Abstract: Corn is popped, coated with caramel and cooled so that the caramel coating is hard and not sticky. The corn is loaded into molds in this condition and heated by blowing hot air over the corn so that the caramel coating is sticky. One or more blasts of air are jetted into the molds to stir the corn while heating. Then the molds are closed, compressing the corn into balls, cooled, and the balls ejected from the molds. Some parts of the molds are actuated by a cam surface wherein a roller follower is held against the cam surface by spring tension while other parts of the molds are actuated by air cylinder. A machine is illustrated with the mold units being mounted upon a circular mounting plate and rotated to six working stations with a dwell time at each working station.