Fair Entries Part 2

I wanted to make a candy to enter into the Fair.  I don't usually make candy, but I had made Divinity once before and it tasted good, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  The recipe is simple.  Basically I had to boil sugar, corn syrup, and water to 260 F degrees and then whip up a couple of egg whites, add the hot syrup, whip it all up, add a bit of vanilla and scoop the candy out onto waxed paper.  Like I said, I'd done it once before and it tasted yummy.
I followed the directions (or so I thought) and ended up with a couple dozen pieces of Divinity (...or so I thought...).  I licked the spoon and the bowl... it was so good!  I didn't even realize there was a problem until I tried to get the candy off of the wax paper and it wouldn't come off.  How can I package it up for the Fair if I can't even get it off of the paper?  I began to suspect that I had done something wrong.
I turned to Google to solve my problem.  I typed "divinity" into the search box and hit "images".  Here is an example of what I found:

Google Image of Divinity

Wow, that Divinity is beautiful!  I stared in shock, because what I had made looked nothing like that!  How could I make a candy that tasted so good, but was completely wrong?  Why would I even try to make a candy that I obviously had no clue about?  I don't know.  

I had one hour until I needed to leave to submit my Fair Entries and this is what my candy looked like:

My Divinity

Ouch.  I had a few options at this point.

1. Throw the candy away and scratch the event 
2. Submit the failed batch and hope that the judges didn't know what Divinity should like like either.
3. Start over and try to do it right.

Since it is relatively quick to make, I decided to start over.  I beat the crap out of that boiled sugar and egg white mixture.  I had no idea what it was supposed to do, but I beat it until I saw it do something.  At some point, it changed.  It just went from glossy, sticky, marshmallow-ness, to a stiffer, unsticky, thicker consistancy.  I scooped it out and stuck a candied cherry in the middle of each one.  They tasted delicious, although I think I over beat the candy.  I had no time or desire to start again, so this batch was getting submitted.

Fair Entry Divinity

My kids ate up every single piece that was left over.  They certainly did not turn out beautiful like the Google picture, but at least it was DIVINITY.  Today I thought that doing another batch of candy with my oldest daughter would be fun.  It is so easy and she loves to cook and bake, I figured she'd get a kick out of it.  

Practice makes perfect and this newest batch was the prettiest.  I still think I beat the mixture too long, but not by much.  I know exactly how to do it next time.  All of my munchkins over here are gobbling it up!  

Not Quite Google Worthy Divinity