How to make a cake candle

Coffee Cake DIY Wood Wick Candles

Want to learn how to make DIY wood wick candles?

Are you ready to start making DIY wood wick candles, but have never used a wooden wick candle? They have become quite popular in the last few years as many people are intrigued by their crackling sound. As I was! You’re in luck, I’m going to explain the differences between wooden candle wicks and cotton wicks in this candle making wooden wick guide. Phew, that’s a mouthful!

So, whether you’ve never made a candle before or have only worked with cotton wicks, I’m here to help. Making DIY wood wick candles that smell great and burn properly requires a little know-how.

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Why use a wooden wick to make candles?

So, why use a wooden wick to make candles? Why not just keep to the old standard cotton wicks?

Many find them puzzling or see them as a challenge when compared to cotton wicks. Maybe because that’s all they’re familiar with. But there are many other types of candle wicks. In fact, I cover a complete list and review of all candle wick types that I’ve used here. And you’ll find many options for candle wicks, wax, and more included in my tested and recommended candle supplies list.

Altogether wooden wicks allow us to create DIY wood wick candles that have a soft crackling sound, that I’ve come to love, and an appealing candle flame. But, don’t let their uniqueness keep you from trying them. Wood wicks really aren’t much trouble to make candles with. And truth be told, they produce fewer candle problems than cotton wicks and are a more eco-friendly, sustainable option.

Hear me out,

– Wooden wicks don’t need to be dipped in wax before use. They can be used as-is, in their natural state.

– Set up is easy and much faster than cotton wicks.

– You won’t encounter any mushrooming, carbon buildup, or soot from a wood wick.

– All are sustainably sourced and manufactured in the USA. Wicks come from oak, cherry, birch, balsam, rosewood, and maple trees.

– Wood wicks can be used in all wax types.

– You can expect a great melt pool.

– Make container, pillar, or votive candles with wood wicks.

– You can skip the additives with wooden wicks as they are 100% natural.

– No straightening is needed. That means you can skip the wick bars, wick centering devices, pencils, clothespins, or dowel rods!

– You can count on clean burning as wood wicks are non-toxic.

– As for the scent, wood wicks produce an excellent hot throw. Your candles will smell strong.

Not familiar with candle making terms like a hot throw or melt pool? Find a candle glossary guide in the Simple Living Library.

Setting Up Wood Wicks

Wood wicks are so much easier to use than cotton wicks or any other type of wick in my experience. They are available in many sizes just like cotton wicks to fit all your candle containers and setup is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Skip the wick bars, wick centering devices, pencils, or clothespins. Because once their setup – you’re done.

Honestly, it’s so simple you’ll be wondering why you weren’t using wood wicks sooner!

HOW TO SET UP A WOODEN WICK:

And that’s all there is to it, just like I said 1, 2, 3. Now you’re ready to melt the wax, add fragrance and pour it to make DIY wood wick candles!

Never worry again about your wicks falling or becoming uncentered while your candles are curing. No more dipping wicks before setting up or fiddling clothespins and wrapping wicks on pencils or dowel rods.

Now, let’s start step by step candle making instructions for DIY wood wick candles!

How To Make Wood Wick Candles

For this wood wick guide, I am sharing a tutorial for coffee cake DIY wood wick candles. If you haven’t heard, I’m obsessed with the aroma of coffee. I’ve made coffee body scrubs, bar soap, and coffee wax melts too!

Wood Wick Candle Supplies:

Wood Wick Candle Instructions:

1. Place two wood wicks in each wick clip. Use a wick sticker tab or glue dot if you don’t have one, to adhere to the center base of each heat-safe ramekin.

2. Use a digital kitchen scale to measure 14 ounces of soy wax. Pour into a candle melting pitcher and place it inside a pot filled with about 2 inches of water to safely melt the wax with the double boiler method. Melt over medium to low heat with a gentle simmer at most, stirring often. (Never leave melting wax unattended.)

3. Remove the candle pitcher of melted wax from the heat source and check the temperature of the wax with an infrared thermometer. If it’s under 200 degrees, which is the flashpoint of the coffee cake oil you can add it. If not, give the wax a few minutes to cool down and check the temperature again.

4. After adding the coffee cake oil stir constantly for 2 minutes for a great scent throw. Then carefully pour the scented wax into each prepared ramekin, avoiding the top of the wood wicks. (Do not fill to the top of the ramekins. Leave room for a safe melt pool.)

5. Let your DIY wood wick candles cool 30 minutes to 1 hour before trimming wicks. Cut wood wicks to approximately ⅛ an inch above the wax for the best burn rate. (I like to cut my wood wicks to mimic fox ears, as you can see in the photos.)

