Got a big messy session coming up at the weekend. Went to the supermarket tonight to get supplies and was shocked by price of custard cartons in UK. Bought a few, but also bought a load of powder sachets - a 10th of the price.

Anyone got any tips on making the powder up. It says to use boiling water but that will take forever to make up a bucket and then cool down. Would it work just with cold/warm water?

Got a load of angel delight sachets too. Again says to use milk, but taste not important so gonna try water.

If this works I have a lot of slop

Might just be me, but never had any joy getting enough volume
with the instant custard, or the powder custard in a tin either. Supermarket prices are crazy, especially Ambrosia. The 'cheaper' shops like Iceland and Heron often price the cartons better in my my area.

One guy who used to gunge me pretty often in Leeds once dumped a HUGE bucket of perfect custard over me. Said it was the traditional drums of custard powder (not the instant stuff) with boilung water, very well mixed and left to stand overnight. The long stand matters - be careful of burns. Ive never successfully recreated it myself but the whole, huge, heavy, gloopy, yellow thing dumped over me was really special.

Mate, if ur reading, cheers!!

Thanks both. Looks like the anticipated Friday trashing might become a Saturday trashing but adds to the build up excitement.

Angel delight works well with water just make sure it's cold

Instant custard powder (add boiling water type) tips to speed things up:

To speed up the mixing process, follow the instructions generally, but bulk it out to save time. You might need to tweak the sachet amount or water amount depending on the brand, but instead of doing 1 sachet at a time, boil a full electric kettle (1.8L usually) add to 4 or 5 sachets of instant mix in a big mixing bowl, blitz it with an electric whisk, then when you've got it mixed, dump into a bucket and repeat, until you've a full bucket or run out.

To speed up the cool down process, sit your finished bucket in a bath full of cold water. The water needs to be as high as possible without the bucket wanting to float, which would then be at risk of tipping over. The custard at the sides of the bucket will start to be cooled down by the cold bath water. Stir it every 10 minutes, otherwise it's just that custard at the sides that will be cooling down, while the custard at the centre will still be the temperature of the sun.

If you have some store bought ready to use cartons or tins as well, you can further speed up the cooling process by mixing these into the hot instant mix custard. Whether you do this or just use the cold bath, it'll be usuable soon enough. If you make your hot stuff first, let it cool while you do the rest and it might time perfectly so everything ends up being ready at the same time.

As for angel delight/instant whip etc, it can be done with water and mixed in bulk, but doesn't seem to get as much volume. Milk is probably better.

To speed up the cooling process for any large volume (custard, porridge, etc), you can also drop ice packs (those you would use in a cool bag) into the bucket. In conjunction with the water bath method, this makes for speedy use of your prepared bucket.

And yes, you definitely need the boiling water to make up the packet custard; it can't be made up cold.

Another tip - buy cornflour (cornstarch) instead, and add the colouring of your choice. It still needs the hot water approach, but will be cheaper than custard powder (which has cornflour as its principal ingredient). Similar mixing ratio, too.

Yup, absolutely crazy prices.

For the instant powder you just add boiling water to, you do need it boiling and it won't work with cold, BUT you can cool it quickly once the initial batch has thickened.

I do enough for about 6 to 8 litres (can't recall how many packets but the guidelines on the back will tell you how much each one makes up) and I do it in a washing up bowl for a larger surface area to help it cool. Using just one kettle worth of boiling water, mix like crazy with a whisk until it's really thick - too thick. Then add cold water a bit at a time, and keep mixing and adding more til it's the right consistency. It will look weird and like it's never going to come back together, but it will, just keep going.

Or you can do it all with boiling water, cover with cling film or foil touching the surface to stop it getting a skin, and use it about 4 hours later when cooled.

For the custard powder that requires eggs and milk, you can mix according to instructions except use water, not milk. Then to get the right colour at the end, add a squirt of white poster paint (way cheaper than milk for the amount needed to change the colour)

Angel delight also doesn't need milk (or paint) and can be made with cold water

Love how Candy is the authority on this stuff!

Thanks for all the tips. Friday night is custard making night but feeling more confident now. Think got 15 packets of mixture so should be fun. Will post pics of the aftermath as got a new skin tight outfit to ruin too

Well, the custard powder worked a treat.

Did 3 packets at a time in the food processor, with boiling water and then put in a big box in fridge. Used slightly less water and consistency was almost as good as carton custard but a tenth of the price. Def recommended if doing at scale. I made about 12 litres I think.

Teamed up the custard with some cake batter, angel delight and a couple of kilos of porridge and had an amazing time. The feeling of pouring the full slop box inside my jumpsuit was incredible.

Few pics attaches as promised

Custard powder ought to work given that it's very similar to actual gunge in powder form. What I'd be interested to know is if there's a vegan version, not because I have plans to gunge any vegans any time soon, but because the lack of actual dairy might eliminate one of the downsides to custard, the lingering smell?