Cotton Candy Fudge is an easy-to-make homemade fudge using only 3 base ingredients combined with food coloring and flavoring.
This creamy smooth candy recipe makes a big pan of swirled sweetness with a flavor that resembles your favorite fluffy carnival snack but in fudge form!
Homemade Cotton Candy Fudge
This Cotton Candy Fudge recipe is so easy to make, with almost the same simple ingredients I use in my Unicorn Fudge, with an added fun-flavored extract.
It takes mere minutes to melt the chocolate, combine it with color and flavoring, then drop it by the spoonful into the pan where it sets into pretty pink and purple swirls.
This Cotton Candy Fudge tastes just like the whimsical sugar-spun carnival confection, but instead of piling it high on a stick, I’ve created a less sticky version that’s prepared in a pan and served in square pieces. Fudge is always fun to cook with kids, especially when they’re making pretty party food, dreamy desserts, or sweet snacks.
Also, check out my easy-to-make Cotton Candy Ice Cream (No Churn) recipe. You don’t even need an ice cream machine!
Why We Love This Cotton Candy Fudge Recipe
- Quick and easy to make.
- Only uses 3 ingredients plus food coloring and cotton candy flavoring.
- Delicious no-bake dessert.
- Straight forward way to cook candy because it doesn’t require a thermometer or special equipment.
- Everything you love about the classic cotton candy flavor mixed into a rich chocolate confection.
- Customize with your favorite colors and flavors and make it beautifully bright or pretty pastel.
- Perfect for a simple snack, potlucks, unicorn parties, birthday parties, or any other magical celebration.
Ingredients
- White chocolate chips: I used Ghirardelli brand for this recipe.
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Unsalted butter
- Cotton candy flavoring: I used LorAnn Oils brand.
- Pink gel food coloring: I used Americolor brand Pale Peony #183.
- Purple gel food coloring: I used Americolor brand Lilac #169.
SEE FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD BELOW
Substitutions and Additions
- Choose Your Chocolate: Feel free to try this recipe with white baking chocolate or almond bark instead of white chocolate chips. I recommend high-quality chocolate, otherwise, the taste and consistency might be off.
- Customize Your Candy: This recipe is so easy to customize for any themed party or holiday. Simply switch up the colors and omit the flavoring (or change it) to match your celebration. Make yellow and orange swirls for Halloween, red, pink, and white for Valentine’s Day, or red and green for Christmas.
- Favorite Flavors: Swap the cotton candy flavor with a variety of flavored oils or extracts, like peppermint, lemon, vanilla, almond, or your other favorites.
Recommended Tools
- 8 x 8 inch baking pan
- Parchment paper
- Saucepan
- Butter knife or small offset spatula
How to Make Cotton Candy Fudge
Cotton Candy Fudge tastes just like my favorite fluffy sugar-spun treat, easily made less messy by preparing it in a pan! It only takes a few minutes to make this creamy candy, with pretty swirls of cotton candy color.
- Melt: Melt together the white chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and butter on medium heat for 6-7 minutes.
Pro Tip: Make sure to stir often so that your chocolate does not burn or seize up. You want a nice smooth mixture. - Create Each Color: Pour half of the melted chocolate mixture into 2 separate bowls. To one bowl, add cotton candy flavoring and the pink gel food color, and stir until all the white chocolate has turned pink. To the second bowl, add cotton candy flavoring and the purple gel food color and stir until all the white chocolate has turned purple.
- Prepare Your Pan: Randomly drop large spoonfuls of each color into your pan until all the fudge has been added. With a butter knife or offset spatula, make swirls in the fudge to create a pretty design. Place an additional piece of parchment paper over the entire top of the fudge and gently press to smooth it.
Pro Tip: Do not remove the top piece of parchment paper until the cotton candy fudge has completely set or you may mess up the pretty swirl design created. - Chill: Chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours or at room temperature on the counter, for 4 hours.
- Serve: Slice and serve once the fudge has set. Enjoy!
Tips
- To make sure you can get your fudge out of the pan, I find it easiest to use parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray. Do not, however, line your pan with foil, as it will stick to the fudge.
- Make sure that you leave enough parchment paper overhanging the sides so that you can easily pull your fudge out of the pan once chilled.
- Depending on your brand, you may need to add more/less food coloring to get your desired shade of pink/purple. The brand I used required a heaping ½ teaspoon but you may want to start with ⅛ teaspoon and work your way up to your desired color.
Storage Tips
- To Store: You can store this Cotton Candy Fudge in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
- To Freeze: This fudge can be frozen for up to a month. Make sure to wrap the fudge tightly in plastic wrap, and then a layer of aluminum foil before freezing to ensure no moisture gets to the fudge.
Frequently Asked Questions
I highly recommend using gel-based food colors when making this, and other, fudge. Gel food colors are typically much more concentrated in color so a little goes a long way.
Start with just a drop or so if you want pale colors and add more to get deep colors of your choice.
A few good brands are Wilton, Americolor and Chefmaster. These can all be found easily online or at big-box retailers like Wal-Mart, Michael’s or other crafter/baking supply stores.
Remember that different brands will offer different hues of colors, for example, one brands pink will be different from another brands pink.
Just a reminder that when using a water-based food coloring for things like candy, or fudge, making the additional liquid added can cause the chocolate to seize up and can ruin your entire batch. This is why using the gel-based varieties work best.
