Sweets & Candy

Let’s clear up the confusion between the definitions of these two categories right off the bat. Confectionery is divided into 2 broad, somewhat overlapping categories - bakers’ confections and sugar confections.

Bakers’ confectionery, also called flour confections, includes principally sweet pastries, cakes and similar types of baked goods.

Sugar confectionery includes candies, candied nuts, chocolates, gum, bubble gum and hard candy.

The correct definition is entirely dependent on geography. In Canada we follow the bakers’ confectionery meaning for “sweets”, that is, more along the lines of sweet pastries, cakes, cookies, pies, biscuits, ice cream, etc. In the United Kingdom, sweets encompass the sugar confectionery definition. Whereas, in Canada and the United States, we refer to them as “candy”.

However, when chocolate is treated as a separate branch, it also includes confections whose classification is otherwise difficult, being neither exactly candies nor exactly baked goods, like chocolate-dipped foods, tarts with chocolate shells, and chocolate-coated cookies.

Chocolate bars are their own category. Our chocolate bars are the American, “candy bars”.

At Canada’s Baking and Sweets Show, we have a sweet tooth. Just let us sample some of both.