Cindythings.com Candy Mentalist Gallery!

What are Candy Mentalists? They're delicious all-edible confections made of sugar-paste, which is a kind of British marzipan-like fondant icing you roll out and cover cakes with or make decorations with like these. It tastes just like the marshmallow charms in Lucky Charms breakfast cereal! It dries hard but it still smells yummy even after two years.

Yes, you could eat any of these boys, if you didn't mind just the tiniest bit of paint or toothpick or metal accessory getting into your system. Mostly they're colored with food coloring, kneaded in or painted on, and they stand about 2 1/2 to 3 inches tall, weigh about 3 1/2 ounces, and I estimate they're about 400 calories apiece. Here are a couple of pictures to give you a sense of scale. One for those of you who think in inches...

If you've been immortalized in this gallery of sugary rogues, you'd better be very flattered and relieved. Because if you're a famous mentalist or one I know and you're not in here, it's either because turning you into a candy novelty just didn't inspire me, or I got hungry and decided to eat you! In which case, you were delicious!

Visiting the Gallery: Each Candy Mentalist is featured in his own page. You can visit the ones you want by clicking individual names on the list below, or take the tour of all of them by clicking on Take the tour! and then clicking the next icon at the bottom of each page. I've included a selection of photos of each one to give you a good look at him, and I've written a little bit about the real-life mentalist who inspired him.

Don't miss the page featuring a couple of nice Group shots of the Candy Mentalists gang:

FAQs

Question: Who makes them?

Answer: Me. My name is Cindy Atmore. I'm an artist and writer. I am absolutely no relation to Joe Atmore, the famous Dunninger expert and author of Brain Busters and star of the DVD Joseph Atmore is Dunninger, and I kind of wish people would stop asking me about that. It's all just an amazing, bizarre coincidence that we have the same last name and live at the same address and share a cat and he is often seen driving my red Mini Cooper in a way he would not want me to know about. I've never even met him. Who is he again? Here is a picture of me hanging out with my one-of-a-kind Val Kilmer doll. I don't know who the guy is next to me who looks like Speed Racer. It was one of those social situations, I didn't catch his name. But he was very annoying and kept trying to tell me he can read minds.

Question: Why did I make them?

Answer: I was curious to know if it was possible to capture a likeness of someone in sugar-paste, so I tried making Dunninger and I liked how he came out. When I was making him, I was intending to put him on a party cake for this party we were going to have and let someone eat him! Then I decided someone else might be hungry and I might need one more on the cake, so I made Kreskin. Only when we had the party, I forgot the cake! But they were so cute together it didn't seem right to let anyone gobble them up anyway, so I kept them safe and just showed them to friends, and everyone loved them. So, like any obsessive artiste, I decided I had to make everybody, and that was that.

Question: Where are they kept?

Answer: They stand in a funny little crowd at one end of my big pine kitchen table, where most of them were made, watching me cook and bake. They make a very easily amused audience and don't seem to mind a little chocolate cake batter or espresso splashing them now and then, although they seem quite annoyed when the blender is bashing up ice for a frozen blended mocha and they're getting vibrated around. Every day, inevitably, one falls over backwards with a loud bang, because their heads are rather heavy, especially Joe's. He's got the biggest head of all! Occasionally I will be in another room and hear a limb hit the table, which is always good for a laugh. When there's a bit too much going on and I'm nervous a roast turkey or entire pot of spaghetti and meatballs is going to land on the lot of them, I put them in a little cardboard box in my art supply closet where they make a big naughty ruckus until I let them out again.

Question: What am I going to do with them?

Answer: Currently they're on a thirty-city world tour, drawing more attendance than the King Tut exhibit, but I expect them back shortly. They'll probably get sent home for bad behavior any day now, it's a sugar thing, they can't help it. It's possible they will turn up in person at a PEA convention at some point, although they had to pass on the one in Las Vegas, for fears they would melt getting there, and they didn't go to New Jersey because they were grounded. There's a good chance they'll show up in San Jose--if they promise to behave.

Question: How do I make them?

Answer: Usually munching chips and guacamole or corn dogs and mustard, wearing a bikini, and listening to music or The Bob Newhart Show. Oh--also giggling.

Question: Can I buy one?

Answer: The Candy Mentalists are not for sale. They told me if I didn't say that, they would all hold their breath until they turned blue. But, if you can't live without one, let me know and we'll see what can be done about it. You can also find lots of fun Candy Mentalists merchandise in my Cindythings Shop at Cafepress, including greeting cards, mugs, and tee shirts! If you don't see what you want, let me know!

If you have any other questions for me, please feel free to contact me!