I used (and prefer) the LorAnn Oils brand flavoring for this recipe. They can be found at the same places as the gel food colors.
They come in many flavors that are not typically found on your local grocery store shelves.
They are easy to use but highly concentrated. If you are unsure of the amounts, start with ½ teaspoon and work your way up to the strength of flavor you desire.
I do not suggest using lower quality, or generic brand, white chocolate chips for this recipe. After trial and error, I have found that the higher quality brands such as Ghirardelli, Nestle Tollhouse, and Guittard, to name a few, melt so much better and are much easier to work with.
White chocolate can be much more temperamental to work with and melt, than milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips.
It is important to work very fast when adding your food colors and creating your design with this cotton candy fudge recipe because as the fudge mixture cools, it will start to firm up quickly.
If you need to loosen it up a little you can warm it in the microwave for 30 seconds or so. Be sure to stir it well so that you do not have any hot spots.
Do not overheat it in the microwave or it can burn very easily.
Other Easy Fudge Recipes
- Buckeye Fudge
- Strawberry Shortcake Fudge
- Rocky Road Fudge
- Cookie Monster Fudge
- Easy Peanut Butter Fudge
- Harry Potter Butterbeer Fudge
- Tiger Butter Fudge
- Cookie Dough Fudge
- Reese’s Fudge
Cotton Candy Fudge
Video
Ingredients
- 22 oz (2 11-oz. bags) white chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli brand)
- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
- ¼ cup unsalted butter room-temperature
- 2 tsp cotton candy flavoring divided (I used LorAnn Oils brand)
- ½-¾ tsp pink gel food coloring (I used Americolor brand Pale Peony #183)
- ½-¾ tsp purple gel food coloring (I used Americolor brand Lilac #169)
Instructions
- Line an 8 x 8 inch baking pan with parchment paper. Make sure that you leave enough parchment paper overhanging the sides so that you can easily pull your fudge out of the pan once chilled. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, on medium heat, melt together the white chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk and unsalted butter for 6-7 minutes. Make sure to stir often so that your chocolate does not burn or seize up. You want a nice smooth mixture.
- In two medium sized bowls (one for each color) add half of the melted chocolate mixture.
- To the first bowl add 1 teaspoon cotton candy flavoring and the pink gel food color. Stir until all the white chocolate has turned pink. *Note-Depending on your brand, and shade, of pink you may need to add more/less food coloring to get your desired shade of pink/purple. The brand I used required a heaping ½ teaspoon but you may want to start with ⅛ teaspoon and work your way up to your desired shade.
- To the second bowl add the remaining 1 teaspoon cotton candy flavoring and the purple gel food color. Stir until all the white chocolate has turned purple.
- Using a large spoon, for each color, drop large spoonfuls of each color randomly into your parchment lined pan until all the cotton candy fudge has been added to the pan.
- With a butter knife, or small offset spatula, make swirls in the fudge to create a pretty design.
- Place an additional piece of parchment paper over the entire top surface of the fudge and gently press to smooth the top surface of the fudge. Do not remove the top piece of parchment paper until the cotton candy fudge has completely set or you may mess up the pretty swirl design created.
- Chill the cotton candy fudge in the refrigerator for 2 hours or on the counter, at room temperature, for 4 hours. Slice and serve.
Jenn’s Notes
- To Store: You can store this Cotton Candy Fudge in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
- To Freeze: This fudge can be frozen for up to a month. Make sure to wrap the fudge tightly in plastic wrap, and then a layer of aluminum foil before freezing to ensure no moisture gets to the fudge.
- To make sure you can get your fudge out of the pan, I find it easiest to use parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray. Do not, however line your pan with foil, as it will stick to the fudge.
- Make sure that you leave enough parchment paper overhanging the sides so that you can easily pull your fudge out of the pan once chilled.
- I highly recommend using gel based food colors when making this, and other, fudge. Gel food colors are typically much more concentrated in color so a little goes a long way. Start with just a drop or so if you want pale colors and add more to get deep colors of your choice. A few good brands are Wilton, Americolor and Chefmaster. These can all be found easily online or at big box retailers like Wal-Mart, Michael’s or other crafter/baking supply stores. Remember that different brands will offer different hues of colors, for example, one brands pink will be different from another brands pink. Just a reminder that when using a water based food coloring for things like candy, or fudge, making the additional liquid added can cause the chocolate to seize up and can ruin your entire batch. This is why using the gel based varieties work best.
- I used the LorAnn Oils brand flavoring for this recipe. They can be found at the same places as the gel food colors. They come in many flavors that are not typically found on your local grocery store shelves. They are easy to use but highly concentrated. If you are unsure of the amounts, start with ½ teaspoon and work your way up to the strength of flavor you desire.
- I do not suggest using lower quality, or generic brand, white chocolate chips for this recipe. After trial and error I have found that the higher quality brands such as Ghirardelli, Nestle Toll house and Guittard, to name a few, melt so much better and are much easier to work with. White chocolate can be much more temperamental to work with, and melt, than milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips are.
- You will need to work very fast when adding your food colors and creating your design with this cotton candy fudge recipe. As the fudge mixture cools it will start to firm up quickly. If you need to loosen it up a little you can warm it in the microwave for 30 seconds or so. Be sure to stir it well so that you do not have any hot spots. Do not overheat it in the microwave or it can burn very easily.
looks fabulous. I like cotton candy can’t wait to try in fudge ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ
Wonderful!
5 stars