Glowing Ghost Gummies for Halloween

As Halloween rolls around each year, I look for new ways to my son’s favorite holiday: homemade costumes and decorations, special treats and natural and organic candies that we pile into a bucket on our doorstep for any little goblins, witches and ghouls that might come calling.

So we make sugar cookies, and honey caramel apples, and pumpkin custard flavored with vanilla bean.

This year, I wanted something particularly special and unique for him. But, like the other treats we make at home, it had to be wholesome, natural.

So, I landed upon my newest idea: Glowing Ghost Gummies.  And while these ghostly treats are awfully spooky, just like any Halloween treat should be, there’s absolutely nothing spooky about the ingredients.

What You Need to Make Glowing Ghost Gummies

Fairly straightforward and easily accessed ingredients make these Glowing Ghost Gummies particularly easy to make.  And, quite simply, it’s nothing more than a combination of gelatin, lime juice, honey and tonic water that come together to make this treat.  Molds give the gummies their ghostly form, and a blacklight allowes them to glow a spooky blue white in a darkened room.

Gelatin

Gelatin provides the gummies with their shape, form and unique jiggling texture.  It is also rich in easy-to-assimilate proteins that support digestive health as well as skin health.  You can find good-quality gelatin here.

Tonic Water

Tonic water, rich in quinine, gives the gummies their ability to glow under a blacklight.  Quinine, the traditional flavoring for tonic water, glows naturally by means of fluorescence.  That is, its molecular structure allows it to emit light when exposed to the light of a different source.  In this case, it emits blue light when exposed to ultraviolet light.  Pretty wild, isn’t it?

Quinine, which gives tonic water its characteristic bitterness and allows these gummies to glow beneath a blacklight, comes from the cinchona tree which is traditionally referred to as the fever tree.  Quinine has fever-reducing, antimalarial and anti-inflammatory properties.

Both for cocktails, like gin and tonics, as well as for these gummies, I purchase natural tonic water from Fever Tree (you can find it here).

Where to Find Molds and a Blacklight

Lastly, you’ll need molds to form the gummies and a blacklight to help them to fluoresce.  Silicon molds make a good choice, and there’s a wide variety of shapes.  My son and I chose these Halloween-themed molds which included tombstones, bats, jack-o-lanterns and ghosts.

Finally, you’ll need a blacklight.  Blacklights emit ultraviolet light that allows the gummies to fluoresce, giving off a ghostly pale blue glow.  You can find a blacklight here.