Give these coffee cake candles a good 3 days to cure before burning for a good scent throw. Or allow 1 to 2 weeks for a stronger scent!

How to Burn a Candle with a Wooden Wick

For those of us with experience making candles, we know that a little troubleshooting can be expected. Rather it’s figuring out what wick type to use or how much fragrance oil. How to burn a candle with a wooden wick is one of those things I’ve troubleshot. (Find a huge list of remedies I shared for candle problems here.)

Here’s the thing,

Wood wick candles are different from traditional cotton wick candles and all other types, for that matter. As I shared above there’s a lot of reasons why you might want to use a wooden wick to make candles. Three of the top reasons being:

Here are two tips on how to get the most out of your DIY wood wick candles!

How do you cut a wooden candle wick?

Rather you like your wood wicks straight, at a diagonal, or mimicking fox ears, there are few things to keep in mind when cutting wooden wicks. First off, a shorter wick is best for a great crackling sound and flame. I find cutting wood wicks to a ⅛ inch above the wax works well. But anything between ⅛ inch and a ¼ inch will suffice.

Longer than that and the wood wick won’t be able to pull the wax up the wick and will self extinguish.

After burning a wood wick candle several times an excess amount of burnt wood may form at the top of the wick. If this happens simply trim it off before lighting the candle again.

And as always, never burn candles longer than 4 hours at a time or with less than ¼ inch of wax remaining. While the first simply shortens the life of the candle the other is dangerous.

How can I make my wooden wick burn better?

First, let me tell you wood wicks light slower than cotton wicks. Similar to lighting a campfire or wood logs in the fireplace, it takes a little time to get the wood flaming. It’s not uncommon for it to take up to 20 seconds to fully light a wood wick. It may even take you a few tries.

That being said, you may find it better to use a long match or a flexible arch candle lighter to light wood wick candles.

I’ve found when lighting wood wick candles the best method is to tilt the candle at an angle and let the flame draw across the length of the wick, while you hold steady.

How to Make a Cake Candle

I’m using store-bought candles here for my base and my frosting. The pillar is a 5-inch tall fat candle. I took the taller pillar in the set and melted it down for the frosting.

Be sure to melt wax safely. If you’ve never worked with wax before, please read my post on getting started in candlemaking. And you can see all my candlemaking posts here. Never leave wax unattended while melting.

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How to make a Cake Candle:

You will need–
“cake” candle base
matching wax for “frosting”
wire whisk
knife, fork, spatula, etc for frosting the cake

Melt the frosting wax in a double-boiler (or facsimile–I put my pot inside another pot on top of a trivet to create a makeshift double-boiler).

If using a pre-made candle, eventually the wick will melt free. Don’t throw that wick out! Save it to use for another candle.

If you’re using plain wax for your frosting, you’ll need to add the dye and scent to match your cake base.

Once the wax is melted, remove the pot from the heat and let cool. Keep an eye on it. When the wax reaches the right stage, you’ll have to work quickly. Prepare your work surface–make sure everything is covered with wax paper.

When you see a “skin” starting to form on the top of the melted wax, it’s ready!

The wax beneath the skin will still look clear and melted, but when you whip it, it will thicken up–just like real cake frosting!

Begin whipping the wax with the wire whisk.

Once the wax reaches a workable consistency (similar to frosting) use a spatula or other tool to scoop it out of the pot and start spreading it on the top and sides of the cake base. Here’s where you have to work fast–the wax will harden quickly once you take it out of the pot.

After you spread the wax onto the candle (I used a pie server), use a knife or spoon or fork, whatever you like, to do the final frosting. Work in small areas at a time. (Be sparing on the top–you don’t want to bury the wicks.)

If your frosting hardens up past a workable consistency because you are such an artiste and took too long, just melt, cool, and whip it up again to finish.

Look at that! It’s a cake candle.

And I made it myself. (So can you!)

By the way, wax scrapes off utensils fairly easily, and to remove wax from the whisk, I simply put the whisk in the melting pot and heat it up again–the wax melts right off the whisk. Then wash the whisk immediately in hot water and you’re done.

P.S. This candle has a caramel scent, so I’m calling it a Burnt Sugar Cake candle.

Melted Candle Cake Tutorial Proven Techniques for Beginners

December 17, 2019 By Katie

Looking for a fun cake to make this holiday season?

There’s no better way to celebrate the holidays than with this super cute cake. This white chocolate melted candle cake has the wow factor to impress your friends and family!

This Melted Candle cake is made with four tender semi-homemade vanilla cake layers filled with creamy vanilla buttercream and white chocolate ganache dripping down the sides.

