Pink Peppermint Blogger

Things have been so busy around here that I haven’t had time for my usual holiday merrymaking. I’ve always been a big fan of Easter and Springtime, probably because I’m an April baby.

While combing the seasonal aisles at Target a few weeks back, I bought one of these inexpensive bunny-shaped chocolate molds.

I rediscovered them Wednesday and decided to make some time to try them before Easter was long gone. I was so tickled with the way the first tray turned out that I made a few more sets for my daughter to share with preschool friends.

In addition to the candy mold costing less than $3, I thought it was super easy to use. I ended up going back to the store to buy three more sets of molds so I could make more than five bunnies at a time.  I also loved that the directions called for real chocolate, which I much prefer the taste of candy melts.

Here’s are list of the supplies I used:

Chocolate chips

GulfWax, optional

Squirt bottle

Lollipop sticks, 5 inches long

Lollipop cello bags and ties

Decorative ribbon

I melted one bag of chocolate chips and 1/8 of a bar of GulfWax in a double boiler, The GulfWax helped to thin the chocolate a little and also gave the finished product a bit of a glossy shine. Using a funnel, I poured the melted chocolate into a squirt bottle.  I have umpteen of them left over from Caroline’s candy house party.

I filled the molds then added the sucker sticks, covering the end of the stick with more chocolate. I gave the tray a final tap on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles and level out the chocolate. Then, I put them in the freezer to set.  I was nervous, but they popped out of the molds really easily.

Here’s another look at the finished product.

I think they turned out super adorable. We took them to the Easter party yesterday, and the kids devoured them! I started thinking about how cute it would be to play with different flavors and colors, using butterscotch, white chocolate, or maybe even peanut butter chips to create calico bunnies.

Totally adorable for a birthday party favor or as adult favors for a baby shower too.  So what are you waiting for? Get yourself to Target before they’re all gone. Just don’t go to my Target. I already cleaned them out.

I made these marshmallow pops for my daughter’s winter princess party.

I had bought all the supplies: large pink marshmallows, squirtable white cookie icing (the kind that sets and comes in a sort of glue bottle), pink pearl nonpareils and 6 in. lollipop sticks–but thought surely I’d run out of time before the party started.

It was literally 15 minutes before the guests came. I tried it to see if it would work, and had what I think are great results given how totally easy they are to make. No, really. If you can use glue, you can do this. The kids L.O.V.E. to eat them, and it’s something that’s not messy that they can help make!

Pour nonpareils on a plate, follow the directions for preparing the cookie icing (*note: after some trial and error, I only heated mine for a fraction of the time it called for because hot icing=runny icing) and apply a THIN layer to the top of the marshmallow. Press the icing side of the marshmallow face down into the nonpareils.

Then lift and fill in any holes in the coverage and neaten the edges by hand. Set face up on a plate to dry. Once dry, insert lollipop stick into opposite side of marshmallow.

I cut some simple leaf shapes out of green paper and used a small hole punch (and a little wriggling) to thread the lollipop sticks through.

And Voila! A marshmallow rose.

If you want to do this step, it’s easier to add the leaves before you insert the stick into the marshmallow. My small hole punch was a little too small so I made a couple of overlapping punches to make the hole a bit bigger. We are giving a half dozen “roses” to teachers for Valentine’s Day wrapped in tissue paper and cellophane bags like real flowers would be.

I think this would also be cute for a Valentine’s party, as a festive centerpiece for a springtime shower, Easter parties or for other party themes where roses/flowers play a part–Beauty and the Beast, Bachelor/Bachelorette finale watching parties (do people have those anymore?) You get the idea. How would you use these?

I have a few more Easter goodies to share today. Yep, I finally got them all done. First up are these cutie cute cute suckers.

This is actually two suckers in one. What looks like a design on the front is actually a whole separate sucker. They came with coordinating ribbons, which I wouldn’t have picked but they were already there, and I’m not about reinventing the wheel. OK, sometimes I’m about that, but not today.

I added some Pink Peppermint gift tags, and they turned out pretty sweet. This one says, “Here’s a treat for somebunny sweet!” I also thought about using the “I’m a SUCKER for a friend like you” line from my Valentine’s post.

I also came across these adorable little gumball machines complete with gingham ribbon, which I thought were just too festive to pass up! Can you stand it?

My WalMart had both these and the suckers above along with some other festive things each in pink, green, yellow or blue–and all for under $1.50. That being said, I’ve had two friends go in search of these and come up empty handed, but I have to believe they were distributed to some stores other than my own. Here’s a close up of the tag. It reads “Have a hippity hoppin’ bubble poppin’ Easter!” It would be easy enough to replace the gumballs with small jellybeans for younger kids. My two have been eyeing these for weeks just desperate to get their hands on them!

And finally an update on the birdie brownies shown below…

After some initial problems with the brownies sticking to the muffin tin, I had great results this time using a Pillsbury Fudge brownie mix with silicon baking cups and baking spray with flour in it. Those things popped right out. Whew! I filled the cups 2/3 full and baked for about 23 minutes. They came out a bit underdone but they continued to cook for a bit longer once removed and are delish!

Watch out! That one looks like it’s about to hatch. The only reason my children are napping today is because they want to help me decorate these later. [Insert wicked laugh here.]