Candy Vs Cake: Which One Is Harder To Make?

Whether you're new to baking or a seasoned pro, you might be wondering which is technically harder to make: candy or cake? The simple answer is that both confectionery trades require practice and patience to master, and which is harder largely depends on personal preference and experience in the kitchen. Most bakers will tell you that cakes and candies are completely different worlds. The best cake professional may know nothing of candy-making, and vice versa. The art of cake-baking might come easier than candy-making to beginners who grew up making homemade pancake batter or boxed cake mix, where these experiences laid the foundation for preparing a cake from scratch. 

However, like various candies, cakes come in all different forms and flavors. It takes a while to learn how to make a perfectly moist cake with a tender crumb. Not to mention, the frosting component and learning how to layer, stack, and decorate the dessert — which could be daunting to bakers less concerned with artistry. On the other hand, making candies like chocolate, fudge, and caramel treats often requires melting sugar with other ingredients like butter and cream. This might sound more straightforward at first, but for those who have never used a candy thermometer before, candy preparation could come with a steep learning curve. Even relatively easy confections for beginner candy makers require a lot of attention to detail to get the sugar to the right temperature and texture to set, which can pose its own unique set of challenges.

When learning either dessert category, there will be different hurdles. With candy, it's imperative to understand the look, feel, and temperature of your sugary confections. The temperature required to make caramel will be lower than the temperature to form a lollipop at the "hard-crack" stage. Your first time making marshmallows from scratch by heating gelatin, corn syrup, sugar, and water until the thermometer reads 240 degrees Fahrenheit (the "soft-ball" candy stage), before whipping it, might result in a grainy, sticky mess.

Without the proper experience and techniques, like dissolving sugar correctly and greasing your cooking equipment, learning how to make candy can take some time. But so can cake. If you look at 20 decadent cake recipes, some will be easier to master than others. For instance, an apple cider cake made with chemical leavening agents will probably be easier than a chiffon or strawberry sponge cake that requires folding in whipped egg whites to give rise to the cake — which can make or break the crumb structure. Making homemade buttercream with the optimal sweetness and texture for decorating takes practice, too, just like candy-making. Really, it comes down to what you're willing to give your time and attention to. For a real challenge, you can try some bakes that mix the best of cake and candy, like a chocolate pavlova cake.