kukui Nut, and Black Kukui Nut Candy Lei

More traditional, simple and understated.

Because of the chocolate, these are really a cooler weather lei.  These lei are good for a celebration indoors or in an air conditioned restaurant.

They’d probably melt at a hot graduation ceremony, but they’d be fine at a cooler, indoor graduation party.

In hot weather, pack the lei in a plastic bag and put it in an insulated lunch bag along with a couple of ice packs to keep it cool while you travel to your destination.

Don’t forget to print out a copy or write the out the link for my  Broke Da Mouth USB Chocolate Cake to include in your card to your lei recipient.

Because after the lei is done being worn, the truffles can be cut up and used to make this really ono cake!

It’s the lei that keeps celebrating.

Ready to give it a try?