You’ll learn every step to make this white chocolate drip candle cake at home. It starts with the foundation of a great cake recipe. That’s why I love this semi-homemade cake recipe; it begins with a vanilla cake mix that’s mixed with a pound cake that helps stabilize the cake when building four layers high. Plus, it’s perfect for beginners because it’s easy to follow directions.

Then I’ll walk you through how to make creamy vanilla buttercream that’s colored with a little ivory gel food coloring, so it matches the ivory chocolate drip.

The real showstopper for this cake is the ivory chocolate drip, and it’s made with melted ivory candy melts and warm water. It’s poured into a squeeze bottle to make it easy to drip down the sides of the cake. The key to making this cake look like a melted candle is the freezing of the cake after two layers. The freezing helps keep the drip from melting together, so it becomes more distinct as a candle.

Finally, you’ll use a skewer to create a hole down the center of the cake so you can place a tall candle inside. Then lit the flame, and it becomes a real melted candle cake!

I am so excited to share this cake tutorial with you because I genuinely believe anyone can make this cake if you’re willing to try! I’ll be with you every step of the way!

I think this Melted Candle Cake is simply beautiful for the winter holidays and New Years!

Tips for Success:

What Tools You’ll Need to Make This Cake:

Here’s how to make a simply impressive white chocolate drip melted candle cake!

Let’s Get Decorating!

How to Make Semi-Homemade Vanilla Cake

How to Make Creamy Vanilla Buttercream

How to Make Ivory Water Ganache Drip

Putting It All Together

You May Also Enjoy:

Now that you know how to make your melted candle cake, I can’t wait to see your cake creations! Let me know in the comments below!

Happy Baking!

Watch The How-to Video Below:

How to Make a 3D Candle Cake

As I was already asked about it: I don’t make the marzipan myself. I can buy it at the local supermarket. The marzipan paste we can get there is a bit too dark and soft for modelling, so I usually knead in about the same amount of confectioner’s sugar. Then it is sturdy enough for the edge of the candle… or modelling vegetables for a turkey cake or animals. Now to the instructions.

List of Materials

Pick cans of the size you want and remove the bottom. (Do this with cans only when you use the can opener that doesn’t leave sharp edges or you might hurt yourself.) Line the cans with baking paper, place them on a sheet of paper on the tray and fill them about three quarters. Don’t make them too full. One of mine tipped over. Bake them according to the recipe you use.

When the cakes are baked and cooled down you can push them out of the can and remove the paper.
Now all you have to do is cut off the dome and you have the basic shape of your candle.

Roll out a batch of marzipan and use the cans to cut out the circles. Brush them with jam and glue them to the tops of the cakes.
Roll out more marzipan in about the breadth of your cake and cut a straight line in length and width.
If you don’t want a protruding edge measure out the height of your candle and cut the other length as well.

Brush the marzipan with jam (approx. the width of the height of the cake). Put the cake on the edge of the wrap and start to roll. Just before the marzipan overlaps cut it with a pizza wheel. Remove the excess marzipan and keep rolling. Smooth out the seam.

Now fold down the wrap protruding over the top inwards. This way you get a nice, rounded edge. Push the edge outwards at one point to get a lip. Press the layers of the protruding edge together and smooth out the inside.
Now mix some confectioner’s sugar with water and brush a thin layer on the candles. Let it dry.

Finally the best part: decorating!
I made a few snowflakes to try my new cutters, but the possibilities are only limited by your fantasy.
Enjoy making your candles… and don’t forget the birthday candles at home like I did. (With the matches it was a rather short joy.) Push the candles in and enjoy a few minutes of burning cake candles.

Thanks again for the request. I hope I could help.
Have fun! Good luck! And Merry Christmas!
Roadrunner

How to Make a Candle Cake in Minecraft

Here is everything players need to know about making Candled Cakes in Minecraft.

To make a candled cake in Minecraft, you will first need to make a cake. You can do this by gathering up three buckets of milk, two sugars, one egg, and three pieces of wheat. Once you gather up all of the materials, place them accordingly inside a crafting table, as shown below.

Once you get the sugar, you will need to get an egg from a chicken and then wheat, which can often be found inside villages and can be grown by planting seeds.

Now, to make candles, you will need honeycombs, which are obtained from beehives located in biomes such as the Plains, Sunflower Plains, and Flower Forests biomes.

That being said, after you got both the honeycombs and string, place them accordingly to the pattern shown below, and you will make a candle.

When you got both candles and cake made, start by placing the cake down on the ground by right-clicking it while it is on your Hotbar, and then do the same with the candle onto the cake.

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