3-D print your candy at Dubai Mall sweet shop

Candylicious in Dubai Mall unveiled two 3D food printing machines on Monday.

At last, to the delight of Joshua Ahlers, a truly worthwhile use has been found for 3-D printing – making sweets. Joshua, 6, on Monday watched closely as a new 3-D printer went to work in the Candylicious shop in Dubai Mall. Antonie Robertson / The National
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DUBAI // A stegosaurus, a turtle and a frog were among edible designs made using state-of-the-art 3-D sweet-printing machines on Monday, to the delight of creative customers with a sweet tooth.

Candylicious in Dubai Mall unveiled two 3-D food-printing machines on Monday, the first time devices that print sweets have been used in a shop anywhere in the world.

Children and adults watched excitedly as what moments earlier had been an image on an iPad was turned into tasty treats right before their eyes.

“It’s completely unique and there is nothing like this any-where,” said Melissa Snover, founder of Magic Candy Factory, the German company that developed this technology.

“The great thing about it is that the sky is the limit in terms of what the machines can print, so the customer is limited only by their imagination.”

The printers use special software that can transform any image, including photographs, into sweets. Customers can select from 20 images on an iPad, or create their own designs.

Didier Bloch, from France, was on holiday with his family and feeling creative, so he tried his hand at making his own sweets.

“I tried to make a heart but I don’t think my artistic skills were as good as I thought, so in the end I went for a more simple design,” he said, eventually opting for a heart design under his wife Stephanie’s name.

“It’s just like a sweet you would buy normally.”

It takes between three and five minutes for the design to be -fully printed. The candy is made from “gummy zummy”, a gel-like mix of pectin, fruit extract, glucose and citric acid.

“All the ingredients are natural, 100 per cent vegan, gluten-free, GMO-free, halal and meet safety requirements from the Food Standard Authority and the Food and Drug Administration,” Ms Snover said.

Rosantina Saraswati, confectionery retail head for Alabbar Enterprises, which owns Candy-licious, said: “We believe this will become as popular as some of the other items we have, like the spun candy.”

The 3-D-printed sweets will cost Dh50 initially, with the regular price set at Dh65.

nhanif@thenational.ae