Raleigh candy apple shop creates whimsical flavors

"I threw a surprise party for my husband and I wanted gold candy apples to celebrate his 40th birthday and could not find them anywhere," Battle said.

Battle found a Greensboro baker who made candy apples.

"We started ordering a few times and she's like, 'you know you don't have to drive all the way here to buy them. You can just, you know, Google a recipe and try them yourself,'" Battle said.

Battle didn't think she could do it. "I can't even bake cookies."

Battle tried to make the apples and soon found she had a desire to make even more of them.

By day, Battle would work as an accountant. At night the mother of five would spend time with her family. Once the children went to bed she'd stay up all night making apples.

When she was laid off from her accounting job, Battle decided to focus on growing her apple business.

"I thought this is a great transitional time for me to see if this will work," she said. "And if it doesn't work out, that's fine. I can just kind of fall back on my business degree to find another accounting job, but I really felt passionate about it and felt that it would be successful, and I've not looked back since."

In April 2019, Kandy Apples by K opened a brick and mortar location in north Raleigh at 6320 Capital Blvd. The shop offers more than 20 different flavors of apples, including pineapple, cotton candy, cake batter and tropical punch. She covers some apples in Nerds candy and others in Reese's peanut butter cups.

All the apples used are Granny Smith Apples because Battle said they provide the perfect amount of tartness to balance out the sweet outside layers.

And the shop doesn't just offer apples. Battle also loves to cover grapes with crushed Jolly Ranchers and cotton candy.

"We sell them by the pint. You get 12 to 15 grapes and they're dipped in the same hard candy as the carnival apple, but we do different flavors," Battle said. "People are always looking for them and we always sell out."

Battle makes between 700 and 800 apples per week inside her state-licensed kitchen at home. The shop is only open three days per week, but Battle said she works every day to help meet customer demand.

"There's never a day off to prepare because there's a pretty intense washing process that the apples have to go through so that the apple is smooth and there are no bubbles on your candy apple," Battle said.

Battle hopes to expand her shop's hours once she is able to get a commercial kitchen.